He recognized her in the same instant. His eyes made the connection, held it for one careful beat, and then moved on with practiced smoothness to the passenger behind her. The protocols were clear. CEO evaluation visits were anonymous until the CEO decided otherwise. Crew members who blew the cover had their evaluations invalidated.
Marcus understood this. His expression gave away nothing. "Welcome aboard." He said warmly. Vivian nodded and moved toward the first-class cabin.
She could already hear Rebecca's voice ahead filling the space. "Yes, first-class, obviously. Although I have to say the quality of passengers has really gone downhill. You wouldn't believe what I'm seeing up here." Vivian stepped into the first-class section and saw Rebecca sitting in seat 1A, not standing near it.
Sitting in it, coat arranged across the armrest, phone pressed to her ear, legs crossed, body occupying the space with the completeness of someone who had decided a question rather than answered one. Vivian stopped. She checked her boarding pass out of habit, though she knew what it said. "Seat 1A." She approached calmly.
"Excuse me, I believe this is my seat." Rebecca pulled the phone slightly from her ear and looked at Vivian the way people look at something they already decided is inconsequential. I don't think so. My boarding pass shows seat 1A. Then your boarding pass is wrong.
Rebecca set her phone face down on the tray table with the deliberate slowness of someone making a statement. She stood and her height and her coat and the entirety of her professional authority arranged themselves into a wall. I work in aviation. I know these booking systems. Something is not right here.
Vivian held out a boarding pass and Rob Rebecca took it. Her fingers examined the paper, flipping it, pressing it flat, holding it to the overhead light with the theatrics of document authentication. The people in row two had gone quiet. A woman across the aisle had set her magazine face down. "This printing quality is suspicious."
Rebecca announced. Not to Vivian specifically, to the cabin. "Look at the font alignment. The seat code format is inconsistent with standard Sterling Sky boarding documentation." Vivian said nothing.
She had authorized the boarding pass format. She had signed off on the typography. Marcus appeared at the entrance to the cabin drawn by the escalating energy. His face held the careful neutrality of someone managing a situation that had no good moves. "Is there a problem?"