Above

The woman is gone a little longer than five minutes. She returns with a friendly-yet-disappointed expression. "I'm sorry, sir. My supervisor would not permit it without a good reason. I tried to tell them that you were friends with these people, but then he started getting worked up about protocol and flow of information and yadda-yadda-yadda." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Anyway, I couldn't get him to go for it. Is there a message I could pass along for you?"