Mason thought of Sadie standing beneath the porch light with her backpack and offering to take a part-time job. "My daughter would never trust me again if I accepted money to put my signature on something I knew was false," he said. "I don't need a better title. I need a process that tells the truth."
The room was silent. Preston's smile faded, and he said Mason was being needlessly difficult. He pointed out that no aircraft had crashed and that the failed prototype remained safely in the test chamber. Mason agreed those facts were important. They were important because testing had found the problem in time, not because the absence of an accident proved the substitution harmless.
Cassandra joined the meeting near its end. She had been told the offer was likely to succeed and looked irritated when she learned Mason had rejected it. She said thousands of employees could lose work if the conditional award was terminated and asked whether he was comfortable bearing responsibility for that outcome. Mason answered that the employees had been placed in jeopardy by an undisclosed substitution and falsified records, decisions made long before he noticed the first bolt.
"You have a daughter," Cassandra said. "Think about what happens to her if you turn this into a personal crusade."
For the first time, Mason allowed the anger into his voice. "Do not use my daughter to explain away a material defect," he said. "She's why I know exactly what I can and cannot put my name on. If you want me to help fix the company, give me honest records and the authority to use them. If you want a witness to say something untrue, find somebody else."
Cassandra threatened to pursue legal action if proprietary information reached the public. Mason reminded her that he had reported through the authorized oversight process and had not published confidential designs. He had no interest in leaking technical details. The evidence already held by Claire's team was sufficient to establish what happened, and the people who needed to see it were the people charged with reviewing the contract.
Preston ended the meeting. Afterward, Mason made a written account of the offer and its condition, reviewed it with his attorney, and provided the account to Claire through the proper channel. He did not ask the auditors to punish the executives for offending him. He asked them to consider whether the offer demonstrated continuing pressure to misrepresent a known defect.
Claire asked Mason what he wanted when the inquiry was over. He gave her three answers without hesitation: an inspection of every affected component, protection for people who reported problems honestly, and an accurate public record of who had approved the substitution. He asked for no bonus, no executive office, and no personal settlement as the price of changing his technical position. Claire wrote down all three requests and told him they would be part of the corrective-action discussion.