At eleven sharp, the Police Force's core management meeting began on schedule.
The first item on the agenda concerned personnel matters at the National Security Department.
More precisely, it was a discussion of the candidate for the position of deputy head of the National Security Department.
Apart from that position, Zhou Quan, as an Assistant Commissioner, was fully qualified to initiate promotion procedures for all other personnel changes.
He only needed to submit a report to Number One afterward and notify the Police Force's core management and the Personnel Department.
Only positions at the Senior Superintendent level warranted the attention of the Police Force's core management.
After all, even the head of the Personnel Department was only a Senior Superintendent.
Before more than a dozen commissioner-level officers, Number One personally nominated Chow Sing Sing, a Senior Superintendent and the former Commander of the Security Department's Criminal Operations Division, as deputy head of the National Security Department.
The outcome caused no ripples. The entire core management unanimously approved Number One's nomination.
Their boss already had a suitable candidate, so how could they, as his subordinates, oppose his proposal?
As long as there was nothing wrong with Number One's decision, even the two Deputy Commissioners, second only to him within the Police Force, could only follow his orders.
Moreover, even if they wanted to challenge Number One's decision, there were requirements.
The most important was proving that Number One had been seriously derelict in his duties or could no longer perform them normally for health reasons.
That procedure would take at least two weeks.
Unless they invoked the emergency provisions in the Police Force regulations, but that would still require votes from more than half of Tai Kwun's Commissioned Rank management.
Neither procedure, however, applied to the current situation.
In the former