Malcolm was quiet for a moment. "She doesn't know," he said. "Not a question." "Somebody knows," Rachel said. "It's not her, but somebody in her procurement chain definitely knows." Malcolm walked into the shop. He sat down at his desk, a real desk this time, not the cot, and pulled out his phone.
He had 12 missed calls. Three from suppliers, one from his bank, one from his hangar landlord, two from Victoria Sterling's executive assistant, and one from Mia's school. He called Mia's school back first. The office administrator told him Mia had missed two days this week, and could he please speak with his daughter about attendance. Malcolm thanked her, hung up, and sat still for a moment.
Mia wasn't missing school because she was careless. Maya was missing school because she'd noticed the equipment. Malcolm had been quietly moving out of the shop over the past week, quietly selling off, trying to keep the suppliers happy, and the lights on while Sterling Crown sat on his money. She was missing school because she was scared. He picked up his phone and called her.
She answered on the first ring. Dad. Hey, baby. You're back from the meeting. I'm back.
A pause. She was 11, but she had her mother's instincts. She could read silence like a book. She didn't pay you. It wasn't a question either.
Not yet, he said. But she's not going to, Maya said. And her voice was steady. Too steady for 11. The kind of steady that hurt a father more than crying would have.
We're going to be fine, Malcolm said. Are we going to lose the hanger? He closed his eyes. No. Are you sure?
I was not sure. He was not remotely sure. He had $4, $200 in the business account and a lease payment due in 18 days and a binder full of receipts for $69,400 he'd spent out of his own pocket on a woman who laughed at his invoice. I'm sure, he said. Okay.
Maya said. Dad. Yeah. Was the plane safe when you fixed it? Was it safe?
He opened his eyes. He looked at the binder on the desk. He thought about the Apex Vector component, about the serial number that didn't match, about what Rachel had said. 11 Components documented destruction in 2019 inside a jet that was supposed to fly to New York on Thursday. No, he said, and then because she was his daughter and she deserved the truth, that's why I walked away.