Chapter 6 - The Hidden Circuit
The bomb-disposal team arrived within minutes, expecting an explosive device.
Instead, they found something more complicated.
The electronic unit was designed to send false commands into the engine’s control system. When the countdown reached zero, the device would force the fuel valves open during the next ignition test.
The engine would accelerate beyond its safe limit and destroy itself.
Anyone standing nearby could be killed.
Martin examined the wiring.
“This was installed professionally.”
Ethan leaned over the diagram displayed on the technician’s tablet.
“The device isn’t independent.”
“What do you mean?” Martin asked.
“It needs a second signal.”
He pointed toward a thin black wire disappearing behind the lower casing.
The engineers removed another panel and traced the wire into the aircraft’s central maintenance connection.
Someone had linked the sabotage device directly to the plane’s internal communication system.
That meant the trigger could be activated from inside the cockpit.
Director Crane ordered the aircraft evacuated, though no one had been aboard.
Security officers searched every compartment.
In the cockpit, they found a maintenance access card inserted beneath the flight-management console. The card belonged to an engineer named Lucas Ward.
Lucas had worked at the airport for sixteen years and had been standing in the hangar only minutes earlier.
Now he was missing.
Crane demanded that security issue an immediate arrest order.
Martin was less certain.
“Someone may have planted his card.”
“Or he may be part of this,” Crane replied.
Ethan studied the remote trigger more carefully.
A handwritten number was scratched into the casing.
417.
He remembered seeing the same number in his father’s notebook.
One of the listed aircraft registration codes ended in 417.
“Where is aircraft 417?” Ethan asked.
A technician searched the airport database.
The answer made everyone uneasy.
Aircraft 417 had arrived less than an hour earlier and was parked at a private terminal on the opposite side of the airport.
Its passengers were scheduled to depart before sunrise.
Director Crane immediately picked up his radio.
“Ground that aircraft.”
No response came from the private terminal.
He tried again.
Static.
The airport map suddenly disappeared from the control screens. One by one, camera feeds across the private terminal went black.
Martin looked at the countdown.
Twelve minutes remained.
Ethan understood before anyone else.
“Flight 782 isn’t the real target.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“The sabotage here was meant to keep all the engineers busy. Aircraft 417 is where they’re going.”
Crane ordered security vehicles to the private terminal.
As officers rushed out, Ethan opened his father’s old silver case again.
Beneath the empty space where the notebook had been, he found a false bottom.
Inside lay a small brass key and a photograph.
The picture showed his father standing beside three men in front of aircraft 417.
One of those men was Martin.
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Another was Daniel Ross.
The third was Director Harold Crane.
