Chương 10
“You need sleep.”
“That is an adult problem.”
“That’s fake.”
“Probably.”
Emma tilted the phone.
On the shelf behind her sat the Nebraska key chain, three snow globes, a plastic airplane from Memphis, and at least twelve objects Daniel had forgotten buying.
“Did you bring me something?”
He looked at the almond packet on the table.
“Maybe.”
“Is it almonds?”
Daniel froze.
Emma grinned.
“You always bring almonds.”
He laughed quietly.
“Go to bed.”
“Come home.”
The words were soft enough that the laugh left him.
“When?”
“Monday night.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
She studied his face through the screen.
“Promise?”
Daniel looked at the rain streaking the lobby windows.
He had learned to fear promises because life did not care who made them.
Still, some promises had to be made.
“Yes.”
Emma nodded.
“Okay.”
After the call ended, Daniel sat with the dark screen in his hand.
Across the lobby, an elevator opened.
Olivia emerged alone, rolling toward the small business center with the paper sandwich bag balanced on her lap.
She stopped when she saw him.
“I thought you were reviewing weather.”
“I was.”
“You appear to be staring at furniture.”
“Multitasking.”
She glanced at the almond packet beside his coffee.
“Evidence?”
He nodded.
Olivia looked toward the rain-dark windows.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Depends.”
“If a pilot believed an employer pressured him to fly unsafely, but the employer believed she was only challenging his judgment, who is right?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Olivia waited.
Finally he said, “Maybe both of them.”
Her face tightened.
“That is unhelpful.”
“Most true answers are.”
Olivia stayed beside the lobby table, one hand resting on the wheel rim, as if deciding whether the answer annoyed her enough to leave.
Daniel picked up his coffee and discovered it had gone cold.
He drank it anyway.
“You always do that?” Olivia asked.
“What?”
“Drink terrible coffee because it’s already there.”
“Usually.”
“That sounds unnecessarily bleak.”
“It’s coffee.”
“You make everything sound simple.”
“No.”
Daniel set the cup down.
“I just don’t think complicated things improve when we pretend simple parts are complicated too.”
Olivia looked toward the elevators.
Rain tapped steadily against the lobby windows, and a housekeeper crossed the far end of the room pushing a cart with one squeaking wheel.
“Martin Keene believed I pressured him.”
Daniel did not respond.
She rolled closer.
“Apparently that matters to you.”
“It matters if you’re asking me to work for you.”
“I found an email tonight from maintenance.”
“What did it say?”
“That Martin asked the maintenance supervisor to document that I pressured them into releasing an aircraft.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
Daniel nodded once.
“That helps.”
“But he still believed I pressured him.”
“Maybe.”
Olivia’s patience thinned.
“You really enjoy that word.”
“It’s useful.”
“He was wrong.”
“About maintenance, yes.”
“About me.”
Daniel leaned back.
“You said you challenged his judgment.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
She looked away.
“That depends which argument.”
“That sentence probably answers more than you intended.”
Her eyes returned to him.
“You think I bullied him.”
“I think you’re capable of it.”
“Based on forty-five minutes in an interview and one delayed flight?”
“Based on the fact that you tried to charter another airplane twenty minutes after I grounded yours.”
“That was different.”
“To you.”
Olivia’s mouth opened, then closed.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“I’m not saying he was right.”
“What are you saying?”
“That maybe he heard pressure where you heard urgency.”
“Pilots are paid to withstand urgency.”
“Sure.”
“And CEOs are paid to create outcomes.”
“Also sure.”
“So?”
“So sometimes two competent people can wreck a working relationship without either of them being a cartoon villain.”
Olivia stared at the abandoned almond packet.
“That sounds disappointingly adult.”
“It usually is.”
She was silent for several seconds.
Then she said, “He asked for more money.”
Daniel glanced at her.
“Martin?”
“After the argument.”
“How much?”
“Thirty percent.”
“That’s substantial.”
“He said the schedule had expanded beyond the original scope.”
“Had it?”
Olivia did not answer immediately.
“That means yes.”
“Not by thirty percent.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“Different argument.”
She gave him a hard look.
“He also wanted an additional pilot.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“It would have cost the company.”
“So does replacing ten people.”
“They weren’t employees yet.”
“You know what I mean.”
Olivia folded her hands in her lap.
“I thought he was using safety as leverage.”
“Maybe he was.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I don’t know him.”
She looked at him, impatient again.
Daniel continued.
“People can be right about a safety issue and still use it in a salary negotiation.”
Olivia’s expression shifted.
“Those things can both be true.”
“Yes.”
“You keep doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Refusing to give me clean answers.”
Daniel looked at the rain.
“Clean answers are expensive.”
Before she could respond, Olivia’s phone vibrated on her lap.
She glanced at the screen.
Her face hardened.
“Richard?”
Daniel asked.
She did not ask how he knew.
“No.”
She answered the call.
“Margaret?”
Her expression changed almost immediately.
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
Daniel straightened.
Olivia listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“No, do not contact him.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I said do not contact him.”
She ended the call and opened her email.
“What happened?”
“Martin left his current employer six weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Margaret doesn’t know.”
“Where was he working?”
“A corporate flight department in Denver.”
Daniel reached for his phone, then stopped.
“What?”
Olivia asked.
“I know someone there.”
“No.”
“That was quick.”
“I don’t want you calling around.”
“Why?”
“Because if Richard is using Martin’s account against me, the last thing I need is my prospective pilot contacting his former employer.”
Daniel considered that.
“Fair.”
Olivia looked at the time.
“Go to bed.”
“You came downstairs.”
“I was going to print something.”
“The business center is closed.”
She looked toward the dark glass doors.
A small sign read CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE.
“I knew that.”
Daniel smiled.
May you like
“You absolutely did not.”
Olivia ignored him and turned toward the elevators.
