The identification plate mounted in the instrument bay gave a tail number that his attorney's records matched to an aircraft flagged in the federal database as destroyed, consumed by fire in a remote section of the Nevada desert 17 years before the date of this auction, with no surviving airframe. He read the entry again, and then read it a third time, standing in the helicopter with the afternoon heat pressing through the fuselage skin. He filed an FAA inquiry that afternoon and received an automated acknowledgement. The following morning, before the inquiry had been processed, his phone rang with a number that traced back to the legal offices of Wickliffe Aerospace and Mobility, one of the largest aerospace and automotive conglomerates in the Western United States. The woman on the line identified herself as Merit Vale, chief legal officer, and informed Clay in measured language that the contents of the hangar constitute proprietary assets and trade secrets that had been removed from Wickliffe Aerospace without authorization, and that he was required to cease all access, documentation, and contact with third parties regarding those assets immediately.
She did not provide a chassis number list. She did not provide ownership records. She did not provide a single document to support the assertion. Clay thanked her for the contact asked his attorney to log the contact, and told her he would be happy to cooperate with any request that came with proper legal standing and a matching paper trail. Merit Vale told him he was opposing a company valued at several billion dollars.
Clay said he was aware of that and ended the call. The next morning, a convoy of black vehicles appeared at the end of the access road, and a woman in a charcoal blazer stepped out of the lead car. Serafina Wickliffe entered the hangar with the focused composure of someone who had spent the drive preparing to be professionally unmoved by whatever she found on the other side of that gate. She was 39 years old, CEO of Wickliffe Aerospace for 4 years, and she had reviewed the inventory photographs her legal team had pulled from the court filing, identifying at least four vehicles that should not have existed outside a Wickliffe Engineering archive. Clay met her at the entrance and allowed access on two explicit conditions.
She could observe any vehicle and photograph from a distance, but she could not operate any system, remove any component, or authorize any other person to do so while the question of ownership remained under review. Serafina accepted those terms in a tone that suggested she found them mildly inconvenient. And they walked into the hangar together in the particular silence of two people being careful with each other. She moved through the first row of vehicles with the focused attention of someone cataloging rather than admiring, noting chassis configurations and bodywork without pausing, and Clay stayed a few steps behind and said nothing. Then she reached the steel partition wall and passed through the gap into the second section of the hangar.