He told her to keep the corridor clear, notified Owen, and asked for a work authorization that included security access because the area was restricted.
Owen approved the task from his phone and added the necessary authorization code. Daniel took a replacement spring and a temporary latch component from the workshop while waiting for the ordered assembly to arrive. He checked the building's life-safety instructions and called the security desk to announce the repair. The junior guard who answered confirmed his employee number and the temporary access window. Everything Daniel did was recorded, though the records existed in three separate systems that nobody upstairs had thought to examine together.
Before going up, Daniel stopped at Nia's desk to return a charger she had borrowed the previous day. She was sitting with her head in her hands, her computer still open to a presentation. Daniel asked whether her mother's appointment had gone well. Nia shook her head, then apologized for letting her private life spill into the office. He told her she did not need to apologize for having a family, and she looked at him with an expression that combined gratitude and exhaustion.
"They're asking me to stay after six again," she said. "My mother needs somebody to pick her up from treatment." Daniel thought for a moment and suggested that she ask whether her presentation could be moved earlier, because the senior analyst reviewing it would be in the building until four. Nia said she had already asked and been told that everyone was making sacrifices. Daniel knew that phrase. In companies, it often meant somebody with fewer choices was expected to solve a problem created by somebody who had more.
"Maybe ask for the meeting to be recorded," he suggested. "Then you can leave and still answer questions tomorrow." Nia thanked him, though neither expected the answer to change. Daniel wished