"This is remarkable," Don Carlos said, his voice carrying the steady authority of someone who had spent decades confronting institutional discrimination. "These terms are virtually identical to those presented in March. The salary figures are the same, the progression clauses remain unchanged, and the commercial obligations continue to require impossible participation in traditional media activities."
The observation was delivered with the clinical precision of a prosecutor presenting evidence, highlighting the institutional laziness that had led them to repackage the same discriminatory terms as a generous compromise.
Don Carlos opened his own briefcase and withdrew the contract documents from their previous meeting, laying them side by side with the "new" offer to demonstrate the minimal differences between the two proposals.
