PART 3
His eyebrows drew together.
“What difference does that make?”
“About two million dollars.”
The room fell quiet again.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and began photographing the controller screen, every modified parameter, the machine serial number, the alarm history, and the timestamp recorded inside the Siemens control.
Richard stepped forward.
“Those are company records.”
I kept taking pictures.
“And this is an independent forensic inspection performed by Parker Precision Services.”
“You’re diagnosing a machine, not investigating a crime.” I finally looked at him.
“When someone changes protected calibration values without authorization, it stops being maintenance.”
Walter slowly removed his cap.
“I’ve worked here twenty-eight years,” he said. “I’ve never seen servo gains change themselves.”
Neither had I.
The impossible numbers I plugged my diagnostic laptop into the controller.
Within seconds, the system exported its change history.
Every protected parameter carried a user ID.
Not a name.
A number.
Richard leaned over my shoulder.
“Can you tell who did it?”
“I can tell who logged in.”
The audit trail loaded.
User 14.
Timestamp: 10:41:16 AM.
Twenty-six minutes before my termination meeting.
My stomach tightened.
I already knew who User 14 was.
Tyler Brennan.
The same engineer Mason had mentioned.
Richard immediately shook his head.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No,” I agreed. “It proves someone used Tyler’s credentials.”
Those were two very different statements.
Good engineers understood evidence.
Bad managers preferred assumptions.
I printed the audit report.
Before Richard could reach for it, I signed and dated the bottom.
“Contractor copy,” I said.
He looked irritated.
“You’re making this unnecessarily formal.”
“You fired the informal version of me.”
Walter coughed into his hand to hide a smile.
