Chapter 5 - The Grandfather’s Secret
The tension in the tiny apartment was suffocating. Sterling’s men stepped forward, but Sterling held up a hand, his eyes locked on Marcus. "You’re playing a dangerous game, Marcus. You’re out of your league."
"Get out," Marcus growled, dialing the local police chief’s number on his cell phone. "Or I report you for trespassing and threatening a minor."
Sterling sneered, snapping his briefcase shut. "You’ll regret this, Mrs. Vance," he hissed, before sweeping out of the apartment with his men.
Once they were gone, Marcus sank into one of the cheap kitchen chairs. Leo slowly emerged from his bedroom, holding the rusted toolbox tightly against his chest.
"Your grandfather, Arthur, was my mentor," Marcus began, his voice softening. "He was the most brilliant engineer I ever met. Twelve years ago, he discovered a catastrophic, hidden flaw in the hydraulic architecture of the new Apex Dynamics cargo planes. A flaw that would cause the landing gear to completely jam mid-air if the cabin pressure dropped even slightly."
Elena gasped. "But the news said Arthur was fired for incompetence."
"A cover-up," Marcus said bitterly. "It would have cost Apex billions to redesign the fleet. Sterling framed Arthur, discredited him, and buried the research. Arthur died of a broken heart shortly after you were born, Leo. But he left you this." Marcus pointed to the toolbox. "That bent wrench? He forged that himself. It’s the only tool in the world designed to manually override Sterling's flawed system."
Suddenly, Marcus’s radio—clipped to his belt—erupted with frantic static. It was the emergency air traffic control frequency.
"Mayday, Mayday! This is Apex Flight 707. We have experienced a sudden cabin depressurization. Attempting emergency descent, but our primary and secondary hydraulic systems have failed. The landing gear is jammed. We cannot deploy the wheels. Repeat, we are coming in without wheels!"
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Marcus went pale. "Flight 707... that's Apex's new flagship cargo jet. It’s carrying seventy tons of volatile lithium batteries. If it belly-lands on the runway..."
"It won't just crash," Leo said quietly, his young eyes suddenly looking ancient and sharp. "It'll turn the entire airport into a crater."
