With the crisis abated for now, you return to your office for this month's staff meeting and budget allocation. This month, "meeting" is something of a misnomer: you are alone. You've instructed Electra and Brett to oversee implementation of various emergency procedures; should there be more explosions, you want to be prepared. You've also temporarily transferred Leach to a management position, overseeing a committee tasked with emergency decentralization of MetaHuman's IT, HR, finance, and legal departments.
Nor is Winston present. Never the most open of your team, he asked to take a leave of absence for "personal reasons" that remain unspecified. Checking his file, you saw it was the first time he'd made such a request in the twenty-plus years he's worked for MetaHuman. You wonder who these explosions might have harmed in order to push him to do so. In any case, you allowed him to leave, no questions asked. You aren't sure when he'll be back.
Claudette is present in the building, but has asked to be excused from the meeting. You have no wish to force her to attend if it's just the two of you. Besides, her work securing the research department against any further explosions takes precedence.
You get the impression that Claudette hasn't been sleeping much lately. The explosions around Seattle have shaken her quite badly. One of the times you checked in on her, she happened to mention she was glad that her family was living far away.
So here you are, all alone in your office, ready to begin November's monthly meeting.
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