Chapter 43: Service Variance

The red lamps stained the archive shelves, the open folder, and Callum's face. Above them, the fire suppression speaker clicked. "Mr. Rourke," Vivian said. "Did you find what you were looking for?" Callum picked up his phone. No signal had returned. "Your retention policy needs work." "I have always found it unusually strong." Sau-lin kept one hand on the shelf. Pain threaded through her left foot and climbed her leg, each pulse arriving from the fragment Mara had carried away. Callum glanced at the sealed door. "Open it." "You entered under false pretenses." "So did Silas." The speaker hissed. Vivian did not answer at once. Sau-lin looked at the memorandum in its rusted deed box. Vivian's signature showed through the protective sheet. Six years ago she had read Silas Merritt's theft and called it an inheritance. "You photographed private records," Vivian said. "Preserved evidence." "Jo has made you sound litigious."…