Chapter 6: Seventy-Two Hours
The flight landed two hours and forty minutes later.
Vivian had not slept.
She had worked — quietly, steadily, with her laptop open and the shade drawn — while Harlan Doyle sat four rows behind her and said nothing for the rest of the flight.
Dana had brought her water once, without being asked.
She'd set it down without a word and walked away.
That was the kind of thing Vivian didn't forget.
Her attorney, Mara Castillo, was waiting at the gate.
Mara did not hug people at airports.
She handed Vivian a folder as they walked.
"How bad?" Vivian said.
"Complicated." Mara kept pace beside her.
"The Geneva firm is real.
It's called Adara Capital.
Gerald Foss is listed as a co-founder, which means he was building a competing structure while under fiduciary obligation to your company.
That's a problem for him."
"Can we use it before the board vote?"
"If we move fast enough." Mara glanced at her.
"The vote is in seventy-two hours.
We have until then to either block it procedurally or flip enough board members."
"Two are compromised.
Possibly three."
"Which three?"
"I don't have names yet.
Doyle gave me direction, not specifics."
"Where is Doyle now?"
Vivian looked back once.
Doyle had come through the gate behind them, his phone already at his ear.
He caught her eye briefly.
He didn't look away.
"Still deciding whose side he's on," Vivian said.
They moved through the terminal.
A car was waiting outside.
In the back seat, Mara opened her own file.
"Gerald filed a motion with the board chair this morning requesting an emergency session.
He's claiming operational irregularities in the fleet expansion — your expansion.
He's framing it as financial mismanagement."
"He helped design the expansion."
"I know that.
He knows that.
What matters is what the board hears first."
Vivian looked out the car window at the city moving past.
"What do we have on the complaint records?"
"Dana's document is good.
The routing trace goes directly to Foss's office.
He received the complaint, logged it internally, and marked it resolved without any investigation or response to the passenger." Mara paused.
"There are four more.
Same routing.
Same result.
All from the past two years."
"Five passengers."
"Five complaints suppressed.
We can establish a pattern of misconduct and demonstrate that Foss was protecting a captain he personally kept on the roster — a captain who, it turns out, was listed as a personal reference on Gerald's original employment application to your company."
Vivian turned from the window.
"Merrill and Foss knew each other before."
"Eleven years.
They served on the same regional carrier."
She leaned back against the seat.
"He put his own man in the cockpit," she said.
"And when I flew my own aircraft, his man told me to move to the back."
"Either Foss didn't know you'd be on that flight," Mara said, "or he did know and thought Merrill could handle it without incident."
"Doyle was sent to watch."
"Then Foss knew." Mara closed the folder.
"Vivian, this goes beyond the board vote.
What Gerald has done — the suppressed complaints, the undisclosed conflict of interest through Adara Capital, placing a personal contact in a safety-critical role — this is not just a corporate power play.
This is actionable."
The word sat in the car.
"How actionable?" Vivian said.
"Civil, certainly.
Potentially regulatory.
Possibly crjminal, depending on what the complaint suppression cost those passengers." Mara looked at her steadily.
"But only if you want to go that far."
"I want to go that far," Vivian said.
Mara nodded once.
"Then we have seventy-two hours to build it."
The car pulled up to the hotel.
Vivian stepped out and looked up at the building.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
The Geneva area code.
She answered.
A man's voice, accented and careful.
"Ms.
Hale.
My name is not important yet.
But I think you found my number tonight."
She stood very still on the pavement.
"I did," she said.
"Gerald Foss told me you would be — manageable," the man said.
"I am beginning to think he was wrong about that."
"He was," Vivian said.
A brief silence.
"I would like to meet," the man said.
"Before the vote.
There are things about Adara Capital that Gerald has not told you.
Things he has not told the board either." He paused.
"Things that would change what you decide to do next."
"Why would you tell me?" Vivian said.
"Because Gerald promised me fifty-one percent of the restructured entity," the man said quietly.
"He has since informed me the number has been revised to thirty."
A long pause.
"When?" Vivian said.
"Tomorrow morning," the man said.
"I'll send the location."
The line went dead.
Vivian stood on the pavement for a moment longer.
Mara appeared at her shoulder.
"Who was that?"
May you like
"Someone Gerald made the same mistake with that he made with me," Vivian said.
She walked through the hotel door.
