“If your background check isn’t logged by five on Friday, the visa slot goes to the backup candidate in Frankfurt.”

“All I’m asking for is seventy-two hours to get my files in order,” I said.

“The Lisbon office begins system testing on the first of the month,” he said.

“The relocation allowance is twelve hundred euros a month toward the corporate apartment, plus your round-trip airfare from O’Hare.”

“I understand that,” I said.

“I need your signed agreement by noon on Thursday,” David said.

“If you aren’t on that plane, Naomi, I have to fill the senior consultant role here.”