He requested access to the electronic maintenance history, and Evelyn approved it over Clara's objections, watching as the data revealed that the final login before the failures began had used an administrative credential registered to the office of the chief operating officer. Evelyn did not want to believe it, since Grant had worked beside her for eight years and had once helped her own father expand Hawthorne Aerolux into new markets. Nolan pointed out how carefully the failure had been designed, severe enough to ground the aircraft convincingly, yet subtle enough to avoid looking like outright sabotage to anyone who was not looking closely. Grant called back moments later, his tone sharper this time, warning Evelyn that she was placing her company in the hands of a man with no verifiable background in commercial aviation security. He reminded her, almost casually, that Nolan Pierce had once been removed from the industry for what he called a false safety report.
A detail clearly meant to end the conversation before it went any further. Evelyn turned to Nolan, and the hangar seemed to grow colder around them as everyone waited for his reaction. He did not deny the accusation, admitting quietly that he had indeed been pushed out of the industry. Though he framed it differently, he said he had been punished for telling the truth to the wrong people at the wrong time. It was the first moment all night that Evelyn saw something like real pain behind his composure, and she found herself wanting to know the rest of the story rather than dismissing it as Grant intended.
Nolan explained, briefly and without self-pity, that years earlier he had discovered a private aviation company falsifying safety inspection reports to save money on necessary repairs. When he reported it through proper channels, the executive who had signed off on the falsified paperwork was none other than Grant Blackwood. And within months, Nolan found himself blamed for a technical failure he had never caused. His reputation had been dismantled before he could defend it properly. Evelyn began to understand that Grant was not simply threatening her company tonight.
He had already destroyed one honest man's career to protect himself, and now history seemed to be repeating itself in her own hangar. Just as Evelyn began piecing together the full shape of the conspiracy, the board convened an emergency call that filled a large screen wheeled into the hangar for the occasion. Grant appeared alongside several major shareholders, including a representative for Sterling Kingsley, the founder of Kingsley Capital Group, a man known throughout the industry for buying distressed companies at a fraction of their