The next three days moved differently than the days before them. The weight that had been sitting on Hayes Arow works since the invoice dispute lifted in stages. The way pressure equalizes through a system, not all at once, but methodically, each component finding its correct level. Suppliers confirmed payment. Jerome came back to work with the kind of quiet relief that young people express by simply showing up early and asking for more to do.
David Torres called from Austin and said he'd heard through the private aviation network that something significant was happening at Sterling Crown and wanted to know if Malcolm needed extra hands when the fleet inspection started. Malcolm told him probably yes and probably soon. He was right on both counts. On the third morning after Delgato's visit, Victoria Sterling called at 7:45. The independent inspection team starts Monday, she said.
I want you on site. For what capacity? He asked. Technical adviser. She said, "You know what?
You found the inspection team is good. They're certified. They're independent. They have no relationship with my procurement department. But they're coming in cold.
You've already seen the inside of one aircraft. You know what to look for." Malcolm was quiet for a moment. I'm not a Sterling Crown employee, he said. I know that, she said. I'm not asking you to be.
I'm asking Hayes Arow works to provide technical consultation services to an independent fleet inspection. Separate contract, separate billing. You report to the inspection team, not to me. A pause. Except that I'll want a summary report when it's done, which I'll ask the inspection team to provide, which they'll get from you.
He thought about it. What about the primary aircraft? He said, "The one I restored the directional flight control assembly. That's the first one." She said, "That's why I want you there Monday. I want the people opening that assembly to have you standing next to them." I thought about the component, about what Delgato had said, alloy composition failure in the original batch. about what that meant in practical terms.
A part that was already weak when it was manufactured, that had been sitting inside a flight control system, absorbing stress for an unknown period of time that by the end of the restoration had logged God knows how many hours in a chain of custody that. Malcolm couldn't fully trace. Monday, he said 7 a.m., she said, "I'll be there." She paused. Then Malcolm, the FAA investigator Delgado, he called me yesterday. He said your documentation was the most thorough voluntary submission his office has received from a private contractor in over a decade.
Malcolm didn't say anything. I don't know if that matters to you, she said. It matters, he said. Not the way you might think, but it matters. Another pause.
How does it matter? It matters because I built it the same way I build everything, he said. The same way I write a maintenance log, the same way I inspect a flight control assembly, the same standard regardless of who's watching or what's at stake financially, he paused. If it's worth doing, it's worth documenting correctly. That's not a philosophy.