Chapter 8 - The Corporate Reckoning
Twenty-four hours later, the boardroom on the thirty-fourth floor of the AsterJet tower in Chicago was packed to absolute capacity.
Instead of comfortable executives discussing quarterly profit margins, the room was occupied by federal marshals, investigators from the Department of Transportation, and a battery of independent media journalists who had somehow caught wind of the unfolding aviation scandal.
Marcus Vance sat at the head of the mahogany table, looking pale and thoroughly defeated. His expensive designer suit felt suddenly too tight.
The heavy boardroom doors swung open, and David Carter walked in, flanked by FAA Director Arthur Vance and a team of federal prosecutors. Leo was safely recovering at the Pacific Neurological Institute in San Francisco, having received his vital VTX-7 dose right on schedule following their emergency landing.
“Marcus Vance,” the lead federal prosecutor announced loudly, stepping forward with a crisp manila folder. “You are being formally charged with obstruction of a federal aviation investigation, falsification of corporate flight manifests, and reckless endangerment of a passenger medical transport.”
Marcus stood up, his voice shaking with panic. “This is an overreach! An overreach by a rogue employee! Susan Reynolds acted entirely on her own accord without corporate knowledge!”
“Really?” Arthur Vance asked coldly, walking over to the main projection screen at the front of the room. He tapped his tablet, casting the immutable server logs and encrypted audio recordings directly onto the massive display for everyone in the room—including the journalists—to see.
The room echoed with the unmistakable sound of Marcus’s own voice from a recorded phone call to the IT department the previous afternoon: “Scrub her name from the active crew roster... Make it look like she was just a dead-heading passenger...”
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The journalists' cameras flashed furiously in the dim light of the boardroom. The corporate shield AsterJet had spent decades building was shattering into a million irretrievable pieces before the eyes of the entire nation.
“Your attempt to erase the trail didn't just fail, Marcus,” Arthur Vance said quietly. “It preserved the evidence permanently.”
