Lena read the relevant clause allowed from the lease. Once operating authority is suspended, every subsequent flight is governed entirely by the decision of the owner. Caleb stated that he still intended to fly to New York that morning. And Sloan immediately insisted that she and her leadership team needed to be on that aircraft as well. He looked at her for a long moment, then repeated her own words back to her, that anyone boarding this aircraft required the owner's permission.
The terminal fell silent. Rather than banning her outright, Caleb allowed Sloan to fly with him under a short list of conditions. She would board as a passenger. She would have no authority to alter the route. She would issue no instructions to the crew and all of the company's financial documents on board would be sealed until further notice.
Captain Concincaid turned towards Sloan and asked without a trace of sarcasm whether she accepted Mr. Ror's terms in order to board his aircraft. Sloan had no real choice since the New York meeting would determine the entire future of the merger and quite possibly her own position at the head of the company. Before boarding, Avery required her to sign an acknowledgement agreeing to the owner's command to non-inference with the crew and to no unauthorized access to the aircraft's technical or document compartments. A humiliation delivered in full view of her own staff.
Caleb boarded first, choosing the seat with the foldout workt so he could review his folder of documents, while Sloan waited for the captain's confirmation before she was allowed up the stairs at all. The seat she normally occupied in the main cabin, the one closest to the galley, had already been claimed, and she found herself settling instead into a chair near the rear, surrounded by details that suddenly felt less like her own territory than they ever had before. The embroidered napkins bearing the Vanderlin crest. The crystal glassware etched with the family name. The small conference room tucked behind the main cabin.