Nobody answered.
Rebecca leaned forward.
"Daniel."
He closed his eyes.
"The wiring assemblies."
Vanessa felt the room narrowing.
"How many aircraft?"
"At the time? Eighty-six."
Rebecca whispered, "Jesus."
Vanessa's voice barely moved.
"How many now?"
"One hundred forty-three."
Those aircraft carried tens of thousands of passengers every week.
Vanessa stood.
"Ground them."
Martin shot up.
"You cannot ground 143 aircraft."
"Watch me."
"You'll destroy the schedule."
"I don't care."
"You'll strand seventy thousand passengers."
"I care about whether seventy thousand passengers are flying on equipment we haven't properly inspected."
Daniel stood too.
"The assemblies have been checked repeatedly since Flight 184."
"By the same structure that deleted evidence?"
No answer.
Vanessa called operations.
"Ground every aircraft fitted with Halcyon wiring assembly series HX-44 pending inspection."
The executive on the line hesitated.
"All of them?"
"All."
"When?"
"Now."
Within eleven minutes, Sterling began canceling flights.
The news exploded.
Shares dropped nine percent before after-hours trading froze.
Social media turned from the first-class confrontation to questions about safety.
Vanessa watched the numbers fall without regret.
A company could recover money.
It could not recover dead passengers.
Rebecca continued reviewing the footage.
At timestamp 06:52, something strange appeared.
A woman entered the aft galley.
Vanessa didn't recognize her.
Neither did Rebecca.
Daniel did.
His reaction was immediate.
Vanessa paused.
"Who is she?"
Daniel looked toward Martin.
Martin stared at the screen.
"Nobody."
Vanessa turned.
"Wrong answer."
Rebecca zoomed in.
The woman's badge was partly visible.
HALCYON AEROSPACE.
The supplier.
Vanessa stared at Daniel.
"Why was a supplier representative aboard?"
Daniel sank back into his chair.
"Her name is Catherine Vale."
"What did she do?"
"She handled Sterling's account."
Vanessa resumed the footage.
Catherine opened a case.
Removed documents.
Passed something to Martin.
Martin slipped it inside his jacket.
Vanessa paused again.
"What did she give you?"
Martin shook his head.
"I don't remember."
Vanessa almost laughed.
"You're developing a remarkable memory problem."
Rebecca checked another file from the drive.
"There are financial records."
Martin's face changed.
Rebecca opened them.
A payment.
$480,000.
Halcyon Aerospace consulting subsidiary to a company called MH Advisory Group.
Vanessa looked at Martin.
"MH."
Martin stood.
"This meeting is over."
Airport police were outside the door.
He wasn't going anywhere.
"Sit down."
"You have no right—"
"Sit down."
He did.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
"I didn't know about the payment."
Martin turned.
"Shut up."
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
"So you helped suppress the maintenance warning, but you didn't know Martin was being paid?"
"I didn't suppress it."
"You concealed it from me."
"Because I was trying to protect Sterling."
"From what?"
"From you."
The words landed strangely.
Vanessa stared.
"Explain."
Daniel's face crumpled.
"You were negotiating the Pacific merger. The company had spent two years positioning for it. If you learned that 86 aircraft might require grounding, you'd have canceled the deal."
"Yes."
"You would've cost shareholders billions."
"So you decided for me."
"I decided for the company."
Vanessa looked at the man who had stood beside her through expansion, strikes, recessions, aircraft shortages, and a pandemic.
For the first time, she saw what loyalty without morality could become.
You didn't protect Sterling," she said.
"You protected Sterling's stock price."
Daniel looked away.
Rebecca's phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Her expression changed.
"What?"
"The FAA inspection teams have begun reviewing grounded aircraft."
"And?"
"They found heat damage."
Vanessa felt her stomach drop.
"How many?"
"Seven so far."
Martin's confidence vanished.
Rebecca kept reading.
"One aircraft had insulation deterioration severe enough that they believe another high-load cycle could have caused arcing."
"Where is 603?"
Vanessa was already moving.
Rebecca followed her into Sterling's operations center.
"Three hours out of Boston. Destination London."