Genevieve looked at him in silence. Victor had served in enough difficult meetings to recognize an instruction that was not going to improve if he asked it to be repeated. He left with the documents, wondering when a business risk had become something closer to a personal vendetta.
At Halstead Acres, preparations for the first emergency review were almost finished. Janet had organized Kora's evidence into a sequence that began with the transfer and ended with the latest health reports, separating information about ownership from information about animal movement. Owen Price agreed to testify about the inspection he had conducted, including the flock's general condition and the results available at that point. Leah would explain what the tests established and, just as importantly, what they did not establish.
The review took place in a county administrative room with low ceilings and battered wooden desks. Genevieve attended through counsel, and Harrington argued that no movement should be authorized until the full set of tests was confirmed and the disputed title resolved. Janet pointed out that the agency could maintain appropriate biosecurity safeguards without treating a corporate claim of ownership as a reason to prolong restrictions unrelated to disease. She also submitted the consulting firm's connection to Harrington, not to invalidate a complaint automatically, but to establish a motive for scrutiny.
Leah spoke plainly. "Every flock deserves careful testing. We have followed the requested protocols, and the initial results do not support the allegation of an active outbreak. I am not asking you to substitute my opinion for the laboratory's final report. I am asking you to keep the restriction proportionate to the evidence as it arrives."
The reviewing officer ordered expedited final laboratory confirmation and made clear that, absent new evidence, the disease-related hold would be lifted once the lab completed its work. The ruling was not the victory Kora needed; she still could not transport or sell the birds, and the separate dispute over rights remained unresolved. But it was a written decision that prevented the complaint from drifting indefinitely through a succession of unexplained postponements.
Outside the hearing room, Sarah Whitcomb approached Kora with her recorder visible. "Would you answer a few questions? I covered the inspection on your farm."
Kora remembered the photograph of her poor barn beside Genevieve's warnings. "Will you visit the birds before you publish another picture of the fence?"
Sarah looked embarrassed, and Kora regretted the sharpness until the reporter answered honestly. "Yes. I should have asked the first time."
Kora considered her. "Come when the agency allows visitors, and speak to Leah. Don't ask me for a quote that makes the disease issue disappear just because the news has changed. I'm following the same rules I want Harrington to follow."
Sarah nodded and wrote the sentence down. It was the beginning of a different kind of coverage, slower and more difficult, with questions directed toward the people who had actually handled the eggs rather than simply the people who could afford a press officer. Within a week the newspaper published an account of the documented hatch rate and the pending university inquiry, making clear that regulatory and ownership questions remained under review.