She also returned to the security review. The company discovered that confidential technical conversations frequently took place in rooms accessible from busy corridors, an informal practice that had become common as the company grew faster than its office procedures. Engineers sometimes displayed proprietary material on screens visible through open doors, and employees moving equipment through those corridors had never been given clear guidance about where to pause. The review recommended better room access controls and meeting procedures that did not rely on guessing which person was authorized to see what.
Marcus told the staff that the whiteboard incident had revealed an actual need for clearer security boundaries, but that the boundaries had to protect information rather than enforce status. People would be trained to report unexpected exposure, and sensitive work would be moved to appropriate spaces. No employee would be punished merely for noticing material a department had left visible in a public corridor. It was a more demanding standard than Dalton's simple insistence that everyone stay within their rank, and it was far more defensible.
Owen listened to these developments through the ordinary updates he received while finalizing his contract. He appreciated that Claire did not ask him to attend Dalton's final meeting or describe the termination as a gift offered on his behalf. The two men had not been engaged in a private contest, and Owen did not want his new position understood as the prize awarded to the winner. He hoped instead that Marisol and Teresa would have fewer unpleasant mornings, and that the next custodian hired would not need a mathematics degree to be taken seriously.
One evening, before his start date, Owen met Marcus and Priya at a quiet cafe near the office. They brought simplified diagrams of the current optimization system and spent two hours discussing its mathematical assumptions. Owen listened more than he spoke and asked questions that at first seemed almost too basic for experienced engineers. But each question required Marcus to explain why a particular rule existed, and several times the explanation ended with someone admitting that the rule had been inherited from an earlier version without being reevaluated.
"I don't want you to think I'm coming in to replace anyone's expertise," Owen said near the end of the meeting.
"Good," Priya replied. "Because I don't want to explain the implementation to a man who thinks equations mean he doesn't need engineers."
He laughed. "You won't have to."
Marcus leaned back in his chair. "Then we'll get along. I need people who can tell me when I'm wrong without making it personal."
Their discussion of the deeper system problem produced a practical plan. Instead of attempting another hurried correction, the team would build an explicit model of assignment states, identify the conditions under which the waiting penalty could be counted twice, and test the new formulation against historical cases and invented worst-case scenarios. Owen would help review the mathematical consistency; the engineers would control implementation, testing, and release decisions. Claire approved the additional time and explained to clients that the safeguards would remain in place until the system met a higher verification standard.