“You have no idea what our diagnostics showed.”
“Then show her.”
Silence.
Roy stepped back.
“Show her the first day’s log.”
Warren did not move.
Adrienne’s voice changed.
Quiet.
“Warren.”
He looked at her.
“Show me.”
“The raw log is not—”
“Show me.”
He swallowed.
“Some files are archived.”
“Eleven days ago is archived?”
No answer.
Adrienne looked toward Danny.
“Do you have it?”
Danny hesitated.
Then walked to a laptop.
He entered a password.
Opened a folder.
Warren moved quickly.
“Danny.”
Adrienne stepped between them.
“No.”
One word.
Enough.
Danny opened the original maintenance record.
Roy stayed back.
This was no longer his demonstration.
Adrienne read.
Her eyes moved line by line.
Then stopped.
The protective state had been identified the first morning.
A note beneath it:
DO NOT RESET PENDING ENGINEERING REVIEW — W.P.
Adrienne looked at Warren.
“What engineering review?”
Warren stared.
She asked again.
“What engineering review?”
None had existed.
Roy knew before Warren failed to answer.
Adrienne’s hand tightened around the little coffee cup until the lid bent.
“How much have you billed me?”
Warren exhaled.
“Adrienne—”
“How much?”
“Approximately two hundred seventy thousand.”
Someone in the crew whispered something.
Adrienne heard.
Her face changed again.
“Get off my property.”
Warren stared.
“You need our crew.”
“I have forty technicians standing here.”
“They’re my employees.”
“Not for the next ten minutes.”
Warren laughed bitterly.
“You cannot simply appropriate my workforce.”
“No.”
Adrienne looked toward the technicians.
“I’m not.”
Then toward Warren.
“I’m telling you to leave.”
He did not move.
Adrienne reached for her phone.
“I can make the next conversation involve airport security if you'd prefer.”
Warren looked at Roy.
There it was.
The hatred.
Not because Roy had insulted him.
Because Roy had become expensive again.
Fourteen years earlier, honesty had cost Roy his career.
Today it was about to cost Warren something.
Warren picked up his jacket.
“You're making a mistake.”
Adrienne looked at the running aircraft.
“I've already made one.”
He walked toward the exit.
The crew separated to let him pass.
Nobody followed.
Roy watched.
He should have felt satisfaction.
He had imagined the moment before.
Not this exact one.