Nobody laughed at twice. Malcolm Hayes let himself feel the full weight of what he'd been holding. And then he put it down. The warrant was executed at 6:47 on a Tuesday morning, 3 days after Malcolm shook Victoria Sterling's hand in the hanger. He found out from Rachel, who found out from a contact at the Dallas field office who sent a two-word text that said simply, "It happened." Rachel forwarded it to.
Malcolm without comment, and he read it standing at his workbench with a torque wrench in his hand and a feeling in his chest that wasn't quite relief and wasn't quite satisfaction. It was something older and quieter than either of those things. The feeling of a door closing on something that needed to be closed. The name that came with the warrant, the name Delgato had mentioned but couldn't share, was a man named Curtis Hayward, 51 years old. Sterling Crown's director of aviation procurement for the past 7 years.
17 Years in the private aviation industry. before that, moving through procurement roles at three different corporate flight departments, leaving each one under circumstances that in retrospect had visible fingerprints all over them. Malcolm didn't know any of that on Tuesday morning. He learned it in pieces over the following days. The way you learn the shape of something that's been operating in the dark, not all at once, but in accumulating detail, each piece making the previous one make more sense. What he knew on Tuesday morning was that the man who had been systematically installing compromised components into aircraft that carried human beings was no longer making decisions about which components went into aircraft and that the documentation that had produced the warrant, 312 pages, four copies organized.
And indexed and sourced had originated in a shop with his name on the door. He put down the torque wrench and called Rachel. Fleet inspection status? He asked. Susan's team finished aircraft 9 yesterday evening.
Rachel said clean on the Apex Vector components, but they found a hydraulic line installation that doesn't meet spec. Nothing catastrophic, but it's been logged and flagged. Aircraft 10 and 11. 10 Is clean. 11.
They're starting today. She paused. Malcolm, the charter company called back. the one that left the inquiry message last week. What did they say? They said they heard about the fuel valve on aircraft 6.
Rachel said news travels fast in this industry apparently. What did they want? They want Hayes Arowworks to conduct a full fleet audit on their operation. Rachel said six aircraft. They want it done before the end of the month because they have a contract renewal with their primary corporate client and they want independent certification before the renewal meeting.
Malcolm was quiet for a moment. How many aircraft did you say? Six. What's their fleet? Mix of citations and one Gulfream.
Rachel said based out of Lovefield. He thought about capacity about Jerome who was good and getting better. about David Torres who'd offered to come up from Austin. About the three empty workbench spaces where equipment used to be before the lean weeks, now refilled with new orders he'd placed the day the Sterling crown wire cleared. Call them back, he said. Tell them I'll meet with them Thursday.
I already have two other meetings Thursday, Rachel said. Move one, he said. She sighed not unhappily. I'm going to need help with scheduling. Hire someone, he said.