steps to the team already authorized to handle them. Arthur agreed, though he confessed that he wanted to walk into Ryan's office and tell the man exactly who had paid for its furniture. Vivian replied, "You can do that when the facts have been secured. Until then, remember that the people most injured by this have no office to walk into."
He asked whether the authorities were ready to act. Vivian said the existing investigation had reached the point where prosecutors were reviewing applications supported by independently collected evidence, but no arrest could be promised or scheduled for the sake of a dramatic announcement. Arthur accepted the reminder because he knew she was right. The truth was not a stage effect, and neither a badge nor a signed warrant existed merely to complete his personal story.
While Arthur waited in the terminal, Anna received a second call from the independent compliance team. The board had authorized an emergency preservation step after Kevin and Ryan's attempt to change a customer-conduct record, and an information-security administrator was coming to take an auditable snapshot of the latest entries. Anna was not told to sneak data out, falsify access permissions, or compromise another employee's account. She was asked to identify the specific sequence of thirty-two changes that her work already permitted her to review so that the authorized specialists could protect them before the station's display changed again.
The distinction mattered to Anna. She had seen too many employees punished for doing something careless while trying to correct something worse, and she refused to supply the managers with a genuine violation they could use against her. She wrote the reference numbers into the official evidence request, added the timestamps of the warnings, and sent the report through the secure company channel. When the security administrator arrived, she watched him confirm his authorization and document each step rather than pretending he was an invisible hacker in a thriller.
Kevin appeared while the administrator was still in the room. His eyes moved from Anna to the visitor's identification badge and back to the workstation, and the relaxed confidence he usually displayed began to unravel. "What's happening?" he demanded. The administrator explained that certain records were subject to a preservation order approved by the board's audit committee and that routine work could continue so long as no one altered the designated originals. Kevin asked who had requested it and whether Ryan had approved, and the administrator calmly stated that station-management approval was not required for a board-authorized legal hold.
Ryan arrived a minute later, carrying the anger of a man who had been summoned out of a meeting he considered important. He demanded that the equipment be disconnected, arguing that preserving records during active departures could affect passengers. Anna assured him the process had been assessed for operational impact and would not suspend the normal booking system. Ryan replied that if she continued making his station look corrupt, she would never work in airport operations again.