"Our first responsibility is to the shareholders," Victor said. "The electric performance program is delayed, our proprietary information may be compromised, and the public will soon ask why these problems were not reported sooner. Under these circumstances, we must consider whether current management has allowed personal sentiment to interfere with sound judgment."
Charlotte kept her hands folded in front of her. "Before anyone votes on a change in leadership or the sale of assets, the audit committee needs to present its findings."
Victor smiled thinly. "Of course. Though I hope we will distinguish evidence from family grievances."
Helen stood. "The findings concern unauthorized technology access, a potentially deliberate component substitution, and a possible conflict of interest involving a prospective buyer. They are not a family grievance."
She invited Priya to explain the evidence. The auditor described the suspect connector, the inconsistent thermal readings, the obsolete inventory label, and the data copied from the administrative suite. She explained that the current investigation had identified a chain of records rather than a single eyewitness. It would be irresponsible, she said, to assign blame before all the witnesses were interviewed, but equally irresponsible to pretend the events were unrelated merely because the connection threatened senior management.
A director named Judith Vale leaned forward. "Did the new mechanic really identify this fault before six qualified engineers could isolate it?"
"Yes," Marcus answered before anybody else could. "We were following the diagnostic summary. Evan tested the physical signal path. He was right, and we were wrong to dismiss the possibility."
Victor looked at Evan as though noticing him for the first time. "And this mechanic happens to be the son of a former employee dismissed for theft. That raises a rather obvious question about motive, doesn't it?"
Evan felt heat climb his neck. He remembered every job interview in which somebody had discovered his last name, every customer who asked whether he had learned to steal parts at his father's knee, every occasion when he swallowed an answer because he needed the work more than he needed dignity. Then he looked at Charlotte, who gave him no signal except the simple attention of somebody prepared to let him speak for himself.
"I didn't come here to settle my father's history," Evan said. "I came because I needed a job. I fixed the fault because that's what mechanics do. Whatever my father did or didn't do, the wrong part was sitting in your prototype before I walked through the door. The custody records can tell you that."
Judith nodded. Priya confirmed that the installation records and preliminary material review supported his account. Victor appeared ready to change the subject, but Charlotte placed a blueprint on the table before he could. The sheet had been copied from Daniel's old workshop and documented a legitimate collaboration between Daniel Carter and Richard Bennett on the company's early adaptive control architecture.
"This isn't an accusation," Charlotte said. "It's an original technical record. We have also recovered test logs omitted from the termination file, correspondence indicating that another engineer transferred confidential material before Daniel was dismissed, and evidence that the official report may have been altered. Those records are being independently examined."