She fired you in front of everyone, Garrett said. In front of everyone. After you'd been there all night fixing a critical fault. Yeah. Garrett was quiet again.
Then what are you going to do about it? I'm sitting here, aren't I? That's not what I mean. I mean the fault, the report. Somebody needs to know that aircraft was a serious problem before you fixed it and that you fixed it alone without being asked on your own time.
Caleb wrapped both hands around his coffee cup. The reports in the system. I documented everything before I went to sleep. It's all there. And if they bury it, they won't.
Caleb said it was the first time that morning he'd sounded tired. Not physically, the other kind. It's too big to bury. If it comes out later that they had a priority 1 hydraulic fault and didn't disclose the circumstances, they've got liability problems that make a wrongful termination look like a parking ticket. They're not that stupid.
Garrett looked at him. You sure about that? Caleb thought about it honestly. Pretty sure, he said. Maybe 70%.
70% is not a number I love. I don't love it either, Caleb said. But I've got work to do and Mia's got a science project due Friday and I'm not going to spend the week I have left before the school break in a lawyer's office. Not if I don't have to. Garrett accepted this though his expression said he wasn't entirely satisfied.
He turned back to the carburetor. There's a Cessna 172 coming in Thursday that needs a full systems check. Owner thinks it might be the alternator, but I'd put money on the voltage regulator. You interested? Yeah, Caleb said, "I'm interested.