A Single Dad Used an Old Pilot Call Sign—The CEO Suddenly Realized Who He Really Was
Chapter 3
Elizabeth canceled every meeting on her calendar.
For the first time since becoming CEO, she locked the executive conference room and told her assistant not to disturb them.
Marcus spent the next three hours explaining everything he remembered.
The flight had begun as a routine systems test.
Thomas Harper had been evaluating a prototype navigation system.
Marcus had been flying the support aircraft.
Two other pilots were part of the formation.
The weather changed unexpectedly.
A storm developed faster than predicted.
Then the navigation system began producing impossible readings.
“Your father’s aircraft showed a position nearly forty miles east of where we knew it was,” Marcus explained.
Elizabeth listened carefully.
“Could the system have been hacked?”
“At the time, we thought it was a software error.”
“But now?”
Marcus looked at her.
“Now I think someone wanted us to believe it was.”
Elizabeth stared at the photograph.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus pulled out a notebook.
“I’ve spent eleven years trying to answer that question.”
“You kept notes?”
“Everything I remembered.”
He opened it.
Coordinates.
Weather patterns.
Radio frequencies.
Names.
Aircraft numbers.
Elizabeth studied the pages.
“Why did you leave aviation?”
Marcus looked down.
“My wife died.”
Elizabeth’s expression softened.
“After the accident?”
“Two years later.”
“Was it related?”
“No.”
Marcus closed the notebook.
“I had Noah.”
Elizabeth understood.
“You chose your son.”
“Yes.”
There was something about the simplicity of his answer that stayed with her.
He hadn’t abandoned aviation because he was afraid.
He had left because someone needed him more.
That afternoon, Elizabeth gave Marcus temporary access to the company’s restricted archives.
They began with the original accident records.
Most were incomplete.
Several files were missing.
One folder contained only a scanned report.
Another had corrupted data.
Marcus frowned.
“Someone cleaned this.”
Elizabeth looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“The metadata.”
She leaned closer.
“What about it?”
“The file was modified years after the investigation.”
Elizabeth’s face hardened.
“By whom?”
Marcus zoomed in.
A username appeared.
THARPER_ADMIN.
Elizabeth froze.
“My father?”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Your father disappeared before this file was modified.”
They traced the account.
It belonged to a former AeroVantage executive named Richard Sloan.
Elizabeth recognized the name immediately.
“He was my father’s business partner.”
“Where is he now?”
“Retired.”
“Where?”
Elizabeth searched.
“North Carolina.”
Marcus closed the file.
“We need to talk to him.”
They flew out the next morning.
Richard Sloan lived in a quiet coastal town.
He was seventy-one.
When Elizabeth introduced Marcus, Sloan’s face changed.
“You.”
Marcus stared at him.
“You remember me?”
Sloan smiled nervously.
“Ghost Six.”
Elizabeth stepped forward.
“What happened to my father?”
Sloan looked at her.
“Your father made enemies.”
“Who?”
Sloan said nothing.
Marcus moved closer.
“Thomas told me to break away that night.”
Sloan’s expression tightened.
“Because he knew someone was watching.”
Elizabeth’s heart raced.
“Watching what?”
“The project.”
“What project?”
Sloan looked toward the window.
“The one your company was built on.”
Marcus exchanged a glance with Elizabeth.
Sloan finally spoke.
“Your father’s aircraft wasn’t the target.”
Elizabeth frowned.
“What was?”
Sloan looked directly at her.
“The data.”
Marcus understood immediately.
The aircraft wasn’t valuable.
The technology onboard was.
Thomas Harper had been carrying something someone desperately wanted.
And eleven years later, that same technology was sitting inside AeroVantage’s newest aircraft system.
