Chapter 286 --286
They both looked at her.
"The security review covered the palace guard and the administrative staff who came to us directly," she said. "It didn’t go into the household functions comprehensively. We didn’t have the resources to go that deep in the first three months." She paused. "Which is why this review matters."
"What do you want to do with the twelve," Elara said.
"Assess them individually," the administrative director said. "Not assume guilt from the appointment. The cleared period appointments include people who were placed legitimately and people who weren’t. The appointment record being cleared doesn’t tell us which." She looked at Ken. "Can your reconstruction tell us more about why each appointment was made."
"Some of them," Ken said. "The payment records tell us which office authorized the payment, which tells us which command chain the appointment was part of." He paused. "The ones authorized through the Empress Dowager’s household accounts are the ones I’d prioritize."
"How many," the administrative director said.
"Eight," Ken said. "Of the fourteen."
"Those eight get individual review," she said. "The other six get a standard updated assessment and move on." She looked at Elara. "I want this done carefully. People who were placed by the previous network but who’ve been doing their jobs correctly for a year deserve different treatment than people who were placed as active assets."
"Yes," Elara said.
This was the distinction she had made a year ago when sorting the palace servants — the corrupt, the complicit, the clean, the cowardly. The same principle applied. Not everyone who had been placed by the wrong people was operating on behalf of those people.
"Ken handles the assessment framework," Elara said. "He knows how to run it without creating panic in the existing staff."
Ken nodded.