I can assure you, sir, we treat all passengers equally. Company policy. David pulled out his business card. David Thornton, Civil Rights Law Firm. You might want to document exactly what happened here.
Ashley's face went pale. She hurried toward the galley to find her supervisor. In first class, Blake caught fragments of the conversation. He turned to Isabella with a concerned expression. Are they seriously making this into a legal issue over a seating mixup?
People love to play the victim card these days," Isabella replied, not looking up from her magazine. "That's why we have to be firm about policies. Still, maybe I should offer to switch seats, just to avoid any unpleasantness." Isabella finally looked at him. Blake, if you give in now, every passenger with a smartphone and a grievance will think they can bully their way into first class. We cannot set that precedent.
Blake nodded, reassured. Isabella always knew how to handle these situations. That's why she was on the board. What Blake didn't know was that Isabella was texting frantically under her magazine, Alert Legal. Potential discrimination incident on Flight 847.
Passenger recording. Need damage-control strategy immediately. In the economy cabin, Victoria Hayes had transformed row 34 into a mobile command center. Her tablet was connected to the plane's Wi-Fi system, but not through normal passenger channels. Skylink Dynamics had back-door access to every aircraft running their navigation software, which was 93% of commercial aviation worldwide. Victoria opened a secure terminal and began typing code that would make Pentagon hackers weep with joy.
Her fingers moved across the virtual keyboard with the precision of a classical pianist performing Carnegie Hall. First, she accessed the flight management system. Every modern aircraft was essentially a computer with wings. Navigation, communication, environmental controls, entertainment systems, everything ran on interconnected software. Skylink Dynamics had designed most of it.
Victoria pulled up the passenger manifest. There was her name: Hayes, Victoria. Seat assignment 1A, purchased November 3rd. Confirmation number SK847L A1. She pulled up Blake Morrison's record.
Morrison Blake, seat assignment 3A, upgraded today. Frequent flyer override unauthorized. Interesting. Victoria dug deeper into Blake's travel history. Morrison Venture Capital had a corporate account with United Airlines.
Blake's assistant typically booked him in seat 3A for this route. Today, someone had manually moved him to 1A without canceling Victoria's reservation. The system had flagged it as a potential double booking, but gate agents had override authority for operational necessities. Richard Steinberg had used that override authority. His reasoning documented in the system notes.
Passenger appearance inconsistent with first-class demographic. Relocated to maintain cabin atmosphere. Victoria screenshotted everything. Then she opened Phoenix Protocol. Phoenix Protocol was Victoria's masterpiece.