THE LAST FILE · EPISODE 12

The Risk Hiding in Plain Sight

The team followed one kind of confidential file from the day it arrived. Every copy had a good reason. Nobody had ever counted them.

10:00 AM. Thursday.

The whole studio squeezed into the meeting room. Someone had brought samosas. Someone else had brought doughnuts. Priya took it as a good sign.

On the whiteboard she had drawn five boxes in a row: Arrives. Stored. Edited. Shared. Archived.

"We're going to follow one kind of file," she said. "Client launch briefs, like the one Brightline sent yesterday. Not what's supposed to happen to them. What actually happens."

She handed out sticky notes. One note for every copy of a brief that anyone made, kept or sent.

The first box filled quickly. Brightline's new brief had come as a link, but older briefs still sat as attachments in two inboxes, Jordan's and Alex's.

The second box looked tidy. One official folder, plus the two backups Priya had set up on Monday.

Then they reached Edited, and people started standing up.

Maya counted the notes twice. "We haven't even got to Shared," she said. "Why are there nine already?"