Julian did not leave the building. Instead, he retreated to the basement security operations center, a windowless labyrinth of humming servers and banks of high-definition monitors overseen by Arthur, a veteran chief security officer who had watched generations of executives rise and fall through the revolving doors of Horizon Tower.
"You look like a man who just watched his entire life get uninstalled, Mr. Vance," Arthur muttered, spinning his ergonomic chair around as Julian stepped into the dim light of the control room.
"Worse, Arthur," Julian said, sinking into a folding metal chair and resting his elbows on his knees. "I watched it get deleted by someone else's script. I need the raw footage from the corridor outside the executive suite on the forty-second floor, dated yesterday at 4:15 PM."
Arthur’s eyebrows arched. "That's a restricted sector, Julian. Corporate policy states that footage from executive zones requires a compliance sign-off. And given who was involved—Mrs. Evelyn Vance—the logs are already flagged for administrative review."