That Monday, Shenine was in a worse mood than usual. She had received a notice that the board's independent audit team wanted supporting documents for several marketing vendors, including one called SM Creative. Then Maya had contradicted her in the lobby, and Jamal's support had not been enough to erase the embarrassment of having an accountant stand up for a cleaner while people watched.
"Get the silver case," Shenine told Kiana shortly after lunch. "Take it downstairs."
Kiana looked up. "Engineering asked us not to move it again until they finish their inventory check."
"I didn't ask what engineering wanted."
"Where should I log the transfer?"
Shenine stared at her. "Why do you need a log to walk something into a storage room?"
Kiana did not answer. Shenine leaned closer, lowering her voice. "You are going to learn something important if you want to stay here. When I give you an instruction, you don't turn it into a committee meeting. Understood?"
"Yes, Ms. Moore."
"Good. Then move."
Kiana carried the case down the service corridor. She expected to find an equipment closet open, but Shenine caught up with her before she reached it. The brand director glanced around, saw Ellen's cleaning cart unattended near the supply room, and stopped. An ugly little smile spread across her face.
"Set it in there," she whispered.
Kiana stared at the cart. "That belongs to the cleaning crew."
"I know who it belongs to."
"It's an eighty-thousand-dollar prototype."
"Then it's the priciest trash that old woman ever touched." Shenine lifted the lid of the cart's lower storage compartment. "Put it in."
Kiana hesitated long enough that Shenine's expression went hard. "Do you need me to call Derek and explain why you've decided not to follow instructions?"
The younger woman lowered the silver case into the compartment. Shenine snapped the latch closed so sharply that one of her long artificial nails struck the metal edge. She hissed, pulled back her hand, and looked at the broken pink tip caught near the fastening. Then, with an annoyed flick, she walked away, leaving Kiana standing alone beside the cart.
The consequence of that moment would reach farther than either woman understood. The cart had a camera above it, mounted in the service corridor after a theft the previous winter. The case carried its own inventory serial, and the latch retained the bright pink fragment Shenine had failed to notice. Most importantly, a frightened young employee had been told to move a valuable object without a record, and she had obeyed because she believed refusing would cost her job.
An hour later, the demonstration manager called the executive floor. The HearthLink prototype was missing. By the time Jamal came downstairs, Shenine was standing beside him, one hand resting lightly on his sleeve, already looking worried on his behalf.
"An eighty-thousand-dollar prototype," Jamal said. "How does something like that vanish from an access-controlled floor?"
Shenine gave Maya a meaningful glance. "Maybe check the cleaner's cart. She was in the service corridor earlier."
Maya stepped forward. "What does Ellen have to do with the prototype?"
"I didn't say she did anything," Shenine replied. "I said we should check. Isn't that what accounting always tells us? Verify everything?"