Page 76 of Under Her Protection

"On the paving slab adjacent to the sensor. The sensor has been behaving itself correctly."

"Good."

"Vivienne."

"Yes."

"We are going to take today seriously."

"I am aware."

Leo closed the door behind her.

"Right," she said.

---

She spent the next five hours turning the hôtel particulier into a house you could not get a pigeon into.

She moved Fournier's coffee-and-security briefing forward, and had Fournier in the library early, and explained to Fournier what was in fact happening at the company, because Fournier had for five weeks now been the person at Strauss with the clearest eye for what was on the paper, and Fournier, to her credit, had three names ready on her phone before Leo had finished her second sentence. Moreau, Claudel, Renaud. Vivienne signed a termination order on the edge of the library writing desk at eight-fourteen. HR notified at eight-nineteen. Building access revoked at eight twenty-two. Corporate email archives locked at eight twenty-three. Blackthorn had two men at Strauss HQ on the eighth arrondissement side door by eight-thirty, waiting for Claudel to arrive and be walked back out to the pavement with a box.

By nine the gate was on double-check. By nine-thirty Beaumont had three more Blackthorn bodies in the courtyard that Leo had requested on a four-hour rotation through the weekend. By ten the neighbour on the south side had been visited by a polite young woman in a Blackthorn coat who explained that the rotting eaves of his outbuilding were a liability and that a courtesy contractor would be on his ladder at eleven if the neighbour would permit it. The neighbour permitted it.

By eleven Leo was on a call with Dominique.

"She fired three of them."

"She did."

"In one morning."

“Yes.”

A pause on the Dominique end.

"Leo."

"Yes."

"You are doing a great deal of work in that house."

"Copy."

"I am looking at the invoice for the four-body rotation through Sunday. I am approving it. I want you to know I am approving it."

"Copy."

"And Leo."

"Yes."

"If there is access at the level I am hearing Ms. Strauss has just granted Avery's desk, I would like it to come to me from your mouth, not from the audit trail."

"You have it."

"When."

"Now."