A Single Dad Used an Old Pilot Call Sign—The CEO Suddenly Realized Who He Really Was
Chapter 4
Richard Sloan refused to say more until they were inside his study.
He locked the door.
Then he opened a safe hidden behind a bookshelf.
Inside was a small metal case.
Elizabeth watched him remove it.
“My father knew this existed?”
“He created it.”
Sloan placed the case on the table.
Marcus noticed the lock.
“Biometric?”
Sloan nodded.
“Thomas’s.”
Elizabeth frowned.
“Then how do you open it?”
Sloan looked at her.
“Your father trusted me.”
He entered a code.
The case opened.
Inside were three storage drives.
One was labeled with a date.
The second carried the same symbol Marcus had seen on the photograph.
The third had no label.
Elizabeth stared.
“What is this?”
Sloan answered quietly.
“The original navigation architecture.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed.
“From the prototype?”
“Before the prototype.”
Elizabeth looked confused.
Sloan continued.
“Thomas discovered that the navigation system wasn’t simply predicting aircraft movement.”
“What was it doing?”
“Predicting human behavior.”
Silence.
Marcus leaned forward.
“Explain.”
“The system was designed to analyze pilot decisions, weather, aircraft performance, and external signals. It could predict what a pilot would do before the pilot did it.”
Elizabeth’s expression changed.
“That sounds impossible.”
“It was experimental.”
“And dangerous.”
“Very.”
Marcus stared at the drive.
“Who funded it?”
Sloan hesitated.
“Private investors.”
“Names.”
Sloan shook his head.
“Thomas wouldn’t tell me.”
Elizabeth stepped forward.
“You’re lying.”
Sloan looked at her.
“Your father discovered something.”
“What?”
“Someone had modified the system.”
Marcus felt a chill.
“To manipulate pilots?”
Sloan nodded.
“They weren’t trying to predict behavior.”
“They were trying to control it.”
Elizabeth stared at him.
“And the crash?”
Sloan closed his eyes.
“Thomas found out.”
Marcus remembered the final transmission.
Break away.
Stay clear.
Don’t follow.
He had always wondered why Thomas had ordered him away.
Now he understood.
Thomas knew the aircraft was compromised.
He had been trying to protect Marcus.
Elizabeth picked up the drive.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
Sloan looked at her.
“People who could destroy your father.”
Elizabeth’s jaw tightened.
“They already did.”
Sloan shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Your father survived.”
Elizabeth’s breath caught.
“What?”
Sloan pointed to the third drive.
“Thomas sent me a message three months after the accident.”
Marcus stared.
“You said he disappeared.”
“He did.”
“But he was alive.”
“At least then.”
Elizabeth grabbed the drive.
“What’s on it?”
Sloan looked toward the locked door.
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That someone inside the company arranged the accident.”
Marcus and Elizabeth exchanged a glance.
“Who?”
Sloan whispered a name.
“Arthur Vale.”
Elizabeth knew him.
He was AeroVantage’s current chairman.
The man who had mentored her father.
The man who had helped her take control of the company after Thomas disappeared.
The man who had spent eleven years telling her that her father died because of an unavoidable systems failure.
Marcus felt his stomach tighten.
Elizabeth stepped away from the table.
“No.”
Sloan looked at her.
“You need to understand.”
She shook her head.
“He raised me.”
“That doesn’t mean he protected you.”
Elizabeth looked at the drive.
For eleven years, she had trusted Arthur Vale.
Now she had to consider the possibility that the person she trusted most had been involved in her father’s disappearance.
Marcus placed a hand on the table.
“We need to move carefully.”
Elizabeth looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because if Sloan is right…”
Marcus glanced toward the window.
“…someone has been waiting eleven years for this evidence to disappear.”
