[Intro]

Conference Room C.

No windows.

One dashboard.

Four people
who did not read the appendix.

[Verse]

Gordon folds his hands at ten.
EngageMax has joined again.
My Harbor series sits on ice,
North Arc billed the city twice.
I start with dates. They start with reach.
I start with records. They start with speech.
Gordon says, "Nobody doubts the work."
That sentence always carries dirt.

[Pre-Chorus]

He rotates the laptop toward my chair.
There's a funnel. Of course
there's a funnel there.

[Chorus]

The conversion rate isn't strong enough,
That's why we have to stop.
The facts are good, the sourcing's tough,
But readers tend to drop.
Your investigation's sound,
But importance doesn't move the numbers round.

[Verse]

I ask if North Arc paid itself.
Finance looks briefly at the shelf.
I show the altered meeting date.
S-E-O asks, "Could this activate
a softer, more emotional entry point?"
Gordon says, "Maya, understand—
we have precious little bandwidth."
I say, "You have a newsroom." He says, "Exactly."

[Chorus]

The conversion rate isn't strong enough,
So close the file for now.
The evidence may be serious,
But metrics won't allow.
If people leave at paragraph five,
So what exactly did we think we'd derive?

[Break]

One contract. Two shell firms.
Three sources confirmed. Four dates changed.
C-T-R: low. Average time: medium.
Public consequence: Field not found.

[Bridge]

Red ink through the page, one line, one wage:
"North Arc director. Harbor deputy. Shared mailbox."
I slide the copy toward Gordon Pike. He does not touch it.
"This is not about whether you are right."
That hurts worse than if it were.

[Build-up]

Not whether I'm right. Not whether they stole.
Not whether the contract was under control.
Not whether the public paid twice for the cost—
Only whether attention was commercially lost.

[Final Chorus]

The conversion rate isn't strong enough—
Now say it one more time.
Say it while the documents
sit numbered in a line.
So truth will wait its turn—
Or maybe it's the wrong damn concern.

I close the laptop. Take my notes.

The conversion rate isn't strong enough.
Neither is this excuse.

[Outro]

The meeting ends.

My investigation
does not.