Chapter 6: Secrets in the Cargo
While Elena busied herself in the galley preparing the hot chocolate, Marcus used the quiet interval to review the encrypted tablet resting on his lap. The screen displayed flight plans, manifest data, and a series of encrypted memos from corporate headquarters. Lily’s father, a prominent tech entrepreneur whose sudden disappearance from public view had triggered a media feeding frenzy, was supposed to meet them at their destination in Zurich. But Marcus’s gut—honed by a decade of high-stakes security work—told him that things were rarely as simple as an international family reunion.
Sarah walked past Marcus’s seat on her way to the cockpit to check on the pilots, her dark uniform brushing against his leather jacket with a faint rustle of expensive fabric. She didn’t look at him, but as she passed, she muttered under her breath, “You’re making a mistake getting attached.”
Marcus didn’t look up from his tablet. “I make my own evaluations, Sarah. Focus on your cabin.”
The hostility between them was an open secret now. Elena, returning with a steaming porcelain mug of hot chocolate resting on a small silver tray, caught the tail end of the exchange. She placed the tray gently on the fold-out table in front of Lily before leaning down slightly toward Marcus.
“Ignore her, Marcus,” Elena murmured quietly, her voice pitched so only he could hear. “Sarah’s under a lot of pressure. We all are. But she’s never known how to handle kids. She treats everyone like a liability.”
“She acted like a bully, Elena, not a professional,” Marcus replied, keeping his voice low to avoid alarming Lily, who was blowing gently on the surface of her hot chocolate.
“I know,” Elena sighed, her brunette hair falling forward slightly over her beige blazer. “Just... keep the peace until we touch down. We’re less than two hours out from Zurich. Once we hand her over to her father’s legal team, our job is done.”
“Will her father actually be there?” Marcus asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked up from the tablet.
Elena paused, her expression faltering for just a fraction of a second—a micro-expression that didn’t escape Marcus’s trained eye. “Of course he will. That’s what the itinerary says.”
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“The itinerary says a lot of things,” Marcus said slowly. “Including that our flight path was cleared through airspace that’s currently restricted due to military drills.”
Elena straightened up quickly, a nervous tension tightening her posture. “I wouldn’t know anything about flight clearances, Marcus. That’s strictly between the captain and dispatch.”
