"To what people say when they know they're being watched."
She leaned back in her chair. "And?"
"Adrien answers technical questions directly. Your lawyers keep separating what they know from what they suspect. Your engineers are scared of making a mistake. That's normal."
"And Sloan?"
"He answered the question he wanted you to ask."
Maya understood what he meant. "Not the one about the memory card."
Raymond nodded.
Before she could continue, the receptionist called. "Miss Williams, Lena Brooks is here to see you. She says your counsel is expecting her."
Maya checked her phone; her attorney had sent a short message confirming the meeting. "Send her up."
A few minutes later, a woman in her late fifties entered the conference room carrying a narrow leather portfolio. She wore a charcoal suit and no visible agency identification.
Her expression changed when she saw Raymond. She stopped near the door. "Ray."
Raymond set down his coffee. "Lena."
Maya looked from one to the other.
Lena Brooks walked farther into the room and placed the portfolio on the table. "I didn't expect to see you involved in something like this again."
Raymond pulled out a chair for her. "I'm not involved."
Lena sat. "You're standing inside your daughter's company after three officers tried to take protected evidence from her. That qualifies as involved."
Raymond remained standing.
Maya looked at her father. "How do you know each other?"
Lena glanced at him before answering. "We worked together."
"Where?"
Raymond answered this time: "The Bureau."
Maya's expression did not change much, but the room seemed quieter. She already knew her father had spent years in federal service; he had never hidden that from her. What he had rarely discussed was the kind of work he had done or the people he had worked beside.
Lena looked at Raymond. "How long has it been since you left the FBI?"
"Long enough."
"That sounds like you."
Maya folded her arms. "What exactly did he do?"
Raymond looked at Lena as if asking her not to turn the conversation into a biography. She respected the limit.
"Public corruption, obstruction, evidence tampering, conspiracy. Cases where people with authority tried to use institutions to protect themselves."
Maya looked at her father again. "That explains some things."
Raymond raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"
"The diner."
"I was protecting you."
"You were also telling patrol officers how to preserve surveillance footage before anyone had finished arguing."
"That was common sense."
Lena opened her portfolio. "For Ray, those two things used to overlap."
Raymond finally sat. "I'm not working this as an agent."
Lena looked directly at him. "Good, because you aren't one."
For the first time that morning, Maya almost smiled.
Lena turned serious again. "I'm here because your counsel contacted the appropriate federal channel after the incident and after the credential anomalies were identified. There are issues here that overlap with an existing public integrity matter."
Maya leaned forward. "Existing?"
"That is as much as I can tell you right now."
"Does that matter involve Sloan?"
"I'm not naming subjects based on what we have today."
Maya accepted the answer; it was the same standard she had been applying inside WDI.
Lena continued, "Right now, your job is preservation, not accusation. Keep the memory card secure. Preserve every version of the audit logs. Preserve the diner footage exactly as received. Preserve all backup status records, access changes, administrator actions, and communications about the audit."
"We already froze privileged changes."
"Good. Keep documenting who authorizes every exception."
Maya asked, "Should I turn the card over to you?"
"Not informally. Your counsel will arrange any transfer through a documented process. Until then, you do not hide it, you do not copy it unnecessarily, and you do not give it to anyone simply because they have a title."
Raymond looked at Maya. "That includes Sloan."
Lena gave him a flat look. "You are not conducting this interview."
"I asked no question."
"You were about to."
Maya looked between them. "You two did this often."
"Too often," Lena said.
Raymond took off his stainless steel watch and placed it beside his coffee. Maya had seen him do that before when he was concentrating. She had never thought much about it; now she understood it had likely belonged to a professional routine he had deliberately left behind. Lena noticed the watch, but said nothing.
Maya asked, "If Sloan is involved, what stops him from changing the evidence before anyone gets to it?"
"Nothing, if he controls the only copy."
Maya looked toward the operations floor through the glass wall.
Lena continued, "That's why independent preservation matters. Knowing what happened and proving it are different jobs."
"Which one matters more if you want the truth to survive a courtroom?"
"The second one."
Maya sat back.
Raymond looked at her. "That's what I've been telling you."
"No, you've been telling me not to trust anyone."
"I said no such thing."
"You implied it."
"I implied that trust should not replace verification."
Lena closed her portfolio. "On that point, he's right." She stood and handed Maya a card containing a secure contact route for her legal team. "If anything changes with the memory card, the backups, or the people who had access, call through counsel. Do not confront Sloan. Do not confront your suspected insider until you have enough to preserve whatever they may destroy."
Maya nodded.
Lena turned toward Raymond. "And you?"