Some of those records involved equipment supplied by AeroCore.
Ethan had included the discrepancies in an appendix to his submission.
He had not accused the company of wrongdoing.
He had simply asked for the records to be independently verified.
But someone at AeroCore had apparently seen the submission.
And the information had somehow become connected to the security alert.
Olivia understood that the situation might be more serious than a simple administrative mistake.
She called her supervisor.
She explained what had happened.
Her supervisor instructed her to preserve the documents and avoid discussing the investigation with anyone not authorized to receive the information.
Olivia agreed.
Then she turned toward Ethan.
"Mr. Miller, I need to ask you something important."
"Go ahead."
"Have you received any unusual messages or phone calls since submitting your research?"
Ethan thought.
"One."
"What happened?"
"A man called me last week. He said he represented an aviation technology company. He wanted to buy the rights to SkyBridge."
"Which company?"
"He didn't say at first. Later, he mentioned AeroCore."
"What did you tell him?"
"I said I wasn't interested in selling."
"Did he threaten you?"
"Not directly. He said the project could become difficult if I continued making accusations."
Olivia's expression became serious.
"Do you still have the number?"
"Yes."
Ethan found the call record.
Olivia photographed it with her official device.
"This is important."
Ethan looked toward the cockpit.
"Does this mean the captain was involved?"
"I don't know. We should not make assumptions."
"But someone sent him my name."
"Yes. And we need to find out who."
The aircraft finally departed after the airline's ground security team completed its verification.
Daniel remained in the cockpit for the remainder of the flight.
He was no longer confident.
He had followed an incomplete message and had turned a passenger into a security concern without checking the facts.
He knew that Olivia would report the incident.
He also knew that the airline would review his conduct.
But there was another reason he felt uneasy.
He recognized the name AeroCore.
Several months earlier, the company had approached the airline with a proposal to provide maintenance support.
Daniel had attended a meeting with one of its representatives.
The representative had been unusually interested in the airline's internal procedures.
He had asked questions about security alerts, passenger verification, and the way operations messages were distributed.
Daniel had thought the questions were ordinary business inquiries.
Now he wondered whether they had been something else.
Two hours into the flight, Olivia received a message from her supervisor.
The agency had located the original operations notification.
It had not come from the airline's normal security channel.
Instead, it had been submitted through an external contractor account.
The account belonged to a company providing administrative support to several aviation businesses.
That company had recently received payments from AeroCore.
Olivia read the message twice.
She then looked toward Ethan.
"We have confirmed that the alert was not generated through the normal airline security system."
Ethan frowned.
"Someone sent it deliberately?"
"We don't know that yet. But it appears to have come from an external account."
"Why would anyone do that?"
Olivia looked at the technical submission.
"Your research may have uncovered information that someone did not want examined."
Ethan stared at the screen.
He had never imagined that a small university project could attract this kind of attention.
He had only wanted to improve emergency communication.
Now he was beginning to understand that his research might have exposed something much larger.
When the aircraft landed in Washington, Olivia asked Ethan to remain in his seat for a few minutes.
She did not want him surrounded by reporters or curious passengers.
A member of her agency team was waiting near the gate.