Chapter 11 - THE RECORDING
"Open the door!"
Smoke rolled along the galley floor.
Catherine pulled the arming lever.
The captain's voice hit the interphone. "Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate."
The door burst outward.
The slide inflated with a violent hiss.
Catherine pointed at Malik. "You first."
David grabbed his son's shoulders. "Cross your arms and go."
Malik looked at the smoke, then at him. "Promise you're behind me."
"I promise."
Malik dropped onto the slide and vanished.
David turned.
Mercer was still in the aisle staring at his phone.
"Move!"
Mercer looked up. "There are files on that drive that don't mean what you think."
"Explain them outside."
"If Vance goes down, he takes other people with him."
David stepped closer. "Who?"
Mercer swallowed.
A burst of sparks cracked beneath the floor.
Catherine coughed hard. "Now!"
David shoved Mercer toward the door.
He hit the slide sideways and disappeared.
David followed.
The ramp punched into his shoes at the bottom.
Malik ran into him before he was fully upright.
This time the boy shook so hard David could feel it through both coats.
"I've got you."
Fire crews dragged hoses past them.
Catherine came down coughing.
The captain and first officer followed.
Gray smoke pushed out of the open aircraft door.
Mercer was already talking to airport police.
"Johnson interfered with flight operations. He assaulted me and removed corporate property."
David stared at him.
Even with smoke pouring from the airplane, Mercer was building a story.
Lena Park ran across the ramp holding a laptop against her chest.
"The upload finished."
"All of it?"
"Enough."
Federal aviation investigators arrived less than a minute later.
Badges appeared.
Questions started.
Who had the drive?
Who altered the seat?
Who authorized pushback?
Who knew the relay was overheating?
David handed over the original device in an evidence sleeve.
Catherine stepped forward. "I have screenshots from an earlier flight. They told us not to document an electrical odor."
Mercer snapped, "Catherine."
She did not even turn.
Malik tugged David's sleeve.
"Dad."
"What?"
"My voice memo."
David looked down.
Malik pulled out his phone.
"I was recording notes before she threw my bag. I forgot it was running."
He opened a forty-seven-minute file.
The first sound was his own quiet voice.
"Dad said write down anything weird when I travel alone, so this is me trying not to forget."
A rustle.
Footsteps.
Then Catherine's voice.
"Get out of that seat. Now."
Every face around them changed.
Malik scrubbed forward.
Arguments.
The deleted order.
Mercer's voice near the galley.
Low.
Almost buried under cabin noise.
David raised the volume.
Mercer whispered, "Vance said the kid cannot stay in 2A. Get him moved before Johnson finds out."
Mercer's mouth opened.
The lead investigator pointed at him. "Do not leave this area."
Malik scrubbed farther.
Another voice surfaced.
Not Mercer.
Fainter.
A phone call picked up from several rows away before David arrived.
"Grant, listen to me. Do not touch the drive until I get there."
David stopped breathing.
Malik looked up. "That's Uncle Martin."
The recording continued.
Mercer answered, "Vance said we move now."
Martin's voice came back sharper.
"And I said not until I know what Ortega copied."
The audio ended under a burst of movement.
David's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered without taking his eyes off Martin's name on Malik's screen.
Elliot Vance laughed softly.
"You finally heard him, didn't you?"
David's jaw locked.
"Where is Martin?"
"Ask yourself why your best friend knew about the drive before you did."
May you like
The call disconnected.
