“Is this a joke?”
“I’m assuming computer error.”
“Did everybody get four cents?”
“No idea.”
“That’s insulting.”
“It’s probably accidental.”
Emma frowned.
“You always say accidents still have causes.”
Ethan looked at her.
“When did I say that?”
“Whenever I blame things on accidents.”
He smiled reluctantly.
“Unfortunately, you listen.”
Emma pushed the paper back toward him.
“You should ask.”
“I will.”
“Not like normal ask.”
“What is normal ask?”
“The thing where you say, ‘No problem,’ when there is clearly a problem.”
Ethan opened the chili.
“You are twelve.”
“I am observant.”
“That is becoming inconvenient.”
She smiled.
Monday morning, Ethan visited payroll before his shift.
Payroll coordinator Denise Porter pulled up his record.
She frowned.
“That can’t be right.”
“Agreed.”
She clicked through several screens.
“Huh.”
“What?”
“This came through the new operational gainshare feed.”
“What feed?”
“Finance changed the calculation last month.”
“Why?”
“Something tied to the Meridian agreement.”
That word caught Ethan.
“Meridian?”
“Meridian Industrial Systems.”
He knew the name.
Everybody did.
Management had been talking about Meridian for almost six months.
Meridian was a national industrial-services company.
Predictive maintenance.
Machine monitoring.
Safety systems.
Plant analytics.
Emergency parts coverage.
Briar Ridge executives described the pending partnership as transformational.
Sensors on critical machines.
Centralized software monitoring.
Guaranteed emergency-response times.
Reduced inventory.
Lower insurance risk.
Fewer catastrophic failures.
Ethan liked parts of it.
He had participated in the pilot.
Meridian installed vibration and temperature sensors on three production lines.
The hardware was decent.
The software was useful.
The salespeople bothered him.
Too much certainty.
Every answer sounded rehearsed.
Ethan asked Denise:
“What does Meridian have to do with payroll?”
She shrugged.
“Gainshare is pulling the projected efficiency number from the new model.”
“What number?”
Denise turned the screen toward him.
PROJECTED NET OPERATING BENEFIT PER QUALIFIED UNIT: $0.04
There it was.
Four cents.
Ethan leaned closer.
“Why is that being paid as a bonus?”
“It shouldn’t be.”
Denise clicked again.
“Looks like the payroll mapping grabbed the rate field instead of your calculated share.”
“So system error.”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“I’ll get it corrected.”
“When?”
“Next pay cycle.”
“Any idea what the real bonus should be?”
She checked.
“Looks like $642.18.”
That was different.
Ethan smiled.
“Better.”
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
He started toward the door.
Then stopped.
“Denise.”
“Yeah?”
“Where did the four-cent rate come from?”
“The finance model.”
“Can I see it?”
She laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“Worth asking.”
He left.
But the number followed him.
$0.04 per qualified unit.
By Tuesday afternoon, the four cents would matter much more.
At 9:10, Ethan received an email from Victoria Lang.
PLANT EXECUTIVE CONFERENCE ROOM.
10:00 A.M.