His problem was that Shenine Moore had recently demanded more flexibility than the reporting systems could reasonably provide. Her outside agency, SM Creative, billed for campaign concepts, market research, placement rights, consulting time, and launch preparation. The invoices arrived with professional headers and neat account codes. Some work appeared to exist. A great deal of it did not, and Derek had stopped asking because the first time he asked, Shenine reminded him that Jamal trusted her judgment more than his.
Now the approvals were frozen. A notice requested signed contracts, proof of deliverables, vendor ownership declarations, access logs, and written authorization for unusually large payments. Derek printed the message, walked to Shenine's office, and closed the door behind him.
"Somebody went above us," he said.
Shenine glanced at the first page. "Above you, perhaps. Not above Jamal."
"The board ordered a review. Every invoice carrying your approval is under a hold."
She looked up. "Who requested it?"
"The notice doesn't say. It came through outside counsel."
For a moment her face went still. Then she smiled in a way Derek had learned to fear. "Maya. She has been digging through our invoices for weeks."
"She processes them. The ones she's asked about were already flagged for missing documentation."
"Don't defend her. If Jamal thinks she is trying to embarrass me and derail the launch, he'll send her away. We need to make sure he sees the situation correctly before anybody else tells him what to think."
Derek looked at her. "The audit team is going to want original records."
"Then give them records. That's what you're paid for."
"Records they can verify."
Shenine's smile vanished. "Are you worried about being verified, Derek?"
He did not answer. He was worried about the invoices, about the company she had quietly registered under a different variation of her name, and about the repeated payments he had allowed through because challenging her had seemed more dangerous than signing. Most of all, he was worried that the external auditors would discover the difference between what he called flexible reporting and what the law called a false representation.
Across the floor, Kiana Foster was sitting at her workstation with a spreadsheet open but unchanged. She had received the same budget-hold message. Under it appeared a request to preserve all files, including deleted drafts and records held in shared workspaces. Her stomach tightened. The night before, Shenine had asked her to revise the date on a purchase request so that it appeared to predate the audit notice.
Kiana had made the change and then restored the original date, frightened by her own willingness to do something she knew was wrong. She had never told anyone she understood what those numbers meant. She knew only that each new task made refusing the next one harder.