"Does it check whether medical accommodations were fulfilled, whether someone tried to suppress evidence, and whether a passenger was labeled disruptive after requesting an appeal?" Douglas cleared his throat. "Those sound like reasonable areas to examine." Maya held his gaze. "They're not merely reasonable. They're in the appendix your team asked us to shorten because it made the airline's own history look uncomfortable."
The silence that followed felt different from every silence Maya had heard on the airplane. There had been contempt in some of those silences and fear in others. This one held confusion. Douglas looked toward Petra, who was already studying Maya with a new expression. On the screen, an older board member leaned closer to his camera.
"Ms. Williams," he said, "how do you know what's in the Williams Meridian appendix?"
Maya opened her bag and placed a slim black folder on the table. On its cover was a familiar logo: WILLIAMS MERIDIAN GROUP. She opened it to the final agreement, the one Douglas had spent weeks trying to get signed before the quarter ended. Then she turned the page so the chairman could see the signature block. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND FOUNDER: MAYA WILLIAMS.
Douglas stared at the page. His eyes moved from the signature block to the woman across the table and then back again. Lena watched his face change through recognition, disbelief, and the beginning of panic. Petra stopped moving altogether. On the screen, the chief financial officer slowly removed his glasses.
"I'm the person you're expecting at nine tomorrow morning," Maya said. "Williams Meridian is my company." No one spoke. Maya let the silence remain, not to savor the effect, but because she wanted each person in the room to understand the plainness of the fact. "I am the CEO whose signature you need on the eighty-million-dollar agreement. And tonight I was the passenger your employees decided did not matter."
Douglas opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked suddenly older than he had when Maya entered the room. "Ms. Williams, I ... there has been a serious misunderstanding."
Maya shook her head. "The misunderstanding is that you think my title changes whether what happened was wrong." She glanced toward Lena.
"Ms. Ortiz didn't know who I was when she helped me. Neither did the teacher in 2C, the woman who gave me juice, or the man who offered to testify. They didn't need to know. Your crew had my name and my medical documentation, and that should have been enough."
The head of passenger services on the screen lowered her gaze. A member of the audit committee quietly asked whether the meeting was being recorded. Petra confirmed that the participants had been informed and the discussion was being documented by both parties. Douglas took a breath and tried to recover. "Of course your position gives this matter additional significance," he said.
Maya looked at him sadly. "That's the second mistake. The matter was significant before you knew who I was."
Douglas reached for the check, perhaps intending to remove it from view. Maya stopped him with a small gesture. "Leave it there."