“I clarified it.”
“Good. People keep treating projected capacity as guaranteed demand. I want that distinction impossible to misunderstand.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“I think you'll find it very clear.”
Camila paused.
“Have you slept?”
Elena hesitated.
“Some.”
“Elena.”
“I finished my shift before midnight.”
“And worked afterward.”
Elena laughed quietly.
Camila sighed.
“You cannot survive entirely on coffee and stubbornness.”
“My mother says something similar.”
“Your mother sounds intelligent.”
“She is.”
Camila's voice softened.
“Send me the memorandum. We'll discuss the supporting documents this afternoon.”
Elena nodded.
“Of course.”
Then her professor added something important.
“Remember the confidentiality arrangement. Your work uses information supplied for the independent assessment. You may discuss general economic principles, but don't circulate the nonpublic project details.”
“I understand.”
“Good. There are investors who would dearly like to know what we've found before the final review.”
Elena looked toward her laptop.
On the screen was a spreadsheet containing several figures she had checked repeatedly.
The project sponsors claimed that seventy-two percent of the proposed network's operating capacity was already commercially secured.
But the underlying records told a more complicated story.
Only a much smaller portion was supported by agreements that appeared binding under the conditions assumed in the forecast.
Other documents were letters of intent.
Some were conditional upon financing.
Others depended on permits, volumes, or prices that hadn't been finalized.
The difference was not a small technical detail.
It changed how much reliable revenue the proposed network could reasonably support.
And if the forecast was wrong, the expansion's financing structure could become dangerously fragile.
Elena closed the document.
She had no idea that later that evening, the man whose group was promoting the expansion would challenge her in front of his investors.
Or that her answer would make him wonder whether she had seen information he believed was safely buried inside confidential files.
After sending the memorandum, Elena went to campus.
She attended a seminar on international trade.
Met another graduate student to review data sources.
Then spent two hours in the library checking references.
At four-thirty, she received a message from the restaurant manager.
Private dinner tonight. Important guests. Please arrive early.
She sighed.
Then packed her books.
The Metro was crowded.
A child cried near the doors.
An older man spoke loudly into his phone.
And Elena stood holding a rail while reading a document about agricultural trade between Spain and several Latin American countries.