“Did he hurt someone?”
Noelle looked toward her.
For a moment, she saw Nina Calder's face.
The injured wrist.
The letters.
The effort it took for the young attendant to explain what happened without believing her career would be destroyed.
Noelle took a breath.
“A member of our crew was injured during an incident involving him.”
Claire's eyes widened.
She looked toward the floor.
Then whispered.
“I heard the story.”
Noelle nodded.
“I know.”
The attendant hesitated.
Then asked.
“Did the company help her?”
The question struck harder than Noelle expected.
She wanted to answer yes.
The company had paid for appropriate support.
Investigated the incident.
And prohibited Gavin from future flights.
But Nina's new report suggested there had been pressure from senior management afterward.
The story wasn't finished.
Noelle looked directly at Claire.
“We did some things correctly. And I'm investigating whether we failed her in other ways.”
For a moment, the attendant stared.
Then nodded.
“Thank you.”
Noelle smiled faintly.
“Please tell Captain Mercer I'd like to speak with him after we land. Not before. He has a flight to operate.”
Claire nodded.
“Of course.”
She returned to the galley.
Noelle looked toward the window.
The aircraft rose above New York.
The city became a vast pattern of buildings, roads, and water.
For a few minutes, she allowed herself to watch the landscape disappear beneath the clouds.
Then she opened her laptop.
The first report from the internal security team had arrived.
She read the heading.
UNAUTHORIZED EXECUTIVE OVERRIDE — FLIGHT 907.
The approval entry had been created through an administrative account assigned to commercial operations.
It included a document purporting to contain Noelle's authorization.
The document used the company's letterhead.
Her title.
And a digital reproduction of her signature.
Noelle stared at the final page.
She had never signed it.
She had never requested it.
And she had never given Adrian Pike authority to use her name to remove Gavin Royce from the restricted-passenger list.
For a moment, her stomach tightened.
Then she examined the date.
The authorization was timestamped the previous evening.
At 9:17 p.m.
Noelle remembered exactly where she had been.
She had been at her mother's house in Atlanta, visiting Lorraine before taking an early flight to New York.
She had spent that evening helping her mother prepare dinner.
Her phone had remained on the kitchen counter for most of the visit.
She had not accessed the commercial booking platform.
She had not signed any document.