"Governance."
"Culture."
"Decision flow."
"You have technically sophisticated people producing information that appears to become less complete as it travels upward."
"That makes every good number harder to trust."
Victoria stared.
"So what do you want?"
"Full dataset audit."
"Independent."
"Reconstruction of exclusions."
"Engineering sign-off on reclassifications."
"Retest under high-humidity conditions."
"Protection for the internal engineers who raised concerns."
Victoria immediately shook her head.
"That delays full deployment by months."
"Maybe."
"Sterling will lose tens of millions in projected savings."
"Maybe."
"Ashbourne will lose the quarter."
"Probably."
"You say that like it's trivial."
"No."
Caleb looked directly at her.
"I say it like an aircraft doesn't care about quarterly earnings."
Victoria's expression tightened.
Then she nodded slightly.
Fair.
A flight attendant passed offering drinks.
Caleb ordered coffee.
Victoria ordered water.
When the cart moved on, Victoria said:
"We can fix it before the meeting."
Caleb stirred his coffee.
"Some of it."
"My team can pull the complete dataset."
"Good."
"We can disclose all classifications."
"Good."
"We can bring Naomi into the call."
Caleb looked toward her.
"Would she be allowed to speak?"
Victoria flinched.
Point taken.
She continued.
"We can build a joint corrective plan."
"You should."
"You could help."
"No."
"Why?"
"I'm reviewing you."
"That doesn't mean you can't help us organize facts."
"It means I cannot participate in shaping the supplier response to my own findings."
Victoria studied him.
"You really do this alone?"
"Mostly."
"No firm?"
"No."
"No analysts?"
"Contractors when necessary."
She looked at his old laptop again.
"Why?"
"Because I like sleeping."
Victoria laughed unexpectedly.
"What does that mean?"
"The bigger the advisory firm, the more time you spend selling advice instead of giving it."
She nodded.
Then:
"What does Sterling pay you?"
Caleb looked at her.
"Enough."
"A standing role with us could pay much more."
There it was.
Victoria realized it too late.
Caleb's expression did not change.
She quickly continued.
"I don't mean in exchange for anything."
"I know."
"I mean after."
Caleb put the coffee down.
"Victoria."
She stopped.
"You used my daughter earlier as evidence that my ambition had limits."
Her face tightened.
"Now you're about to use her as evidence that I should want financial stability."
Victoria looked genuinely embarrassed.
"I didn't mean it that way."
"I know."
"That is the problem."
He softened his tone.
"I have one thing to sell."
"My conclusions."
"The second I take compensation from the company I'm evaluating, those conclusions stop belonging entirely to me."
"Then Naomi Price risks her career for nothing."
"Sterling pays for an independent review and doesn't receive one."
"You get a comfortable adviser."
"And I become useless."
Victoria looked at her water.
"Understood."