A Single Dad Used an Old Pilot Call Sign—The CEO Suddenly Realized Who He Really Was
Chapter 2
Marcus didn’t answer immediately.
The conference room felt strangely cold.
Elizabeth stood beside the table, staring at him.
“Where did you hear that call sign?” Marcus asked.
Her eyes narrowed.
“My father used it.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“Your father?”
“Thomas Harper.”
Marcus knew the name.
Everyone in specialized aviation knew it.
Thomas Harper had been a legendary test pilot.
He had disappeared eleven years earlier during an experimental flight over the Pacific.
The official report said the aircraft suffered catastrophic systems failure.
No wreckage had ever been recovered.
Marcus had never publicly discussed that flight.
Because he had been there.
Not in the cockpit.
In another aircraft.
His call sign had been Ghost Six.
Thomas Harper had been Ghost One.
Marcus looked at Elizabeth.
“I knew your father.”
Elizabeth walked slowly toward him.
“How?”
Marcus looked at the floor.
“He was my commanding officer.”
Silence.
“You worked with him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Elizabeth stared at him.
“My father disappeared eleven years ago.”
“I know.”
“Do you know what happened?”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“I know what I saw.”
“What did you see?”
Marcus looked toward the windows.
Rain streaked the glass.
“Your father didn’t die when the aircraft disappeared.”
Elizabeth stopped breathing for a moment.
“What?”
Marcus continued.
“The aircraft malfunctioned. We lost contact. I was ordered to escort him.”
“You were his wingman?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“The storm separated us.”
Elizabeth’s voice became urgent.
“And then?”
“I heard his final transmission.”
“What did he say?”
Marcus remembered the radio.
Static.
Wind.
A broken signal.
Then Thomas Harper’s voice.
Calm.
Almost unnaturally calm.
Marcus opened his eyes.
“He told me to break away.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“You expect me to believe my father survived?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Marcus looked at her.
“I’m saying the official story was incomplete.”
Elizabeth sat down.
For years, she had believed her father was dead.
She had built AeroVantage partly because of him.
She had spent millions researching aviation safety.
She had personally funded searches.
She had questioned every detail of the accident.
And now a man sitting across from her was telling her that the last official report didn’t tell the whole story.
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
Marcus looked at his hands.
“Because I tried.”
Elizabeth looked up.
“What happened?”
“The investigation blamed pilot error.”
“Your testimony?”
“Rejected.”
“Why?”
“They said I was emotionally compromised.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“I had just watched my friend disappear.”
Elizabeth stared at him.
“Where is the evidence?”
“I don’t have it.”
“Then why should I believe you?”
Marcus reached into his jacket.
He pulled out an old photograph.
It showed two aircraft flying side by side.
On the back were handwritten words.
Ghost Six — stay with me.
Elizabeth took it.
Her hands trembled.
She recognized her father’s handwriting.
“Where did you get this?”
“He gave it to me before the flight.”
Elizabeth looked at the photograph.
Then she noticed something else.
A small symbol had been drawn beneath the writing.
A circle with three lines.
She knew that symbol.
Her father had used it as a private marker.
Marcus watched her expression.
“What does it mean?”
Elizabeth looked up.
“It means he didn’t trust the people around him.”
Marcus frowned.
“Who?”
“My father never told me.”
Elizabeth stood.
“Mr. Reed…”
“Marcus.”
She nodded.
“Marcus.”
She held the photograph tightly.
“If you’re telling the truth, then someone lied to my family for eleven years.”
Marcus said nothing.
Elizabeth looked toward the conference room door.
“And if someone lied about my father…”
She turned back.
“They may still be inside my company.”
Marcus felt a familiar instinct return.
The instinct that had kept him alive in the cockpit.
Observe.
Listen.
Question everything.
He looked at Elizabeth.
“Then you shouldn’t investigate alone.”
