Adrian recognized him vaguely as Malcolm Reeves, a senior partner at an investment bank. Malcolm looked embarrassed.
“Vanessa asked whether I’d prefer the lobster instead. I said yes.”
Adrian turned back. “Then how did my meal disappear?”
Vanessa’s face tightened. “I reassigned it.”
“Why?”
No answer. Adrian waited.
Vanessa finally whispered, “Because Mr. Reeves is a Platinum Crown passenger.”
Adrian nodded slowly. “And I wasn’t?”
“You booked under an unlinked guest profile.”
That was intentional. Adrian had asked his private office to remove his executive flags for the journey because he wanted to travel quietly after Eleanor’s death.
He looked at Richard. “So the service system saw me as low status.”
Richard’s jaw hardened. “Apparently.”
Adrian turned to Captain Porter. “And the lavatory?”
The captain glanced at Vanessa. She whispered, “There was no malfunction.”
The former judge made a note even though she had already closed her notebook. “Why did you tell me there was?”
Vanessa looked toward Thomas as if hoping he would rescue her. He did not.
“I thought you were trying to make a point.”
“I stood up to use a bathroom.”
“You had already questioned the meal.”
Adrian stared at her for several seconds. “So once I challenged one service decision, ordinary behavior became confrontation.”
Vanessa’s eyes lowered. Richard’s phone buzzed.
He checked the message and looked at Adrian. “The cabin-service metadata is preserved.”
“Anything unusual?”
Richard hesitated. “There’s a passenger-service flag on your reservation.”
Adrian frowned. “What flag?”
Richard turned the screen around.
Beside ADRIAN COLE, SEAT 2D, was a red internal notation:
SERVICE RESISTANCE RISK: ELEVATED.
Adrian stared at it. “I’ve never seen that before.”
Neither had Miranda. She took the phone and scrolled.
Below the risk score was another field:
RECOVERY STRATEGY: MINIMIZE PREMIUM RESOURCE ALLOCATION.
The words seemed almost absurd. Adrian looked at Vanessa.
“Did you see this?”
She nodded once. “Before boarding?”
“Yes.”
“Who entered it?”
“I don’t know.”
Thomas stepped closer. “Those flags come from the Customer Harmony system.”
Miranda’s face changed. “Customer Harmony?”
Thomas looked confused. “You know it?”
She did not answer him. Adrian did.
Customer Harmony was supposed to be a conflict-reduction tool. He had approved a pilot eighteen months earlier after executives told him it would help crews identify passengers who had experienced repeated service failures so employees could proactively repair the relationship.
That was what the board had been told. Adrian looked at Miranda.
“Why does a customer-recovery system contain instructions to reduce premium service?”
Miranda said nothing. His stomach tightened.
He looked again at the screen.
SERVICE RESISTANCE RISK: ELEVATED.
He had never complained to Atlantic Crest under the guest profile. He had barely used it.
“How did it score me?”
Richard opened the detail log. A set of behavioral factors appeared.
LOW LOYALTY VISIBILITY.
SOLO TRAVELER.
LIMITED BRAND ENGAGEMENT.
NONREACTIVE RESPONSE PATTERN.
LOW HISTORICAL ESCALATION.
Adrian read the last two twice. “Nonreactive?”
Richard looked grim. “It appears the system predicts how likely a passenger is to challenge unequal service.”
Adrian felt his mother’s handkerchief beneath his coat.
Patience. Evidence. Timing.
Then a new thought hit him. “Show me the historical source.”
Richard opened the training record. The system had built Adrian’s score partly from twelve years of archived passenger behavior attached to his legal identity before he became publicly associated with Atlantic Crest.