On Friday morning, Rory entered the courthouse shortly after eight. She filed a motion asking Judge Margaret Halloran to dissolve the temporary restraining order, supported by the authenticated acquisition documents, the board's executed nomination agreement, and declarations describing the lobby incident. She also requested measures to preserve relevant electronic evidence before any system administrator could delete, alter, or routinely overwrite it. By late morning, the court had issued a limited preservation direction, binding the parties and specified custodians without deciding the ultimate merits.
A process server delivered the order and document demands to Summit's authorized representatives. Silas signed the receipt for the finance department and stood looking at the papers until an assistant asked whether he was all right. He had spent years interpreting financial reports for other people and telling himself that precision made him safe. Now the phrase PRESERVE ALL RELEVANT RECORDS seemed to carry a weight greater than any number in his quarterly statements.
Rory also sent a formal compliance notice through the channels available to Summit's federal contracting officers. It identified the potential discriminatory vendor-screening problem, the steps being taken to preserve records, and the intention to conduct an independent review. She did not declare the company guilty or ask the government to cancel its contracts. She informed the responsible officials that allegations supported by specific records had emerged and that the company's board was acting to investigate them.
"That notification can't simply be pulled back when Warren changes his mind," she told Daniel by phone.
"Good," he said. "I don't want us hiding it. But protect the people who work there. They're the ones who will have to keep the contracts running while we clean up the leadership."
He spent part of Friday reviewing project commitments with a temporary independent team established by the board before the court order. The team could not exercise Daniel's suspended chairman powers, but it could continue ordinary operational reporting and legal compliance work permitted under existing corporate arrangements. The company had important deliveries scheduled for the following month, and Daniel did not want their clients to become collateral damage. He instructed his own advisors to avoid contacting customers in ways that could suggest he was personally taking over disputed management authority.
Meanwhile Warren gave a statement to a local business reporter outside Summit's glass entrance. He described himself as the victim of a hostile takeover and dismissed the allegations as a smear organized by an investor with no understanding of the company. He spoke about protecting jobs, preserving culture, and defending the institution he said he had built. He did not mention the employee he had fired for reporting his conduct, the manual security override, or the spreadsheet assigning suspicion scores to visitors according to their backgrounds.
Therese watched the interview on her phone at home. Warren used the word integrity three times and the word evidence twice. By the end, she was laughing with a bitterness that startled her grandson, who had come into the kitchen hoping she might help with a school project. She switched off the video and told him that sometimes adults used important words without doing the things those words required.
"Is that why you aren't at work today?" he asked.
She looked at his small face. "Partly," she admitted. "I told someone something that was true. A man I worked for didn't like it."