"I'm the escort," Alvin said.
There was a small conference room off the lobby, behind the security desk, with a frosted glass door and a round table and four chairs and a speakerphone like a gray starfish in the middle of the table, and a framed print on the wall of the old Stanhope building on Main Street as it had looked in 1910, with horses. It was where they took visitors who had forgotten their IDs, and, Agata now understood, people like her. She sat down. Gwendolyn sat across from her. Alvin did not sit. He stood just inside the door with his back to the frosted glass and his hands loose at his sides and the flap of his breast pocket buttoned.
The speech, when it came, was a decent speech. Agata had read enough of them, in the years when she had been the one who deactivated the badges at six in the morning, to know the difference. Gwendolyn did not say "journey" or "family." She said that Stanhope Mutual had entered into an agreement in July with Ardent Integrated Security to manage the electronic security systems for all of the company's properties, including access control, cameras, and the interface with life-safety systems, and that as part of that consolidation the role of Manager, Electronic Security Systems, had been eliminated effective today. She said that the decision had nothing to do with Agata's performance, which she had in front of her and which was exemplary, and nothing to do with her leave, which was protected, and that the company's counsel had been very careful about the timing to make sure of that. She said that last part looking down at the folder, and Agata believed that she believed it.
"There's a separation agreement," Gwendolyn said. "It's good, Agata. I want you to know I pushed on it. Twenty-six weeks of base. Your bonus at target, prorated. The company pays your COBRA premium in full for six months, and I know—" she glanced, without meaning to, at Agata's head—"I know what that means right now. Outplacement services. You have twenty-one days to review it and seven days after signing to revoke. You should have a lawyer look at it. I'm supposed to say that and I also mean it."
"What's in the release?"
"It's standard."
"I know it's standard. I'm asking what's in it."
Gwendolyn turned two pages. "General release of claims. Return of company property. Confidentiality regarding the terms of the agreement and the company's proprietary and security-sensitive information. Mutual non-disparagement. Cooperation with any—"
"Security-sensitive information," Agata said. "Defined how?"
Gwendolyn found it and read it aloud. It was a long sentence. It included, among other things, the configuration, vulnerabilities, deficiencies, and remediation status of any physical security or life-safety system at any Stanhope property.