use IO::Uncompress::Unzip qw(unzip $UnzipError);
#lots of unrelated code...

my $word = 'test.docx'; # In the actual script I was walking a NetApp filer.
my $settingsXML;

unzip $word => \$settingsXML, Name => 'word/settings.xml'
      or die "unzip failed: $UnzipError\n";