Of course, Dominique replied after the beverage service would be fine. Elena nodded and moved on, but the message was clear. The power dynamic had shifted. The woman they had casually displaced was now being approached with deference.
Not because she had made a scene, not because she had demanded recognition, but because she had demonstrated with silent precision exactly who held the real leverage. As the plane continued westward into the darkening sky, Dominique sipped her wine and waited. The next move was theirs. All flights are showing delayed.
All of them. Thomas Bradford's voice carried the strained disbelief of a man watching his company's operations unravel in real time. The Atlantic Global CEO stood in the center of the emergency operations room, surrounded by screens displaying cascading yellow and red alerts across the network map. Not delayed, sir.
"Not delayed, sir. Held for security verification," Jessica Lawson corrected him, her fingers flying across her keyboard. "The system is requiring executive authentication for every departure. It's not a crash. It's functioning exactly as designed during a security protocol activation."
"Which protocol?" Bradford asked. "Protocol 5. It's part of the Nexus integration we've been implementing." Bradford's expression darkened.
"And who authorized this activation? Jessica hesitated before answering. "Authorization code DR Alpha 9721. DR would be Dominique Reynolds, CEO of Nexus Systems.
"Reynolds?" Bradford repeated, confusion evident. Why would she trigger this the night before our contract signing? Get her on the phone. We're trying, sir.
She's not responding. According to our system, she's currently on flight 372 to Seattle. Bradford stared at his chief digital officer. She's on one of our planes right now.
Yes, sir. Boston to Seattle scheduled to arrive at 11:42 p.m. local time. "I want to speak to the captain of that flight immediately." As the situation intensified at headquarters, the effects rippled across Atlantic Global's entire network.
At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, the 7:15 p.m. departure to London sat fully boarded at the gate. passengers growing increasingly restless. "Ladies and gentlemen," announced the gate agent, forcing a smile through her growing anxiety. We're experiencing a brief system verification delay. We should have an update for you shortly.
An executive in 2C raised his hand. The flight tracker app says all Atlantic Global flights are delayed. What's really happening? The question hung in the air as dozens of other passengers reached for their phones to verify the claim.