Carver began the deeper investigation on Tuesday.He had been so careful up to now. Methodical. They were the same as the one who knew that the worth of the information was directly related to its cleanliness of collection and the fact that tainted collection methods tainted the information itself.He'd told Phillip this twice.Phillip has ordered him to go ahead.So he proceeded. The resignation was in a professional way that indicated that this was a request from the client that the professional had been careful not to make, and that the client's resources and the client's insistence were enough to provide a sufficient instruction.He started from the hospital data prior to Roxanne's reconciliation with Robert.Standard medical privacy protections were observed to seal the records. He used someone with a link to a system linked to the hospital's archival network. Not a direct violation. A second access point that was not properly closed during a system move eighteen months ago for i

Agent Chen called on Friday morning.Robert was sitting at his desk looking at the external communications monitoring report which Carlisle had prepared when the board announced it. He answered on the second ring.“I have to let you know something," Chen said. “It's not something I'm actively investigating, its just intelligence that has come my way and it just seems like you should know it because I think you should.”"Tell me," he said."Two former financial operatives from the Castellano network," Chen said. “They were both found dead in the past seven days, and both have been ruled suspicious by the local police in the countries.” She paused. “They were not major players, support roles, financial routing and account management,"Robert leaned forward slightly.“What ties them together besides the coalition?" he asked.“There were still some documents from the original coalition period that both men had left behind,” Chen said. “We know this because both men had taken separate info

Roxanne went on to build up her social media presence further during October.She hadn't asked for it. She had made one honest speech at a business summit where Robert told her to go, she went and said the true things and the true things had found an audience that managed versions never found. The clip had gone around. The coverage was following. And now, three months after the summit she was getting invites and profile requests and approaches that weren't tied to the name of Robert being added to her name.They were addressed to her.She handled the invitations in the same way that she treats everything in her business. The careful discernment of one who knew the difference between exposure which served a purpose, and exposure which served the exposure itself. She accepted three and declined eleven. She approached the three she accepted with the composed directness she brought to all professional matters.In October, she was profiled in a luxury magazine.The writer had been with her

Robert received the invitation on a Monday morning.A formal letter on headed paper from the secretariat of an international economic committee convening in three months. The committee was reviewing the effects of wealth concentration and corporate governance and the responsibility of large-scale businesses to the communities they served.They were calling a small group of business leaders to testify. The invitation described Robert as someone who is very well known in the public arena, for whom the employee ownership movement and his track record of community investment are very relevant to the work the committee is doing.He took the letter to his desk to read. He put it down. He went to window. He returned and read it once again.It was his instinct that first came into him, as it had with the Patricia Osei profile. To decline. To help keep the particular privacy he had found so helpful in many years of understanding that visibility created vulnerability.He had not declined the Os

Agent Chen visited Dave on a Tuesday morning.She had never come to the office before. All previous messages had been sent by secure communication or in private meetings on locations with special neutrality. The office wasn't neutral. The office was visible. When she came to the office, she had decided that the need for what she was bringing was more important than the visibility of the channel.She was met in the lobby by Dave and escorted to the small conference room on the second floor which was not part of the executive floor, and had no window overlooking the main floor atrium. He had selected it ahead of her because if anyone was observing the construction the little conference room would not result in a visible meeting between Dave Morrison and a federal agent.Chen sat down.She did not open a folder or produce documents. She had brought nothing with her that could be observed or photographed."I am not here officially," she said.“Yeah, I get that,” Dave said."Somebody’s bee