Around midnight, Constance arrived with coffee and sandwiches from a small cafe that stayed open late near the tower. She brought enough for the analysts, lawyers, and security staff, refusing the suggestion that food should be reserved for executives first. Dante remembered Rosalind making the same argument at their first warehouse celebration when an investor tried to keep the caterer away from the technicians. For the first time that day, the building offered a small glimpse of the place it had once been.
Calista thanked Constance and received a careful, unsentimental look in return. "You don't have to make speeches to me, Miss Reed," the older woman said. "Just notice the people who work here tomorrow." Calista lowered her eyes, not out of submission but because she recognized advice she should have heard much earlier.
The following morning, Dante called a meeting with the independent committee before any public address. They reviewed the legal powers available under the charter and confirmed that the emergency suspension remained effective while the board considered its next steps. The company's ordinary services would continue, suppliers with verified obligations would be prioritized, and the research budget would be temporarily stabilized pending a full assessment. Dante asked the committee to appoint an independent chair, making clear that his personal control should not become a substitute for rigorous governance.
One director wondered whether the company could afford to restore its public-service programs while investors were withdrawing support. Dante acknowledged that restoring every canceled project overnight would be reckless. He proposed a staged plan that began with safety-critical hospital commitments and outstanding supplier payments, followed by an independent review of school and disaster-recovery projects. The mission would be restored through accountable work, not by turning a promise into another attractive slide.
Calista watched him speak and realized that leadership did not have to sound like a contest to determine who was the least affected by other people's problems. Dante was decisive, but he allowed specialists to correct him and asked for evidence before committing funds. When an accountant disagreed with his estimate, he did not embarrass her; he asked her to show him the calculation. She did, and they changed the plan.
Before the meeting ended, Dante asked for a companywide assembly the next morning. He wanted employees in every office and laboratory to hear the same explanation, rather than discover their future through rumors or selective messages from frightened managers. The communications team suggested an edited video to reduce the possibility of awkward questions. Dante refused, saying that people whose work had been hidden for so long deserved the chance to be heard directly.
That evening, he finally walked into the side office where Matilda had spent much of the day drawing pictures with Constance. The girl had drawn three people inside a small building with a red roof, and beside them a larger building filled with little yellow squares. She explained that the little building was a hospital and the yellow squares were lights that kept working after a storm. Dante stared at the picture until his vision blurred, because without knowing the company's mission statement his daughter had managed to draw the reason it existed.