“You asked questions that had nothing to do with the seat.”
“You tried to move me.”
Maya’s eyes glistened.
“And through all of it, I was holding my daughter.”
Jessica’s face tightened.
“You don’t know what my job is like.”
Maya nodded.
“No.”
“I don’t.”
Then she looked at the captain.
“That is why there should be an investigation instead of a public execution.”
Jessica stared at her.
Maya added:
“I am not asking you to fire her.”
Captain Bennett blinked.
Jessica looked almost offended by that too.
Maya continued.
“I am asking you to preserve the facts.”
The captain nodded.
“Yes.”
“All crew reports.”
“Yes.”
“Passenger manifest records.”
“Yes.”
“Any service logs.”
“Yes.”
“Gate and cabin incident reports.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody edits anything because this is suddenly embarrassing.”
The captain understood exactly what she meant.
“I’ll make sure.”
Maya picked up her phone.
“Good.”
Then she answered Anderson’s thirteenth call.
“Richard.”
His voice came through so loudly she moved the phone away from her ear.
“Maya, where the hell have you been?”
“On the aircraft.”
“We’ve been trying to reach you for twenty-six minutes.”
“I noticed.”
“Can you speak privately?”
Maya looked around the cabin.
Forty people were pretending not to listen.
“No.”
Anderson paused.
“Are you all right?”
Maya looked at her gown.
Then at Amara.
“Yes.”
“That hesitation did not sound like yes.”
“There has been an incident.”
“What kind?”
Maya looked toward Captain Bennett.
He looked ill.
“Passenger-service issue.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain after the vote.”
Anderson exhaled.
“Fine.”
Then his tone changed.
“The audit committee finished reviewing the internal complaint suppression report.”
Maya straightened.
“And?”
“Worse than we thought.”
The captain heard.