“That’s weird.”
Chuck opened an internal monitoring panel.
Then his expression changed.
There were fourteen similar events.
Then twenty-two.
“Okay.”
Maria looked at him.
“That sounded like bad okay.”
“It’s probably a synchronization problem.”
Within eight minutes, they knew it was not.
Chicago baggage routing began generating verification requests.
Boston’s station could not finalize a departure package.
Miami ticketing changes stopped processing automatically.
Los Angeles crew scheduling entered restricted mode.
New York fuel coordination required manual confirmation.
Nothing unsafe happened.
Aircraft already airborne continued normally.
Pilots never lost operational control.
But the network responsible for preparing the next wave of departures began slowing rapidly.
A modern airline survives on timing.
A delay of five minutes in one place can disappear.
A delay of fifteen across fifty locations becomes structure.
By the time the Director of Global Operations, Frank O’Connell, reached the floor, dozens of departures had been placed on ground hold because supporting data could not be validated quickly enough.
“What happened?”
Maria turned.
“Nexus integrity mode.”
Frank stopped.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“Cyberattack?”
“Doesn’t look like one.”
“Server failure?”
“No.”
Frank stared at the screens.
Red indicators were spreading.
“Call Nexus.”
“We have.”
“And?”
“They confirmed an integrity review.”
“Based on what?”
“They won’t say at the support level.”
Frank swore under his breath.
“Get me someone with a title.”
Within twenty minutes, Transatlantic’s chief operating officer, Richard Maxwell, was on a secure line with Nexus corporate support.