The real problem.
Not Carol.
Not Gary.
Not one seat.
A system.
A complaint system had worked perfectly at making patterns invisible.
“Then this is what the meeting is about.”
Maya nodded.
“Good.”
“No personal payout.”
“Agreed.”
“No lifetime flights.”
Kenji smiled.
“You already own a jet.”
Alexander ignored him.
“We require an independent investigation.”
“Yes.”
“Public reporting.”
“Within reasonable confidentiality limits.”
“Training?”
David nodded.
“Not generic online bias modules. Measurable customer-service and escalation reform.”
“Complaint aggregation.”
“Yes.”
“Executive accountability.”
Maya looked at him.
“That becomes governance, not contract compliance.”
“Then Nexus does not dictate it.”
Alexander said.
“We recommend it.”
That distinction mattered.
The next morning, Thomas Davies sat in Transatlantic Air’s Dallas boardroom.
He had slept forty-three minutes.
The board had been in emergency session most of the night.
Stock trading had become violent.
News coverage was relentless.
The company’s direct operational losses were enormous.
Projected market-value damage had crossed two billion dollars.
But Thomas’s greatest fear was no longer the temporary system restriction.
It was what the incident revealed.
The internal review team had shown him the previous complaints.
Twenty-seven.
He had never seen them.