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No one offered a time.

Patel muted the channel.

“Hours.”

“Probably,” Ward said.

Daniel studied the captain.

“You could divert.”

Ward looked back.

“On what basis?”

“Custody compromise.”

“Of a nonhazardous case.”

“Yes.”

“Into Boston, where the same corporate security structure controls the gate.”

“Yes.”

“That changes geography, not authority.”

Daniel had no answer.

Ward continued.

“And a diversion would expose the case to more ground personnel, create an unscheduled chain, and place two hundred passengers somewhere they did not plan to be.”

“You’re already considering it.”

“I consider everything that may become necessary. That does not mean it is wise.”

Daniel looked toward the windshield.

The storm was thinning. Distant stars appeared between clouds, then vanished.

Ward’s refusal irritated him because it was correct.

He had spent years believing safety culture failed when people prioritized cost over caution. Sometimes caution also carried cost, and pretending otherwise made procedure childish.

Daniel asked Patel for the estimated arrival time.

Two hours and forty-one minutes.

He calculated the duty officer’s local time in Washington. It was after midnight but within the assigned watch period.

The silence from that office was no longer a technical inconvenience.

“Can we place a voice call through dispatch?” he asked.

Ward arranged it.

The call routed through the aircraft’s secure communications unit to the duty desk.

It rang nine times.

A recorded message identified the federal aviation operations center and advised callers to leave a name, callback number, and classification level.

Daniel disconnected without speaking.

“Maybe the officer stepped away,” Patel said.

“For forty minutes?”

“People use bathrooms.”

Ward looked at her.

Patel shrugged one shoulder.

“She’s right,” Daniel said.

The ordinary possibility had to remain possible.

He called again seven minutes later.

No answer.

Mara brought coffee into the cockpit after conditions improved enough for service. She passed cups carefully around the secured case.

Daniel took his black.

Ward used one packet of sugar and no cream.

Patel added enough cream to change the color completely.

For several minutes, they drank in silence while the aircraft crossed out of the storm.

The coffee was bad.

Daniel found that reassuring. Some things remained reliable because no one expected better.

Mara reported that the cabin was calm, the passenger’s video had not transmitted, and Vivian had acknowledged recognizing Martin Saye.

Ward told her only what she needed to know: no one was to discuss the case, no passenger was to enter the forward galley unescorted, and any unusual communication request should be brought directly to the cockpit.

Mara listened without asking why.

Before leaving, she looked at Daniel.

“Would you like anything from your seat?”

He thought of the book inside the seat pocket, a history of bridge failures he had carried through four trips and read only eighteen pages of. He thought of his personal phone in the overhead bag.

“No.”

Mara nodded and left.

Ward drank his coffee.

“You travel with a book about structural collapse?”

Daniel looked at him.

“How do you know?”

“I saw it when you boarded.”

“You noticed me boarding?”

“I was informed to expect an aviation courier wearing a charcoal field jacket.”

Daniel stared at him.

Ward lifted the cup.

“I didn’t know it was you.”

“Why wasn’t Mara informed?”

“She was. The initial briefing described you as arriving with the case.”

“I boarded without it. It was already secured in the galley.”

Ward’s eyes narrowed.

“Who placed it there?”

“The station security officer, according to my instructions.”

“Did you see them place it?”

“No.”

“Did Mara?”

They called her again.

Mara checked the service log.

The case had been loaded into the forward secured compartment during catering inspection. The log carried the initials of a contract security supervisor named L. Mercer.

Mara had not witnessed the placement. At that time, she was handling a medical accommodation for a passenger in the rear cabin.

The junior attendant had seen a uniformed security employee in the galley but could not recall the name badge.

Daniel’s transfer receipt indicated that he accepted custody in the terminal below the gate.

The case should never have left his possession.

He read the document again.

The signature was his.

The time stamp was 19:42.

He remembered signing at 19:42. The case sat on the table between him and the laboratory representative. She rotated the handle toward him after he signed.

A station-security man entered the room and said boarding had been advanced because of weather.

Daniel gathered his wallet and packet.

He remembered walking through the corridor.

He remembered the laboratory woman beside him.

He remembered the security man holding the case.

Not Daniel.

The recollection arrived through the sensation of his right hand closing around empty air.

He had allowed the station officer to carry the case from the secure room to the aircraft because the officer said local rules required ground security to pass screened containers through the jet bridge.

Daniel challenged him.

The officer produced an airport authorization card.

At the aircraft door, the man told Daniel the case would be placed directly in the secured galley compartment while Daniel took his assigned seat to avoid drawing passenger attention.

Daniel agreed.

He had accepted a break in physical custody after signing that no break had occurred.

The case had been beyond his sight for at least six minutes.

Ward watched the realization move across his face.

“What?”

Daniel told them.

No one said it was understandable.

That helped.

Patel asked, “Would local procedure actually require that?”

“Possibly.”

“Did you verify it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Daniel looked at his coffee.

Because boarding had advanced. Because the corridor was crowded. Because the station officer’s badge scanned correctly. Because the laboratory representative showed no concern. Because Daniel had been awake for eighteen hours and wanted to sit down.

None of those answers improved the custody record.

“I accepted the explanation,” he said.

Ward folded his arms.

“Officially sound?”