The Flag

He flagged it through the proper channel because he was, at heart, a man who believed in proper channels. The email went out at 4:50 on Friday. By Monday morning everything was different. His manager was warmer than usual. HR sent him a calendar invite for a "quick chat about your great work." And a man named Garrett Voss, who Daniel knew only as a name on the org chart three levels above his own, had flown in from the regional office and wanted lunch. Just the two of them. Daniel said yes because saying no would have been louder. He spent the weekend printing copies of the Route 12 file and hiding them in places a reasonable person would not look, and he hated that he was already thinking like a man who expected to be searched.