CHAPTER 9: The Cabin Internet Goes Quiet

Ryan's phone began to vibrate almost immediately.
First came the bank. Then the interim CFO. Then the chairman who had ignored Claire's emails for six months and now seemed desperate to find language polite enough for fear.
The cabin internet blinked twice and slowed as if the jet itself were tired of carrying lies.
Brooke watched the phone light up over and over. Each name was a door closing. Each call was a version of the future she had already spent in her mind.
Ryan did not answer at first. Men who built reputations on control hated being seen as reachable when control was gone.
Then a text appeared from Northbridge Risk.
Emergency review initiated. Do not execute landing authorization.
Claire saw the message reflected faintly in the window.
She felt no triumph. Not yet. Only the strange exhaustion of watching the truth do, in seconds, what patience had failed to do for years.
Ryan finally sat down, but he did not look less dangerous. He looked cornered.