PART 2
The heavy curtain to First Class snapped shut behind me.
The deep hum of the Boeing 777 engines felt like a ticking clock.
I stepped into the forward galley.
The professional smile disappeared from my face.
In its place came something colder.
Focus.
My junior flight attendant, Hannah, handed me the printed transaction report.
Her eyes were wide.
“Elena…”
She pointed toward one line.
The corporate American Express had paid for both first-class tickets.
Fourteen thousand dollars.
The same company card attached to a business credit line I had personally guaranteed with my own assets.
I stared at it.
Then reached into my tote bag and pulled out the company iPad.
I bypassed the regular passenger Wi-Fi and logged directly into the administrative system for Valecrest Holdings.
Adrian believed he was flying toward an eighty-million-dollar merger connected to Aurelia.
What he had apparently forgotten was that I still held the master administrative credentials for the company’s financial and digital infrastructure.
I opened the executive-control panel.
One option sat directly in front of me.
REVOKE ALL ACCESS.
My finger hovered over it.
The real turbulence had not even begun.
