Chapter 6 - The Sister Who Knew the Deal
Victor Sloane chose a private dining room in Midtown.
Damian brought Helen.
Victor hated that immediately.
“I asked for you.”
Damian sat.
“You got both.”
Victor looked older than his fifty-one years.
“I didn’t sabotage the aircraft.”
Helen said:
“Your access token altered security and maintenance records.”
“It was duplicated.”
“By whom?”
Victor looked at Damian.
“Elena.”
Damian felt nothing.
Not surprise.
Not yet belief.
Victor continued.
“She has used my administrative authority for years.”
“And you allowed that?”
“She said she needed emergency access.”
“To aviation systems?”
“Enterprise systems.”
Helen’s voice hardened.
“You are the CFO.”
“Yes.”
“You approved payments to Larkspur.”
Victor looked down.
“There’s context.”
Damian laughed.
“Seventy-three million dollars has context?”
Victor leaned forward.
“Elena created Larkspur with my help.”
Helen went still.
Victor continued.
“It began as an off-book strategic intelligence vehicle.”
“Off-book?”
Damian’s voice sharpened.
“Not hidden from accounting. Hidden from competitors.”
“Who approved it?”
Victor did not answer.
Helen whispered:
“Victor.”
He looked at her.
“You did.”
Helen froze.
Damian turned toward his mother.
“What?”
Victor opened a folder.
A four-year-old memorandum.
Helen’s signature appeared at the bottom.
She read.
Her face drained.
“I approved ten million.”
“Initial authorization.”
“For acquisition intelligence.”
“Yes.”
“Not seventy-three.”
“No.”
Damian stared.
“So Mom created the vehicle. Elena expanded it.”
Victor nodded.
“Without board approval.”
“Why?”
“To fund projects she didn’t want you controlling.”
Damian laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Victor continued.
“Some were legitimate. Some weren’t.”
“Define weren’t.”
Victor looked toward Helen.
“Elena made private investments using Larkspur cash.”
Helen’s expression hardened.
“How much?”
“Thirty-eight million.”
Damian stared.
“Company money?”
“Indirectly.”
“That means yes.”
Victor nodded.
“Some investments collapsed.”
“How much is gone?”
“Twenty-one million.”
Helen sat back.
Elena had not merely hidden consulting fees.
She had used corporate money as a private venture fund.
Victor continued.
“Then she began using AFL invoices to move money between accounts.”
Damian asked:
“Why help her?”
Victor’s eyes lowered.
“She knew about 2014.”
Frank’s old safety cover-up.
Helen went pale.
“She blackmailed you.”
“Not exactly.”
Damian laughed.
“You people love soft words.”
Victor looked at him.
“She said if I refused, she would disclose Apex, your mother’s settlement with Frank, and my approval memo.”
Helen whispered:
“You should have told me.”
Victor’s expression sharpened.
“You would have sacrificed me.”
She did not deny it.
Damian saw that.
Victor did too.
“That’s why.”
Helen sat very still.
Damian asked:
“Did Elena sabotage the plane?”
Victor said:
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know who did?”
“No.”
“Where is Leo Marsh?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you authorize false maintenance credentials?”
“No.”
“Did your token?”
“Yes.”
“So Elena had your token.”
“She knew enough to recreate access.”
Victor looked genuinely frightened now.
“Damian, your sister has been preparing for something.”
“What?”
“She asked me three months ago how quickly the emergency succession plan activates if you and Helen are unavailable.”
The room froze.
Helen whispered:
“What exactly did she ask?”
“Whether the board had discretion to name anyone else before the interim appointment became effective.”
Damian stared.
“And?”
“I told her no. She would serve until a board vote.”
Helen closed her eyes.
Victor added:
“She also asked whether your Helix signing authority could transfer.”
Damian’s hands clenched.
“How long ago?”
“Nine days.”
Frank was right.
The flight had been part of something deliberate.
Then Victor pushed a USB drive across the table.
“What’s this?” Damian asked.
“Copies of messages.”
“With Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Why keep them?”
Victor did not pretend courage.
“Insurance.”
Damian almost smiled.
“Against your co-conspirator.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“I never agreed to hurt anyone.”
“Only steal.”
Victor said nothing.
Helen looked at the USB.
“If this is real, you’re going to federal prosecutors.”
Victor nodded.
“I know.”
He looked at Damian.
“I want cooperation credit.”
“Then earn it.”
Damian stood.
Victor grabbed his wrist.
“Wait.”
Damian looked down.
“There’s one message you need to see now.”
Victor opened his phone.
Elena, three weeks earlier:
If Zurich happens, everything opens.
Victor:
Then disclose and take the hit.
Elena:
You take the hit. I take the company.
Victor:
That is not how this works.
Elena:
It is if the succession plan becomes relevant.
Damian read the last line twice.
Helen closed her eyes.
Victor whispered:
“I thought she was threatening you politically.”
Damian’s voice became cold.
“And now?”
Victor looked toward him.
“Now someone cut part of your aircraft.”
Damian left the restaurant with Helen.
Outside, she stopped.
“I failed both of you.”
Damian looked at her.
“Not now.”
“I favored you.”
He went still.
“Mom.”
“I told myself Elena needed freedom and you needed preparation.”
Helen laughed sadly.
“Maybe I simply understood you better because you were like me.”
Damian did not want this confession.
Not here.
Not while FBI vehicles waited half a block away.
“She felt second.”
Helen’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“That doesn’t make her a murderer.”
“No.”
“But it may explain why power mattered.”
Helen looked toward the city.
“Your father did the same thing to Adrian and me.”
Damian frowned.
“What?”
“He chose me.”
“And Adrian spent thirty years resenting you.”
“Yes.”
Damian thought of Elena.
Family patterns did not excuse crimes.
But they made them easier to predict after damage was done.
At the FBI office, agents began imaging Victor’s USB.
Within an hour they found messages validating his account.
Then Maya called Damian.
“Sir.”
“What happened?”
“I found Leo.”
Damian stopped.
“Where?”
“Not him. His badge.”
“Where?”
“In Frank’s locker.”
Damian’s face changed.
“What?”
“Security opened it with FBI present.”
Maya’s voice shook.
“Leo’s access badge was taped beneath Frank’s upper shelf.”
Damian closed his eyes.
A planted badge.
A forged sign-off.
A payout trail.
Someone was building a case against Frank.
Then Maya added:
“There’s money too.”
“What money?”
“Frank’s bank called him.”
Damian’s stomach sank.
“How much?”
“Eighty thousand dollars.”
“From who?”
“AFL Services.”
Damian looked through the FBI office window.
Frank Miller had just arrived downstairs.
Two agents were approaching him.
May you like
And for the first time since the jet was grounded, Damian realized the sabotage plan had not only been designed to kill.
It had been designed to leave behind a culprit.
