The email came in at 8:04 a.m., addressed to two thousand people, and Maya read it four times.
SUBJECT: Credential Re-Enrollment — Phase Two (ACTION REQUIRED)
Following biometric capture, all personnel are required to present original identity documentation to Human Resources for verification against personnel records. Photocopies and digital scans will not be accepted. Please bring: birth certificate or certified copy, Social Security card, and one government-issued photo ID.
Deadline: the 31st. No extensions will be granted.
Originals.
Maya set her phone down on her desk, very carefully, the way you set down something you might otherwise throw.
Copies could be built. Copies had been built — a decade ago, competently, by people her mother had paid in cash. But originals lived in the
