CHAPTER 6
Martin Vance lowered his dispatch radio from his ear. His knuckles were gray from gripping the plastic casing. "Tower confirms the executive stop-order, Ms. Cole. The tug has been disconnected from the nose gear, and ground control has tagged the tail number for apron containment. Nobody moves off this ramp until the Port Authority duty captain arrives from Building Fourteen."
Beside him, Melanie Harper let her arms drop to her sides. The handheld crew device slipped from her fingers, clattering against the metal edge of the beverage cart before catching by its nylon wrist lanyard. Her cheeks had turned a blotchy, mottled crimson.
"I have two small children in Islip," Melanie said, her voice dropping into a breathless, broken pitch that lacked any trace of the cold authority she had used fifteen minutes ago. "I took this shift on double overtime because Mr. Reeves told the base scheduler that anyone on this crew would have priority bidding for international rotations next month. He handed me the flight voucher at the crew desk himself. He said 1A was an audit courier block. He told me the system had defaulted to a standby name by mistake."
"You logged into terminal four with supervisor credentials, Ms. Harper," I said, holding her gaze. "You didn't just read an assignment. You actively erased my name from the seat manifest three separate times, and when that failed to clear the aisle, you stood five inches from my face and told me people like me didn't belong in first class."
"I was under orders," she whispered.
"You were under temptation," I answered. "There is a difference, and you know it."
Lawson stepped between Melanie and the boarding portal, his flight jacket unzipped to reveal the gold wings pinned above his pocket. His gaze did not lift from the deck plating. "The pre-flight packet had three irregularities I should have red-flagged before engine start, Ms. Cole. The maintenance log showed a deferral on the right-hand thrust reverser that hadn't been signed off by the lead mechanic in Queens. Daniel told me the paperwork was in transit inside that red folder. He asked me to sign the dispatch release on his verbal assurance so we wouldn't miss our departure slot."
The lead officer, whose badge identified him as Sergeant Kowalski, looked from Lawson to Daniel. He unsnapped a leather document pouch from his utility belt. "Mr. Reeves, do you have personal identification and company credentials showing custody authorization for these records?"
"I am the Chief Operating Officer of Sterling Airways," Daniel said, his voice sharpening with frantic defiance. "I am an officer of the corporation. I do not need a ramp pass to carry internal engineering documentation between corporate offices. Those papers belong to Sterling Holdings, not to Vanessa Cole as an individual. If she removes them from this aircraft, she is converting corporate property."
"Let's see what is inside them," I said.
I stepped to the galley counter, laying the crimson binder flat against the stainless steel prep surface beside the silver coffee pots. With two fingers, I peeled back the heavy cardstock divider marked Queens Maintenance Depot – Turbine Inspection Logs, Quarter Three.
The paper smelled of machine oil and damp cellar storage. Beneath the typed flight hours were sixteen yellow carbon sheets—the original non-destructive testing reports for our fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft. Across each inspection box, the signature line for the FAA-certified nondestructive testing specialist was blank. Over each blank, a red rubber stamp had been applied: DEFERRED PER REGIONAL DIRECTOR EXEMPTION.
Beside the red stamp on all sixteen sheets was Daniel Reeves’s personal signature, rendered in dark green fountain ink.
Sergeant Kowalski leaned over my shoulder, his eyes following the green lines. "What does that stamp mean, ma'am?"
"It means thirty-two engines carrying passengers between New York, Chicago, and Atlanta have skipped their ultrasonic blade testing for four straight months," I said. "It means when our lead inspector in Queens refused to falsify the airworthiness certificates, his terminal access was revoked and his reports were scrubbed from the digital server."
CHAPTER 7