After the tour, Collins pulled Mark aside. “We like your work,” he said quietly. “We need someone we trust. But we also have shareholders and budgets. If you could shave something—efficiency, a modified schedule, perhaps—we might be able to make the numbers work. I’m not asking you to undercut safety. I’m asking you to be creative. Are you willing to consider that?”
Creativity was a phrase that meant a thousand things. We left the tour with words heavy between us. Did we stretch further? Was there a legitimate line we could trim without cutting cheap? Could we afford to lower our margin on a contract that would stretch our resources? The evening that followed was a negotiation we had to do with ourselves more than with anyone else.
We went back to the ledger, running every scenario. Mark
