“Alive.”
Charles looked startled.
Malcolm almost smiled.
“She teaches avionics at Gateway Community College.”
“I heard she left us.”
“She did.”
“Why?”
Malcolm stared.
“You really don't know.”
Charles sat.
“No.”
Malcolm considered whether to continue.
Then:
“The same incident.”
Charles became still.
“What incident?”
“In August 2009, one of your managed Hawker aircraft had an intermittent transponder fault.”
“I was shadowing avionics.”
“Maintenance supervisor told me to retrieve archived wiring diagrams.”
“I used a terminal in the records office.”
“A quality manager saw me there.”
“Said students weren't allowed.”
Charles frowned.
“Were they?”
“Apparently not without direct supervision.”
“I didn't know.”
“The technician who sent me did.”
“What happened?”
“I got reported for unauthorized records access.”
Charles’s face tightened.
“That alone would not remove someone from Pathways.”
“No.”
Malcolm nodded.
“So the report added that I was argumentative and refused instructions.”
“Were you?”
“I said the technician had told me to go.”
“I asked them to call him.”
“They interpreted that as arguing.”
Charles looked away.
Malcolm continued.
“Then someone discovered I had copied one wiring page to the printer.”
“Which was the point of retrieving it.”
“The report became unauthorized copying of proprietary maintenance information.”
Charles rubbed his forehead.
“What did your mother do?”
“She defended me.”
“Loudly.”
Charles almost smiled.
That sounded like Denise.
Malcolm did not.
“The supervisor said she was compromising an investigation because I was her son.”
“She was suspended for two days while they reviewed it.”
Charles’s smile vanished.
Malcolm continued.
“The technician who sent me into the room eventually confirmed my story.”
“Three weeks later.”
“By then, Pathways had terminated my placement.”
“Your HR director offered to reinstate me at a different facility the next summer if I signed a letter acknowledging I violated access policy.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Malcolm stared.
“Because I didn't knowingly violate it.”
“You did enter without approved supervision.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And I was nineteen.”
“I followed a Whitaker employee’s instruction.”
“Your program was supposed to teach me the rules.”
“Instead, it treated not knowing one as evidence of character.”
Charles sat back.
“What happened to Denise?”
“She resigned four months later.”
“Why?”
“Promotion blocked.”
“Supervisor relationship broken.”
“She was tired.”
Charles said nothing.
Malcolm looked toward the conference-room window.
Denver traffic moved far below.