Chapter 14 - THE HANGAR
David stopped.
Malik kept his eyes on him.
Not Martin.
"Let him go."
Martin shook his head. "Give me the archive token."
"You kidnapped my son for a deletion key."
"I didn't kidnap him."
Malik's mouth tightened. "You lied to me."
Martin flinched.
That landed harder than David's accusation.
"Malik, I was trying to keep you out of this."
"You told me my dad was hurt."
"Because you wouldn't have come otherwise."
"That's called kidnapping," Malik said.
For one second, David almost smiled.
Martin's grip tightened on the wrench.
"Token. Now."
David pulled the small hardware key from inside his jacket.
Martin stared at it.
"Put it on the floor and slide it over."
David held it between two fingers. "What happens after you erase the archive?"
"Vance loses leverage."
"No. Investigators lose evidence."
"You don't understand the exposure."
"My son was on a smoking airplane. I understand exposure."
Martin's jaw jumped.
"I never meant for 227 to fly hot. The Altair units were supposed to be temporary. Vance promised a replacement schedule."
"And when the heat reports started?"
"He said the sensors were overreading."
"When engineers warned about cached safe values?"
Martin looked away.
"You rewrote the warnings."
"I softened them."
"You deleted the word fire."
"Because one word can ground a fleet."
"Maybe the fleet needed grounding."
Martin's voice broke. "Do you know what that would have done to us? Meridian was forty percent of our revenue. Banks were already nervous. You were about to announce the new plant. Hundreds of jobs."
David took one step.
The wrench rose.
"Stop."
David stopped.
"You could have told me."
"And you would have burned the contract to the ground."
"Yes."
Martin laughed once, almost crying. "Exactly. You got to be clean because I was always the one standing in the dirt."
David looked at Malik.
The boy's left hand had slipped into his pocket.
Martin did not notice.
"You were my brother," David said.
Martin's face twisted.
"I still am."
"My brother doesn't use my child as leverage."
Martin looked at Malik. "I wasn't going to hurt him."
Malik pulled his phone halfway from his pocket.
The emergency-call screen glowed.
David kept Martin talking.
"Then put the wrench down."
"Give me the token."
"Put it down first."
"David."
"Martin."
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Martin heard them.
His face changed.
He looked at Malik's pocket.
The glow reflected off the metal cabinet.
"What did you do?"
Malik yanked out the phone.
"I called my dad."
Martin lunged.
Malik twisted away.
David threw the archive token across the hangar in the opposite direction.
Martin's eyes followed it for one fatal second.
David hit him at the waist.
They crashed into the tool cabinet.
Drawers burst open.
Sockets and wrenches scattered across concrete.
Martin swung the steel wrench.
It passed inches from David's head.
Malik ran toward the door.
Martin grabbed the back of his sweater.
David caught Martin's wrist with both hands.
The wrench clanged to the floor.
The hangar doors exploded open with white light.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"
Martin froze.
Malik tore free.
Then a second figure moved behind the agents.
Grant Mercer.
No handcuffs.
May you like
Holding a gun.
