The next morning, the adrenaline rush from the night before had curdled into a cold, hard knot of fear. Mel's conversation with Jenna felt like a memory from a different lifetime, and Chloe's USB drive, the instant, guaranteed victory, sat like a small, inert bomb in her pocket. Mel knew she couldn't simply ignore the data, but using it was now clearly a professional death sentence.
Driven by this desperate calculus, Mel secured a last-minute, one-on-one meeting with a mid-level manager at Kallen's corporate office: Mr. Hayes. She needed confirmation that the risk was as high as she feared.
The Kallen offices were clinical and vast, exuding the scent of expensive neutrality. Mr. Hayes, a man in a pale blue shirt, met her in a small, windowless conference room, looking perpetually rushed.
"You're Mel, one of the business school competitors, correct? Look, I have five minutes. The strategy submissions are due next week. We're all buried."
"Thank you, Mr. Hayes," Mel said, placing a notepad on the table, careful not to even touch the pocket containing the USB drive. "I'm close to finalizing a path for Kallen's European restructuring. My team is struggling with the data verification on the third-party manufacturing base in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the regulatory compliance reports."
Mr. Hayes shifted uncomfortably, tapping a pen against the table. "That data is proprietary, Mel. It's not available for student projects. We're a $20 billion corporation. If you can't generate the strategy without relying on that level of access, your submission will be considered incomplete. That's the challenge."
Mel understood the boilerplate response, but she pressed on, needing to gauge the risk of the USB drive. "But, sir," she pressed, leaning forward, "if a competitor somehow presented a strategy that relied on verified information regarding illegal sourcing, a breach of environmental standards in that region, would that strategy be taken seriously?"
Mr. Hayes stopped tapping. His professionalism instantly dissolved, replaced by a flash of genuine, controlled panic. He stared at her, his eyes cold and assessing.
"Ms. Mel," he said, his voice flat and low. "Kallen operates at the top of the market. Our commitment to ethical sourcing is non-negotiable and publicly stated. Any submission based on unverified, slanderous claims of 'illegal sourcing' would be instantly disqualified, and the student responsible would face disciplinary action from their school for unprofessional conduct. I believe our five minutes are up."
He stood abruptly, ending the conversation with a chilling finality. Mel walked away knowing the harsh truth: Chloe's drive was a winning hand Kallen would never let her play. Chloe, in her single-minded focus on victory, had simply offered the ultimate solution, not realizing (or not caring) that the company would punish the messenger rather than acknowledge the truth. Mel had faced the moment before the Fall and found she was standing on a landmine.
Back in the solitude of her dorm room, Mel knew she needed a third path. She looked at the two objects on her desk: the anonymous card from Leila Vaughn and the encrypted USB drive. The drive offered guaranteed win and guaranteed ruin. The card offered an uncertain lifeline.
Mel picked up her phone and dialed the number on Leila's card. After three tense rings, a clipped, professional voice answered.
"Vaughn."
"Ms. Vaughn, this is Mel. We spoke at the recruiting event. I need your perspective now. I have the truth about Kallen's illegal supply chain, but using it means I'll be disqualified and blacklisted. I've been given a poisoned chalice."
There was a long pause, then Leila's voice, devoid of surprise, came back, "The clock is ticking, Mel. You don't have time to be a martyr. You don't fight fire with illegal sourcing data; you fight it with risk management. You acknowledged the weakness, now you use that knowledge for an offensive defense."
Leila quickly outlined the framework: Mel must scrap her old plan and pivot her strategy to focus entirely on radical restructuring and proactive risk mitigation in that region.
"Your strategy will be so robust in addressing potential ethical breaches, the very breaches the drive confirms, that Kallen cannot dismiss it," Leila explained. "You're giving them the solution to the problem they refuse to admit they have. It's the smart way out. Use the knowledge to make your strategy unassailable, not to accuse them."
"It's clean," Mel breathed.
"It's strategic. And now you owe me a favor, Mel," Leila said. "You just used your first contact." The line went dead.
Mel had survived the ethical test, finding a way to use the ugly truth to perfect her integrity. Her time was up; she had to build the entire strategy from scratch.