Hydraulic line chafing near the transmission deck. Backup avionics failed self-test twice this month. Nobody logged it. He wrote everything down because writing it down was the only way he knew how to make the fear feel smaller. He couldn't say it out loud.
Saying it out loud got you fired. He'd learned that lesson already a long time ago in a different hangar in a different life he didn't talk about. Cole. Russ's voice cracked through the hangar again. I said move.
Hayes is walking the floor in 5 minutes and I don't want you anywhere near the press risers. Yes, sir. Ethan said and wheeled the bucket into the shadows near the parts room where invisible men were supposed to stand. Victoria Hayes arrived like weather. That was the only way people at Sky Nova ever described it.
She didn't walk into a room. She arrived and the air changed pressure around her. 41 years old, third generation aerospace money, a Stanford engineering degree she'd earned and never let anyone forget, and a public reputation for turning failing companies into billion-dollar darlings through sheer force of will. Today she wore a cream blazer sharp enough to cut glass. And behind her trailed six investors, two Pentagon liaison officers and a documentary crew Sky Nova's PR team had hired specifically to capture this moment for the history books.
This she announced arms spread toward the Falcon 9X like a magician unveiling the final trick is the future of vertical flight. Autonomous failover systems. Composite rotor architecture 20% lighter than anything in production. A helicopter that thinks faster than the pilot flying it. Applause rippled through the small crowd.
Cameras flashed. Near the back wall, mop in hand. Ethan watched the coupling he'd flagged 3 days ago glint under the lights and felt something cold settle behind his ribs. He should say nothing. He knew he should say nothing.
He had Sophie to think about seven years old waiting for him at his sister's house. Right now, drawing pictures of horses and asking every night when mommy was coming home, a question he still didn't know how to answer 3 years later. He had rent. He had a job that, humiliating as it was, put food on the table and let him pick her up from school most afternoons. Saying something meant risking all of that for people who had already told him in no uncertain terms that his opinion meant nothing.
But then Victoria said the words that changed everything. Today, for the first time, we're not just going to talk about the Falcon 9X's capabilities. We're going to prove them. Live. The room went electric.
One of the investors, a heavyset man in a navy suit Ethan didn't recognize, leaned toward his colleague and whispered something that made them both grin. "Wait," Ethan said. "Wait." The word came out before he could stop it. Quiet, but not quiet enough.
Heads turned. Russ's face went the color of ash. Cole, Russ hissed, stepping toward him. What did I just tell you about? Someone shouldn't fly that helicopter today, Ethan said louder now.