The steering column was adjusted for a particular reach and certain gauges on the dashboard had been rotated slightly from their standard positions. Not by accident, but to form a precise angular alignment across three dial faces. Clay tried combinations. The third one he attempted opened a recessed panel beneath the center console with the quiet click of a well-made mechanical lock. Inside was a sealed document envelope.
And inside that envelope were materials that changed the character of everything in the hangar. A numbered list of batch deliveries from Northstar Dynamics cross-referenced against contracts assigned to Wickliffe Aerospace Defense and commercial aviation programs. A set of test photographs showing rotor components with hairline fractures along the bonding seam of the alloy insert. And a handwritten summary that identified the problem with clinical precision. Northstar Dynamics had substituted a lower-grade alloy compound in their rotor insert manufacturing process, reducing material costs significantly while maintaining the original part number and certification markings.
Augustus had found the substitution through an independent material analysis he commissioned without informing his board, and he had documented his intent to bring the evidence before the full board and notify the relevant federal oversight bodies. The handwritten note identified Hollis Wickliffe as the executive who had reviewed the supplier audit findings and approved continued use of the affected components because the cost of halting the contracts in progress was projected to produce a significant financial loss in that fiscal quarter. Serafina read the note twice standing very still and then set it down on the roadster's hood without speaking. Clay waited. He had enough experience with difficult truths to know that some of them needed a minute to settle before a person could carry them.
She said she believed Hollis might have made a terrible financial decision without fully understanding the safety consequence. And Clay said that was possible and that the investigation would determine what he understood and when he understood it. The evidence was the evidence regardless of who it pointed toward. Then he turned to the flight log for the night Augustus died and pointed to a detail neither of them had focused on until that moment. Among the crew scheduled for that flight, Cyrus Vane's name had originally been listed as pilot, then crossed out and replaced by another name exactly 2 hours before departure.