That margin had never been close. Not for one second. His phone rang. He answered on speaker. Mr.
Hayes. A voice he didn't recognize. Male professional careful. My name is Robert Leang. I'm the chief operating officer of Western Pacific Charter Group.
We operate 14 aircraft across six western states. I was given your name by Frank Delgado at the FAA Dallas field office. Malcolm glanced at his phone and back at the road. He gave you my number. He said he gave it to our legal department.
Robert Leang said along with what he described as the most thorough voluntary safety documentation submission his office had received in over a decade. A pause, he said, and I'm quoting that if we ever wanted someone to actually find problems in our fleet before the problems found us, we should call Malcolm Hayes. Malcolm drove in silence for a moment. 14 Aircraft, six western states. Mr.
Leang, he said. I'm going to need to call you back. I want to have my operations manager on the call. Of course, Leang said, "Whenever you're ready." He hung up. He called Rachel.
She answered, "If you're about to tell me, we have another inquiry." 14 aircraft, he said. Western Pacific Charter Group, Delgato gave them our name. She was quiet for exactly 2 seconds. I'll hire a second coordinator, she said. Today, he said.
Yesterday, she said, "Malcolm, I posted that listing yesterday." He almost laughed. He didn't, but it was close. He pulled into the Hayes Arow Works lot and sat in the truck for a moment before going inside. He looked at the name above the door. Hayes Arrow Works.
Same name as 6 weeks ago. Same building, same hanger, different everything else. He went inside. Maya was there. That was unexpected.
It was 3:40 in the afternoon on a school day, and his daughter was sitting in the client chair across from his desk, her backpack on the floor, her homework glasses on a book open on her lap. School let out early, she said before he could ask. Teacher planning day. I took the bus. You didn't call, he said.