Chapter 2 - The Blue Airplane
Daniel locked the deadbolt.
Julian immediately stopped knocking.
For several seconds, nobody inside the medical suite spoke.
Then Daniel heard footsteps retreating down the corridor.
Vanessa straightened.
“You’re misunderstanding this.”
“Then explain why my CFO is outside my son’s room asking you for a drive.”
“He probably meant a computer drive.”
“Inside Noah’s recovery suite?”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“You’re frightened. You’re not thinking rationally.”
Daniel almost laughed.
It was one of Vanessa’s favorite tactics.
Turn accusation into diagnosis.
“You just put my recovering son on the floor.”
“I stopped him from falling.”
“She shoved me,” Noah said.
“Enough, Noah.”
Daniel’s voice cut across the room.
“You do not tell him to be quiet.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Something hostile entered her eyes.
“You have no idea what he heard.”
“No. But I’m about to.”
Daniel turned toward Grace.
“Can you stay with him?”
“I’m not leaving this room.”
Grace had worked as Noah’s private nurse since the surgery. She was fifty-two, disciplined, observant and almost impossible to intimidate.
Daniel trusted her.
That realization suddenly frightened him.
He had trusted Vanessa too.
Noah tugged Daniel closer.
“Dad, close the curtain.”
Daniel did.
Vanessa moved forward.
“You are not interrogating a seven-year-old after surgery.”
“He asked for privacy from you.”
Daniel pulled the privacy curtain around the bed.
Grace positioned herself between Vanessa and the opening.
Inside, Noah turned his airplane upside down.
One wing had a tiny battery compartment.
Noah opened it with his thumbnail.
Inside was a microSD card.
Daniel stared.
“How did you get that?”
“It was in the recorder.”
“You removed it?”
Noah nodded.
“I thought she might take it.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“When?”
“This morning.”
He sat beside the bed.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Noah swallowed.
“I woke up when Vanessa came in with Mr. Reed. They thought I was sleeping.”
“What did they say?”
“They talked about numbers.”
“What numbers?”
Noah frowned, trying to remember.
“Twelve million four hundred… something.”
Daniel exchanged a glance with Grace.
Twelve million four hundred thousand?
Twelve million four hundred thousand shares?
Noah continued.
“Mr. Reed said your signature would work because you signed the first page.”
Daniel felt cold.
“What first page?”
“He said, ‘The rest can be rebuilt around it.’”
Vanessa suddenly pulled the curtain aside.
“That’s enough.”
Grace stopped her.
“Back away.”
Vanessa stared at the nurse.
“You work for me.”
“No,” Grace replied. “I work for Mr. Mercer.”
“Actually, Mercer Family Office pays your invoices.”
Daniel stood.
“And I own it.”
Vanessa’s smile was thin.
“For now.”
Silence.
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Daniel looked at her.
“For now?”
Vanessa recovered quickly.
“You’re twisting everything.”
Daniel held out his hand to Noah.
“Give me the card.”
The boy hesitated.
Then shook his head.
“What?”
“Mom used to say not to give important things away when people are angry.”
Daniel froze.
Claire had said that.
His first wife had been careful about everything—documents, passwords, people.
She had died from cancer when Noah was four.
The blue airplane had been one of the last gifts Daniel had bought during the months Claire spent in treatment.
Noah closed the compartment.
“I want Grace to keep it.”
Daniel’s instinct was to insist.
Then he stopped himself.
His son had already been ignored once tonight.
“All right.”
Grace accepted the airplane.
Vanessa laughed softly.
“This is absurd.”
Daniel stepped outside the curtain.
“No. What’s absurd is that you think I’m going to pretend none of this happened.”
The lights suddenly returned.
Monitors rebooted.
The call button illuminated.
Vanessa glanced at the ceiling camera in the corner.
Daniel noticed.
He immediately called yacht security.
“Lock down the vessel. Nobody disembarks. Nobody accesses the server room without my authorization.”
The security chief hesitated.
“Sir…”
“What?”
“There was already an authorization.”
“From whom?”
“Mrs. Mercer.”
Daniel stared at Vanessa.
“For what?”
“A system maintenance shutdown. Signed at 7:42 tonight.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel’s voice became quiet.
“I never authorized her to shut down medical backup systems.”
The chief replied, “Sir, the request carried your digital approval.”
Daniel’s pulse jumped.
“My digital approval?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at Noah.
The boy’s words returned.
Your signature would work because you signed the first page.
Daniel said, “Preserve every server log.”
The security chief paused again.
“Mr. Mercer… someone started deleting them twelve minutes ago.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
May you like
Julian was gone.
And Daniel suddenly understood that the attack on his son might be only the smallest piece of what had begun.
