Chapter 16
Years later, I finally asked my oldest captain:
“If I disappear for twenty minutes, who runs things?”
He stared.
“Is this another coffin situation?”
The entire table laughed.
Good.
Humor meant the story had stopped owning us.
“No coffin.”
“Then Rafe.”
Rafe shook his head.
“Operational security only.”
Margaret said:
“Depends what happens.”
Exactly.
We had built actual continuity.
Not symbolic.
Defined responsibilities.
If I was unavailable, people knew which decisions could wait, which could move, and who held temporary authority.
No spouse by default.
No cousin by blood.
No secret council.
Role by function.
Vesper’s fear had contained a legitimate question:
What happens when the boss is unavailable?
I had never answered it because I was thirty-nine and arrogant enough to think availability was permanent.
The solution had not been burying me under a chapel.
It had been planning like adults.
Unromantic.
Effective.
I thought of telling Vesper.
Then decided she did not need updates from my organization.
Boundaries again.
Instead I told Emmeline because she happened to be arranging flowers nearby.
“We finally solved the coffin problem.”
She stared.
“You bought a bigger one?”
May you like
I laughed so hard Rafe left the room.
Apparently staff confidence had improved dramatically.
