“That's the problem.”
“What?”
“He disappeared two weeks ago.”
Victoria frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“His phone was shut off. His apartment was emptied. His bank accounts haven't been touched.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“When did he leave?”
“Three days before Richard Cole was fired.”
Daniel's mind connected the pieces.
“Michael didn't leave.”
Emily nodded.
“That's what I think.”
Victoria looked between them.
“Why would someone inside your company help Richard?”
“Money.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Emily looked surprised.
Daniel continued.
“Richard isn't doing this for money.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if money were the goal, he would have stolen the vulnerability report and sold it.”
“What does he want?”
Daniel looked at the boarding pass.
“Control.”
Silence filled the car.
Emily opened another file.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“The system Richard accessed isn't just the airline reservation system.”
“What else?”
“Government travel databases.”
Victoria's face changed.
Daniel looked at Emily.
“Which ones?”
“Several.”
“Military?”
“Yes.”
“Diplomatic?”
“Yes.”
Daniel exhaled slowly.
That changed everything.
Richard Cole wasn't trying to manipulate airline passengers.
He was testing whether he could move people through systems that were supposed to be secure.
The flight had been his demonstration.
Daniel's stolen seat had been a test.
Victoria's fake upgrade had been a test.
The false security alert had been a test.
And the ghost passenger had been another.
Daniel looked at Emily.
“Did the system work?”
She shook her head.
“Not completely.”
“Why?”
“Because you noticed.”
Daniel smiled.
“That wasn't luck.”
“What do you mean?”
“I noticed because they made the mistake of putting me in a situation where the data didn't match reality.”
Victoria interrupted.
“That's why they spilled your coffee.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“The coffee.”
She explained.
“They needed you angry. They needed you to argue. They wanted you distracted while the manifest changed.”
Daniel thought about it.
She was right.
The coffee had been part of the theater.
The crew's indifference had been part of the theater.
Even Victoria's behavior had been manipulated.
The entire scene had been designed to look like an ordinary conflict between two passengers.
Daniel suddenly remembered something.
“Victoria.”
“Yes?”
“When you received the first message, what did it say exactly?”
She opened her phone.
Daniel read it again.
Your father is in danger. Do exactly what the gate agent tells you. Sit in 2A. Do not speak to Daniel Brooks.
He frowned.
“Why 2A?”
Victoria shrugged.
“Because that's where they wanted me.”
“No.”
“What?”
“They wanted you in 2A because they knew I would challenge you.”
“So?”
“So they needed us together.”
Daniel opened the airline's seating chart.
He zoomed in.
2A was directly in front of the aircraft's forward galley.
From there, the passenger could hear crew conversations.
Could see who entered the cockpit.
Could observe the cabin.
Daniel stared at it.
“They needed someone in 2A to watch the crew.”
Victoria's expression changed.
“And they needed you to be standing near me.”
“Yes.”
Emily looked confused.
“Why?”
Daniel pointed to the seat map.
“Because 3C is the only seat directly across from 2A.”
Emily stared.
“So?”
Daniel looked at her.
“The passenger in 3C has a clear view of the cockpit door.”
Emily's eyes widened.
“They wanted you watching the cockpit.”
Daniel nodded.
“And they wanted Victoria watching the crew.”
Victoria slowly understood.
“This was surveillance.”
“Exactly.”
They drove in silence.
When they reached Brooks Security headquarters, Daniel went directly to the security operations floor.
Employees stood when they saw him.
Some looked frightened.
Others looked relieved.
Daniel didn't stop.
He entered the secure conference room.
“Lock the building.”
Emily looked at him.
“Already done.”
“Disconnect every legacy authentication system.”
“Done.”
“Rotate every executive credential.”
“Working on it.”
“Freeze Michael Reed's account.”
“Already frozen.”
Daniel stopped.
“Who froze it?”
Emily looked uncomfortable.
“I did.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“I noticed unusual access attempts.”
“You didn't tell me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
Daniel remembered.
He had been traveling.
He had dismissed the messages as routine security alerts.
That realization hurt.
He had trusted the system because he believed his people were protecting it.
He had forgotten that systems were only as secure as the people operating them.
Daniel sat down.
“Show me the access attempts.”
Emily displayed them.
The timestamps appeared.
3:52 a.m.
4:17 a.m.
4:19 a.m.
4:21 a.m.
Daniel froze.
The first access had happened at Jonathan Hale's home.
The second had changed Daniel's seat.
The third had upgraded Victoria.
The fourth had altered the flight manifest.
Then he noticed something.
There was a fifth access.
4:25 a.m.
His own company's server.
Someone had uploaded a file.
Daniel opened it.
The file contained a list.
Names.
Dates.
Flight numbers.
Government officials.
Corporate executives.
Journalists.
One name was highlighted.
DANIEL BROOKS.
Beside it was a note.
Primary observer.
Victoria looked over his shoulder.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Because he had just realized the truth.
They hadn't chosen him because he was important.
They had chosen him because he was capable of detecting the intrusion.
They needed to know how quickly he would notice.
The entire flight had been an experiment.
Daniel closed the file.
“We're going to find Richard.”
Emily looked at him.
“How?”
Daniel held up the boarding pass.
“Through seat 2A.”
She frowned.
“Explain.”
“The boarding pass is a message.”
“From Richard?”
“Probably.”
“Why give us Jonathan's seat?”
Daniel smiled.
“Because he wants us to follow it.”
Victoria looked at him.
“It's a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Then why follow it?”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“Because traps work both ways.”
He turned toward the security team.
“Find every flight where seat 2A was occupied by a person connected to Richard Cole.”
The room went silent.
Emily started typing.
Minutes passed.
Then the results appeared.
Seven flights.
Seven different cities.
Seven different passengers.
Daniel stared at the list.
“What do they have in common?”
Emily scanned the names.
“Nothing obvious.”
Daniel looked closer.
Then he saw it.
Every passenger had access to something Richard wanted.
A government contract.
A financial database.
A corporate merger.
A technology patent.
A confidential investigation.
Daniel whispered, “The seat isn't the target.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Then what is?”
“The person sitting in it.”
Emily stared at the screen.
“So Richard has been testing the same operation for months.”
Daniel nodded.
“And we just happened to become the most important test.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at Victoria.
“Because your father knew about it.”
Victoria's eyes widened.
“My father?”
“He probably discovered Richard's operation.”
“And that's why Richard took him.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked again at the seven names.
Then he noticed something else.
The eighth entry was blank.
A future flight.
Tomorrow.
Seat 2A.
Daniel's name.
Destination: Seattle.
Victoria stared at the screen.
“He wants you to take another flight.”
Daniel nodded.
“Exactly.”
“Why?”
Daniel closed the laptop.
“Because this time, he knows I'm looking for him.”
He stood.
“And that means he wants me to find him.”
The next morning, Daniel returned to the airport.
Not as a passenger.
As bait.
The plan was simple.
Too simple, perhaps.
Daniel would board the Seattle flight under his real name and sit in 2A.
Victoria would remain in a secure location with federal investigators.
Emily would monitor the airline system.
A team of cybersecurity specialists would watch every authentication attempt.
If Richard accessed the reservation, they would trace him.
If he tried to alter the passenger manifest, they would lock the system.
And if someone appeared at the airport expecting Daniel to be alone, they would be arrested.
At least, that was the plan.
Daniel knew better than to trust plans.
He stood at the departure gate wearing a dark suit.
His phone remained in his pocket.
The boarding pass displayed seat 2A.
A strange feeling passed through him.
Forty-eight hours earlier, he had stood in almost the same place.
Then he had been annoyed about coffee.
Now he was waiting for a criminal mastermind who had kidnapped a billionaire.
Life had a strange sense of humor.
Emily's voice came through his earpiece.
“Everything is clean.”
Daniel looked at the departure screen.
“Any unusual activity?”