Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty Three

• Three days passed without a single operational request from Blackwood Holdings.
• Sylvia noticed the absence only because the calendar had previously held a standing pattern of inquiries. Carmen mentioned it once in passing, then moved on to the weekend auction load-in schedule. The work continued. The professional channel remained open and unused.
• Alex canceled two internal meetings on the first day and rescheduled them without explanation. By the second day Dom stopped asking why the private server logs showed repeated late-night access to the same inactive event files. On the third day he walked into Alex’s office at noon, closed the door, and set a printed copy of the quarterly priority list on the desk.