Page 63 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
“We have what’s called a JABA MAX switch on all of our aircraft. About a dozen years ago there was a study by some research think tank that claimed there was an inherent flaw with that switch on one of our models. Just one model, mind you. Grishom decided to leak to the media that there was a cover up over at Drakos Aeronautics because we dismissed that study. That study, mind you, had been discredited by every legitimate researcher that conducted serious peer reviews, and that looked behind the numbers. But when we had an engine failure that resulted in a crash about a decade ago, which was a very rare occurrence for our planes compared to our competitors, Grishom tried to blame it on the so-called coverup. But it was just an unfortunate failure that was in no way systemic the way he was pretending it was, and that had nothing to do with the JABA switch.”
“What happened?” Savannah asked.
“I sued his ass,” Marcellus said. “I sued him for defamation. And I won. I wiped him out. Took everything he had. He claimed to be a whistleblower but the judge saw right through that argument. You can’t be a whistleblower to a lie, which was the case. I thought that lawsuit was the end of it. And him.”
“You said you wiped him out financially?” asked Alex.
Marcellus nodded. “I worked too hard to make certain we had the safest planes in the sky. He was left with nothing, that’s correct.”
“That’s what I call a good reason to want to get even,” said Kari. “We’ve got to find him before he strikes again.”
“But it happened twelve years ago,” said Savannah. “Why would he decide to sabotage planes right now? And how would he have the access?” It wasn’t adding up to Savannah.
“Those are questions only he can answer,” said Marcellus. “Kari’s right. We’ve got to find him.”
“You said he was a design specialist?” asked Alex.
“That’s right.”
“Would that make him capable of sabotaging your fleet?”
Marcellus nodded. “Access notwithstanding,” he said in a nod to Savannah, “yes. He’s brilliant. Everyone that works for me has to be. So yes he’s capable.”
Savannah looked at Oz. “You said you hired him before. Do you know where he is now?”
She was a bold bitch, Oz thought as he looked at Savannah. But he knew it wasn’t her, it was his still-hurting ass. But it wasn’t about her. Or him. If Bobcat was involved in any of it, that meant more innocent lives could be at risk. It was bigger than all of them in that room. “Last I heard he was still in Chicago. He never left his home base. He made his money working for various mobs.”
“Including yours?” Marcellus asked, but Oz didn’t respond.
Then Savannah’s phone began ringing. Embarrassed that she had taken it off of airplane mode when she got off the plane but failed to put it on vibration when they arrived in Florida, she pulled it out to turn it off. But when she saw the Caller ID, she looked at Marcellus. “It’s Niko.”
“Put him on Speaker,” Marcellus said.
Alex was pleased that he trusted them enough to do so. He was getting nothing but good vibes from his supposedlyestrangedhalf-brother.
Savannah placed the call on Speaker. “Niko, you okay?” she asked him.
“I tried to call Dad.”
“His phone is still in airplane mode.”
“What is it, Nikolas?” Marcellus asked him.
“Dad, it’s Kalayna.”
Marcellus’s heart squeezed. “What about Kalayna?”
When he heard nothing from Niko, his heart began to pound. “Nikolas, what about her?” he asked anxiously.
“It’s me, Pop.” Olivier had taken the phone.
“Tell me what’s going on? What about Kalayna?”
“We can’t find her.”
Marcellus jumped up. So did Savannah. Alex and Oz looked at each other. “What do you mean you can’t find her?” Marcellus asked his son.
“She was supposed to go to her house and come right back.”
