“Everything all right?”
The blonde woman answered:
“It will be once your staff handles it.”
The captain looked toward the senior attendant.
She gave him a subtle look.
He understood.
Then his eyes moved toward the Black CEO.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Then recognition appeared.
Small.
Controlled.
The CEO saw it.
The captain had recognized him.
The acquisition announcement had been public the previous evening.
Photographs existed online.
The CEO gave him the slightest shake of the head.
Not yet.
The captain understood.
“Departure in approximately ten minutes,” he announced.
The blonde woman stared.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And?”
“Your assigned seat is Three-C.”
She looked stunned.
“Apparently nobody on this aircraft understands customer service.”
The captain’s expression remained neutral.
“Safety and manifest accuracy are also part of customer service.”
He returned to the cockpit.
The woman’s face flushed.
The CEO wrote one word on the memo.
Captain: good.
She saw him writing.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking notes.”
“About me?”
“Among other things.”
Her eyes moved toward the folder.
“What company are you with?”
He closed it.
“Why?”
“I asked a simple question.”
“So did I.”
She leaned closer.
“Are you press?”
“No.”
“A consultant?”
“No.”
“Regulator?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
He looked toward her.
“A passenger.”
She laughed.
“I knew it.”
He almost asked what she believed she had proven.
Instead he drank his water.
The cabin door remained open.
The plane still had not moved.
Then the blonde woman's phone rang.
She answered immediately.
“Yes?”
The CEO could hear an angry male voice faintly from the speaker.
Her confidence returned.
She listened.
Then smiled toward the CEO.
“Perfect.”
She stood.
The senior attendant approached.
“Ma’am, please remain seated.”
“My husband is coming aboard.”
The attendant’s face changed.
“He cannot board without clearance.”
“He has clearance.”
“Ma’am—”
The woman turned toward the open cabin door.
A ground employee appeared.
Behind him stood a white American man in his late fifties wearing a navy suit and an expression of deep irritation.
The CEO recognized him instantly.
Not from personal acquaintance.
From acquisition files.
The man managed a family investment office that held just under four percent of the aviation company’s noncontrolling equity before the acquisition.
Four percent.
Not insignificant.
Not remotely what his wife had implied.
More importantly, the investment office had negotiated aggressively during the sale.