Chapter 11 - THE MAN BEHIND IT
“Open the door!”
Catherine pulled the arming lever.
The alarm kept screaming.
Smoke thickened along the galley floor.
“Door armed!” she shouted.
The captain’s voice came over the interphone.
“Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate.”
Catherine threw the handle up.
The door burst outward.
The slide exploded into place with a violent hiss.
“Malik first.”
David grabbed his son by both shoulders.
“You go when she tells you.”
Malik looked at the smoke.
“What about you?”
“I’m right behind you.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
Catherine dropped into position beside the door.
“Sit. Cross your arms. Go!”
Malik hit the slide and disappeared.
David turned back.
Mercer had not moved.
He stood in the aisle staring at his phone.
“Move!” David shouted.
Mercer looked up.
“There are files on that drive that don’t mean what you think they mean.”
“Great. Explain them on the ground.”
“I can’t.”
Smoke rolled higher.
Catherine coughed.
“Both of you, now!”
Mercer stepped toward David.
“If Vance goes down, he takes people with him.”
David grabbed his arm.
“Good.”
“You don’t understand.”
A burst of sparks flashed beneath the galley panel.
Mercer flinched.
David shoved him toward the slide.
“Get off the plane.”
Mercer went down hard, hit the slide sideways, and vanished.
David followed.
The ramp slammed up beneath his shoes as he landed.
Fire crews were already moving in.
A firefighter pulled Malik behind a truck.
David ran to him.
Malik threw both arms around his waist.
For the first time all morning, the boy shook.
David held the back of his head.
“I’ve got you.”
Catherine came off the slide coughing.
The captain and first officer followed seconds later.
Behind them, gray smoke pushed from the open door.
A firefighter yelled for everyone to clear the aircraft.
Mercer stood ten yards away with two airport police officers.
He was already talking.
“David Johnson interfered with flight operations. He took control of corporate property and assaulted me.”
David stared at him.
Even now.
Lena Park came running across the ramp.
“David!”
She stopped when she saw the smoke.
“What happened?”
“Relay overheated. Cooling failed.”
Her face tightened.
“The upload finished before corporate security got into the room.”
“Where is it?”
“Encrypted cloud vault. Separate account.”
David nodded once.
Then federal aviation investigators arrived.
Three of them.
Badges out.
Questions started immediately.
Who had the drive?
Who altered the seat assignment?
Who authorized pushback?
Who had access to maintenance records?
Mercer tried to speak first.
The lead investigator cut him off.
“You’ll get your turn.”
David handed over the black drive in an evidence sleeve Lena had found.
The investigator studied the Johnson Aerotech marking.
“This belongs to your company?”
“It was manufactured by my company. I don’t know who put these files on it.”
“We’ll determine that.”
Catherine stepped forward.
“I have screenshots.”
Mercer looked at her.
“Catherine.”
She ignored him.
“I have an instruction from two weeks ago telling cabin crew to falsify an electrical odor report.”
The investigator turned toward her.
“Show me.”
Her hands were still shaking as she unlocked the phone.
David looked at Malik.
His son had gone quiet again.
Too quiet.
“What?” David asked.
Malik reached into his backpack.
“My voice memo.”
“What voice memo?”
“I was making one before she threw my bag.”
Catherine winced.
Malik opened the recording app.
A file showed forty-seven minutes of audio.
“I forgot it was running.”
David crouched beside him.
“Play the beginning.”
Malik pressed the screen.
His own voice came through first, soft and embarrassed.
“Dad said I should 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.”
Everyone around them went still.
The recording captured the entire confrontation.
Malik scrubbed forward.
More voices.
Mercer.
The airport manager.
Lena.
Then, faintly, before David had opened the floor panel, Mercer spoke to someone near the galley.
The volume was low.
David raised it.
Mercer’s recorded whisper became clear.
“Vance said the kid cannot stay in 2A. Get him moved before Johnson finds out.”
Mercer’s face collapsed.
The investigator looked up.
“Mr. Mercer, do not leave this area.”
Mercer opened his mouth.
David’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Elliot Vance laughed softly.
“You still think this was about protecting Mesa?”
David looked toward the smoking aircraft.
“What was it about?”
“Ask yourself who benefits when Johnson Aerotech takes the blame.”
May you like
The call disconnected.
