"Then tell them not to say anything."
"We can remind staff not to speculate, but we can't stop them from reporting misconduct."
Preston turned. "I'm not asking for a lecture. I need a statement."
Diane opened her laptop. "A factual statement should acknowledge that the investor was improperly detained, that you're investigating, and that the company is cooperating with requests for evidence."
"Absolutely not. That invites a lawsuit."
"We may be facing one anyway."
"Diane."
His tone carried a warning. She knew it well.
"Write that there was a security misunderstanding involving an unidentified visitor," he said. "Say it was resolved promptly without incident. Keep it short."
Diane looked at him. "He was placed in handcuffs, Preston."
"For a brief period."
"On camera."
"We don't need to turn an isolated security concern into a national headline."
She hesitated. "You gave the order."
"And I was acting on what I had been told by reception. The visitor couldn't be verified. Don't leave that out."
Diane knew the account was misleading. The receptionist had not said Malik was unauthorized. She had said she was checking. Diane had also seen the internal alert and Rachel's furious message to the executive team. But Preston's eyes remained fixed on her, daring her to refuse.
"Draft it," he repeated.
She went back to her office and typed the first version. She deleted the words appropriately detained. She tried replacing without incident with promptly addressed, then watched how quickly Preston's corrections restored the original phrasing. By midnight, she had saved seven versions.
The final statement went out the following morning:
Yesterday, an unidentified individual caused a brief disturbance in the main lobby of Yarrow Industries and was temporarily detained under standard security procedures. The situation was resolved quickly and without incident. We remain committed to a safe environment for all employees and visitors.
It was three sentences. Malik's name did not appear. The $350 million investment did not appear. Neither did the fact that the chief executive himself had ordered the detention. Diane stared at the published version on her screen and felt the sick certainty that she had just helped write something she could not defend honestly.
Malik read it at Odell's apartment. Odell kept a small Chicago place for business trips, and they'd chosen it over the hotel because it offered privacy and a large dining table for documents. The surface was covered with laptops, printouts, and folders. Malik's bruised wrists were visible whenever he reached for his coffee.
"Unidentified individual," he read aloud. "They knew my name before they wrote that."
Odell nodded. "Language chosen to make the person disappear."
"Caused a brief disturbance. As if standing at reception was the disturbance."
"And without incident," Odell said, looking at Malik's wrists. "That's the sentence we can disprove with a photograph."
Malik scrolled through the business website that had published the statement. There were only a handful of comments. Most readers appeared uninterested.
"It might work," Malik said. "People are going to see three boring sentences and move on."