What I can tell you is that what we're building has the potential to result in significant enforcement action against Callaway Regional up to and including suspension of operating certificates. And I can tell you that the people who helped us get there, their cooperation is on record. Their cooperation is on record, Marcus repeated slowly. That's a careful way to say what you're saying. Yes, Whitfield said it is.
In the back seat, Diane shifted slightly and Marcus heard the soft sound of her adjusting her position. She still had no idea the movie was playing. The world outside the truck was the same Georgia night it had been 60 seconds ago. And only Marcus knew that something had just tilted on its axis. Give me your number, Marcus said.
I'll call you Monday morning. Of course, Mr. Reed, one more thing. Yeah, the anonymous tip that started this investigation. We don't know who it was officially.
A pause that was almost too precise. Unofficially, I want you to know that whoever it was, they had access to information that could only have come from someone very close to the maintenance operation. Someone who wasn't a pilot. Marcus felt his jaw tighten. I'll call you Monday, he said, and ended the call.
He sat there with the phone in his hand and the movie playing in front of him and and Georgia all around him and everything he thought he understood about the last 6 months rearranging itself in his head. Merure being moved in a dark room. Then Diane's voice came from the back seat quiet and unhurried. You okay up there? Marcus turned around.
She was looking at him with that directness she had. No performance in it, no drama, just a woman paying attention. Who called? She asked. He looked at her for a long moment.
The FAA, he said. Her expression didn't change immediately. She just held his gaze. Then something shifted in it. Careful.
Measured about Callaway. About the safety reports I filed. He paused. They opened a formal investigation. They want me to testify.
Diane was quiet for several seconds. Outside the truck, a scene in the movie was building towards something loud, and neither of them looked at the screen. "Marcus," she said finally, her voice very even. "Did you keep copies of everything you filed?" "I kept copies of everything." She nodded slowly, like that was the answer she expected, and the answer confirmed something she already believed about him. "Then you already know what you have to do," she said.
He turned back around, stared at the screen. It's not that simple, he said. It never is. She leaned forward slightly, close enough that he could hear her clearly. But that's different from not knowing what the right thing is.