"Perhaps," the chair replied. "But he also had a professional obligation not to certify work that wasn't performed. Both things can be true."
The auditors interviewed the mechanics who had serviced the Sovereign during the last six quarters. Two said they had been told to close work orders once computerized alarms were cleared, even when mechanical inspection remained incomplete. A third admitted that he had signed an inspection entry after a supervisor assured him the procedure had already been done by another shift. None of them was proud of those decisions. Several believed they had been keeping the fleet moving, and that the missing work would be completed later when schedules improved.
Later never came. The small mechanical failures accumulated, and when the electronic controller finally refused to start the engine, Thornton treated the refusal as a problem with software rather than an accurate description of neglect. The machine had been less willing to cooperate with the paperwork than the people around it. In that sense, the Sovereign's failure was not sudden at all. It was a long record of postponed questions reaching the point where they could no longer be postponed.
Thornton was summoned to Cole Tower the following morning. He arrived in a dark suit with his attorney's number written on a card inside his jacket pocket. On the way up to the executive floor he watched financial news on the elevator screen, where a short clip showed Russell Yates stepping onto the yacht beneath a headline about the competition. His own face appeared briefly in the background. Thornton looked away before the doors opened.
Cole met him in a conference room without cameras. Naomi sat beside an outside employment lawyer, and an independent technical representative attended to answer questions about the maintenance findings. Thornton had brought a folder of explanations, many prepared before he saw the evidence. He began by describing his years of service and the difficulty of maintaining a flagship vessel under demanding operating schedules.
Cole let him speak. Then the audit representative laid out the missing inspections, the fuel substitution review, the altered meaning of technician acknowledgments, and the unexplained discretionary spending. Thornton objected to several conclusions and blamed subordinates for poor execution. When shown his written instruction to close an exhaust work order without the physical inspection Elena requested, he stopped speaking long enough to study the date.
"That was a scheduling decision," he said finally. "I had no reason to believe the engine would be endangered."
"What did you believe the inspection was for?" Cole asked.
Thornton did not answer immediately. "To confirm a suspected fault."
"And you chose not to confirm it. But the quarterly report says you did."
The meeting lasted eleven minutes after the formal discussion began. Thornton was informed that his employment was being terminated for cause based on the documented failures of oversight, inaccurate maintenance certifications, and financial-control issues requiring further review. Cole did not accuse him publicly of crimes that investigators had not established. He gave Thornton written notice, confirmed the preservation of company records, and required him to return his access credentials.