Chapter 5 - The Seattle Summons
Three weeks later, the crisp autumn air of the Pacific Northwest carried the scent of wet pine and distant salt water.
The corporate headquarters of Bennett Medical Technologies towered over downtown Seattle like a monolith of glass and light. On the thirty-fifth floor, inside the executive briefing room, twenty-six regional directors from across North America sat in absolute, suffocating silence.
At the head of the polished oak table sat Jonathan Bennett.
To his immediate right sat Annie Carter.
She wore a sharp, tailored charcoal blazer over a crisp white blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a neat braid, and her posture was calm, centered, and completely unshakeable. Beneath the table, the C-Series carbon-fiber bionic leg responded so smoothly to her natural muscle movements that nobody in the room would have ever guessed she wore a prosthesis at all.
“Let’s review the Q3 field diagnostic reports from the Midwest division,” Jonathan announced, his voice echoing cleanly through the room. “Miss Carter, walk us through the hardware failure rates.”
Annie stood up, walking smoothly to the digital projection screen at the front of the room. She tapped her tablet, bringing up a detailed, color-coded schematic of a prosthetic knee joint.
“Over the last quarter, regional directors in the Midwest reported a twelve percent spike in locking pin failures on our standard B-Series units,” Annie explained, her voice clear, confident, and utterly authoritative. She didn't use corporate buzzwords or sugarcoat the data. She spoke the raw, unvarnished language of engineering. “According to the regional office, they blamed user error and environmental wear-and-tear.”
Several regional directors in the room shifted uncomfortably in their seats. One of them, a silver-haired man named Robert Vance—no relation to the fired Charlotte director, though cut from the exact same corporate cloth—cleared his throat.
“If I may interrupt, Mr. Bennett,” Robert said smoothly, flashing a condescending smile toward Annie. “While Miss Carter’s technical background as an intern is certainly admirable, field conditions in rural districts are notoriously difficult to standardize. Blaming regional oversight for normal mechanical wear seems a bit... premature.”
Annie didn't flinch. She didn't look flustered. She simply turned her head, fixing Robert with a cool, clinical stare.
“It would be premature, Mr. Vance, if we hadn't already pulled the physical inventory logs from your regional warehouse,” Annie replied, her tone dangerously polite. She tapped her tablet again, bringing up a shipping manifest. “Your office received three hundred replacement pins from a secondary supplier in Taiwan three months ago. They were forged from sub-standard zinc alloy instead of aerospace-grade titanium to save four dollars per unit on procurement costs.”
Robert’s smile vanished instantly. His face turned the color of spoiled milk.
“That is completely unfounded—!” Robert started, standing up half an inch out of his chair.
“Page four of the audit, Robert,” Jonathan interrupted quietly, not even looking up from his notes. “You saved twelve thousand dollars on parts procurement. And you risked the mobility of three hundred patients who trusted our brand name.”
The conference room fell into a dead, suffocating hush.
Robert sank slowly back into his chair, staring straight ahead, completely paralyzed.
“Miss Carter,” Jonathan continued, looking up with a faint, approving glint in his grey eyes. “What is your recommendation?”
“Immediate recall of all batch numbers manufactured by the secondary supplier,” Annie said without missing a beat. “Full audit of procurement contracts across all four domestic divisions. And an automatic notification system sent to every registered user affected, providing a free upgrade and a personal letter of apology.”
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“Consider it done,” Jonathan said. He looked around the room at the twenty-five remaining executives, who were now sitting straighter, watching the eighteen-year-old prodigy with a mixture of awe and absolute terror. “If anyone else in this room has been cutting corners on material costs, I suggest you resign before Miss Carter finishes reviewing your inventory logs.”
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.
