Static HTML preview of M26 rendering the full installed Phase 1-4 narrative content. Each scene shows one phase with the canonical sceneIntro (Phase 1 - 'Where you are'), the peer roster, a sample decision (drawn from M3 for that phase), the canonical sceneOutro ('Phase close'), and the status footer. Content is identical to what was installed into data_context.js, data_decisions.js, and data_behaviours.js from CovertCubicles_NarrativeContent_Phases1to4.xlsx.
Two months in, you know everyone by name. The compliance team is twelve people on the third floor; you onboard corporate banking clients, you escalate when something looks wrong, you go home. Quarter-end is six weeks away. The work is becoming familiar.
"Mate, quick favour. My boy's running a temperature, school's just rung. I need to nip off but I've got the Hartwell file half-open. Could you stay logged in for an hour so I can finish it from home? Save me restarting the lot."
Three months gone. Each of your four colleagues has said or done something you can't quite forget. None of it was alarming. None of it was nothing. The compliance refresher email lands in your inbox on the Friday.
Six months in. The compliance refresher sits ticked off in your training record. Quarter-end has come and gone without incident. The audit team has begun a routine review of the Hartwell client files. You have been asked, four times this quarter, to do small favours.
"Quick one. We're documenting the Hartwell handover and I need a witness on the file-transfer log. You wouldn't have been involved directly, but your name on the audit trail makes it cleaner from a process standpoint. I'll send the form. Just sign and return."
Nine months. The refresher email feels longer ago than it was. The Hartwell file has surfaced in three separate conversations you weren't part of. You have not been asked anything you couldn't refuse. You have not refused everything. The internal audit team requests a brief interview, scheduled for Monday.
The audit interview happened. It was twenty minutes. The interviewer wore a grey jacket and asked about workflows you have signed off, witnessed, or both, in the past quarter. None of the questions felt unfair. None of them felt like questions you were the natural person to be answering.
"Quick one. The April matter, the auditor's coming back to me on Thursday. I've drafted what I want to say and I'd like a sanity check before I send it. You were there for some of this. Read it through, mark anything that's off."
The end of the third quarter. The audit team's interim findings circulate as a short memo. Two paragraphs. Neither paragraph is about your team specifically. The memo names no one. You read it twice. The second time, you notice that the things it does not say leave a precise shape behind.
Twelve months in. Arthur's leaving drinks were last week. The identity-management upgrade ran on Saturday. The follow-up panel met on Monday. By Wednesday morning, the floor has the texture of a thing that has happened. People are quieter at the kitchen. Nobody mentions Hartwell out loud.
"I'm going to be straight with you. Things at home are difficult and I may need to take some leave. If anyone asks where I've been the last few weeks, would you say I've been on top of things? Even just generally. It would help."
An email lands on Thursday afternoon. Internal Compliance, marked private and confidential. They have completed their review of the audit findings and would like to schedule a meeting on Monday morning to discuss specific decisions you have taken over the past year. You are asked to attend alone. Your name appears once in the email, in the subject line.