Chapter 2 - Five Minutes to Evacuation
Passengers poured from Flight 217 carrying purses, backpacks and confused expressions.
"What happened?"
"Is there a fire?"
"Are we changing planes?"
Nobody answered them.
Ethan pulled Emma close as the first-class passengers emerged.
Vanessa came out furious.
"This is unacceptable."
Marcus ignored her.
The captain, Daniel Reeves, approached Ethan.
"We have a manifest integrity failure."
"How serious?"
"We don't know yet."
Robert interrupted.
"It's a clerical problem."
Captain Reeves turned sharply.
"A verified passenger count isn't clerical."
Robert stopped speaking.
Emma tugged Ethan's sleeve.
"Dad, what's a manifest?"
"The list that tells the crew who's on the airplane."
"Why does it matter?"
"Because if the list is wrong, people responsible for keeping everyone safe can't trust it."
Vanessa overheard.
"Oh, please. Nobody is in danger because somebody changed a seat."
Ethan looked at her.
"If it were only a seat, we'd still be boarding."
Vanessa's confidence flickered.
Airport security closed the gate.
Noah Mitchell emerged last.
He looked terrified.
Marcus noticed.
"Noah?"
Noah glanced at Claire.
Claire shook her head almost imperceptibly.
Ethan saw it.
So did Noah.
"I need to show you something," Noah said.
Claire stepped forward.
"Noah, anything involving internal airline systems should go through me."
"No," Marcus said. "It should go through me."
Noah unlocked his phone.
"When the seating tablet froze earlier, I photographed the original chart because I needed the meal assignments."
He displayed the picture.
Ethan Walker — 1A.
Emma Walker — 1B.
Vanessa Sinclair — 3D.
Marcus zoomed in.
"Timestamp?"
"6:41 a.m."
"Before boarding."
"Yes."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"My assistant changed my seat."
"No," Noah said.
Everyone looked at him.
He swallowed.
"Your seat was still 3D when you boarded."
Vanessa's face changed.
Claire stared at Noah.
"Noah."
He stepped away from her.
"I saw it."
Marcus asked, "What happened next?"
Noah hesitated.
Claire whispered, "Be careful."
Ethan looked at him.
"Noah, tell the truth. Nothing more."
Noah nodded.
"Ms. Sinclair said she wanted 1A. Claire checked Mr. Walker's pass. She knew it belonged to him."
Claire's eyes filled with anger.
"I was managing a difficult boarding situation."
"You changed the record," Noah said.
"After he left voluntarily."
"I didn't leave voluntarily," Ethan replied.
Claire looked at him.
"I told you there was another seat."
"And Robert threatened security."
Robert stepped forward.
"That's an outrageous characterization."
Emma spoke before Ethan could.
"You said security would come if Daddy didn't listen."
Every adult fell silent.
Robert stared at her.
Emma immediately moved closer to Ethan.
He rested his hand on her shoulder.
Marcus looked at Robert.
"Did you threaten removal?"
"I explained airline policy."
"Did you review his original reservation?"
Robert said nothing.
Marcus's phone rang.
He answered.
As he listened, his expression hardened.
"When?"
A pause.
"Don't touch anything."
He ended the call.
"Security found another problem."
Captain Reeves frowned.
"What?"
"The boarding scanner registered 164 passengers."
"That's correct."
"The locked manifest currently shows 163."
Silence.
Captain Reeves looked toward the aircraft.
"Who disappeared?"
"That's what we're finding out."
Vanessa's anger faded.
"You're saying someone boarded without being on the manifest?"
"Or someone was removed digitally after boarding," Marcus said.
Those were very different possibilities.
Both were serious.
Emma sat near the window while Ethan joined Marcus at a counter.
A systems technician remotely restored the audit trail.
The first unauthorized edit was Ethan's seat.
The second was Emma's passenger association.
Originally, her reservation was linked to Ethan's as a minor traveling with a parent.
After the edit, that link vanished.
"Why?" Marcus asked.
Ethan stared at the screen.
"To make separating us look permissible."
The third change concerned a passenger in 22C.
The name remained.
The boarding status did not.
The fourth change involved the total passenger count.
Captain Reeves swore under his breath.
"Who was in 22C?"
Marcus pulled the original list.
"Margaret Ellis."
A woman several chairs away looked up.
"That's me."
Everyone turned.
Margaret Ellis was in her sixties.
She raised her boarding pass.
"I was in 22C."
Marcus approached her.
"Ma'am, did anyone ask you to change seats?"
"No."
"Did anyone alter your ticket?"
"Not that I know."
"Did you board normally?"
"Yes."
Marcus checked her pass.
Valid.
So why had the system removed her boarding status?
The answer came from the technician.
"The edits were all made using supervisor credentials."
Robert's face went white.
Marcus turned slowly.
"Whose?"
Nobody moved.
"Robert Kane's."
Robert shook his head.
"No."
Marcus showed him.
Robert Kane — Terminal G14.
Four edits.
6:58.
7:02.
7:04.
7:07.
Robert stared.
"I didn't make the last two."
"You made the first?"
Robert realized the trap too late.
Claire closed her eyes.
Marcus said, "Answer me."
Robert looked toward Vanessa.
It lasted less than a second.
But Ethan saw it.
"So you did change my record," Ethan said.
Robert's shoulders sagged.
"I was trying to resolve the conflict."
"By falsifying consent?"
"It happens."
Marcus's voice turned cold.
"What did you just say?"
Robert realized he had made another mistake.
"I mean accommodations happen."
"That's not what you said."
Vanessa stepped in.
"This interrogation is absurd."
Marcus turned toward her.
"Ms. Sinclair, please sit down."
Her eyes widened.
"Excuse me?"
"Sit down."
For the first time that morning, Vanessa obeyed.
Ethan went back to Emma.
She was drawing again.
"What are you making?"
"The man."
"What man?"
"The one who was behind the desk."
Ethan looked.
Emma had sketched Robert at the gate counter.
But someone else appeared behind him.
A man wearing an airport maintenance jacket.
His hand was near Robert's computer.
"When did you see him?"
"When you were talking to that other man."
"Marcus?"
She nodded.
"Did he touch the computer?"
"I think so."
Ethan felt something cold move through him.
"Emma, why did you draw him?"
"Because he was watching us."
Ethan took the sketchbook to Marcus.
Noah saw it.
His face changed.
"You know him?" Ethan asked.
Noah stared at the drawing.
"I saw that jacket inside the jet bridge."
"Who was wearing it?"
"I don't know. He had his back to me."
Marcus immediately called airport security.
Within minutes they were checking cameras.
Robert sat apart from everyone, no longer speaking.
Claire stared at the floor.
Vanessa was making furious calls to her assistant.
The first camera showed Robert editing Ethan's record.
The second showed Claire returning to the aircraft.
The third covered the gate counter.
Marcus leaned toward the screen.
"There."
A maintenance worker entered frame.
Exactly as Emma had drawn him.
He stood behind Robert.
Then Robert walked away.
The man remained.
He touched the terminal.
Eleven seconds later, Margaret Ellis's boarding status disappeared.
The passenger count changed.
Captain Reeves stared at Robert.
"Who is that?"
Robert shook his head.
"I don't know."
Security enlarged the image.
The man's face remained hidden beneath a cap.
Then he turned.
For one frame, the camera captured him.
Noah gasped.
Marcus froze the picture.
Robert whispered, "That can't be him."
Ethan looked at him.
"You know him."
Robert didn't answer.
Marcus enlarged the man's employee badge.
The photograph was blurry.
The name wasn't.
May you like
Robert stood so abruptly his chair fell backward.
Because the badge belonged to an Aurelia Atlantic employee who had died eleven months earlier...
