She looked surprised.
“Why good?”
“Because perception isn't reliable enough for a clean dataset.”
“We'll pull passenger records where legally appropriate.”
Nia nodded.
Then:
“But I can tell you what it looked like.”
“I know.”
She looked toward 1D.
“Mrs. Caldwell isn't the worst.”
“That isn't encouraging.”
“One actor made us move a grandmother out of 1A because he said he needed the wall for privacy.”
Adrian stared.
“When?”
“February.”
“What route?”
“New York to Miami.”
He wrote it.
“What happened to grandmother?”
“12B.”
“Did she agree?”
“No.”
“Did she complain?”
“She cried.”
Adrian stopped writing.
Nia’s eyes filled.
“She said she'd saved miles for three years because it was her seventy-fifth birthday.”
“Who approved?”
“Station supervisor.”
“Name?”
Nia told him.
Adrian wrote it.
Then closed notebook.
“That stops.”
Nia looked at him.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don't know yet.”
Her face fell slightly.
Adrian added:
“But if I tell you I have a perfect answer before investigation, I'm lying.”
She studied him.
Then smiled faintly.
“I like that better.”
“Good.”
She stood.
“Mr. Brooks?”
“Adrian.”
“Right.”
She hesitated.
“People are going to say you only cared because it happened to you.”
He looked at her.
“They might be right.”
Nia blinked.
Adrian continued:
“I cared before.”
“I opened an audit before this flight.”
“But caring before isn't same as understanding.”
“I understand differently now.”
Nia nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Again.
He almost laughed.
The flight landed in Los Angeles twenty minutes late.
Phones reconnected before the aircraft reached the gate.
The internet had already moved faster than the plane.
Three passenger videos were online.
One showed Vivian throwing his boarding pass.
Another showed coffee across his hoodie.
The third captured Captain Whitaker’s:
“Chairman Brooks?”
Millions of views were coming.
Adrian's phone exploded.
Seventy-three messages.
Six missed calls from board members.
Nine from public relations.
Four from Mason Caldwell.
One from his mother.
He opened hers first.
CALL ME BEFORE YOU CALL ANY BILLIONAIRES.
He smiled.
Vivian stood in 1D waiting.
Her phone rang.
She looked at screen.
Closed her eyes.
“Mason.”
Adrian heard.
She answered.
“Hi.”
Whatever he said made her pull phone away.
“Stop yelling.”
Passengers pretended not to listen.
She looked toward Adrian.
“No, I didn't know.”
Pause.
“I said I didn't know.”