THE LAST FILE · EPISODE 20

The Contractor With Too Much Access

Jordan added a freelance developer to the whole workspace to beat a deadline. Sixteen days later, the developer was the one who raised it.

4:12 PM. Wednesday.

Jordan clicked Add member.

It was the reasonable thing to do. Arjun Mehta was good, fast and polite, and he'd lost most of a morning waiting for files that lived in three different folders. Brightline's product page launched on Thursday. Rachel Kim had already asked twice whether it was on track.

Arjun replied with a thumbs-up and a line of thanks. By six, the image gallery was working. By nine the next morning, the page was live.

Rachel sent a single word: “Lovely.”

Jordan forwarded it to Arjun, closed the project in the tracker, and moved on to the next deadline.

Nobody thought about Arjun's account again for sixteen days.

Then, on a Friday afternoon, an email arrived from Arjun himself. The subject line was short: “Before I forget, one small thing.”