Read My Seat Number Back To Me

I set the folder down on the counter, deliberately, and unzipped my backpack. My fingers found the lanyard first, then the badge itself, and I pulled it out into the light.

Navy card. Silver holographic seal. My photo, my name, and underneath it, in bold letters: FIELD COMPLIANCE AUDITOR, MERIDIAN ASSURANCE GROUP.

Cordelia's mimosa glass stopped halfway to her mouth.

"I'm not a passenger having a bad morning," I said, holding the badge up where Malik, Fiona, and Captain Reyes could all see it clearly. "I'm the field auditor Meridian Assurance sent to ride this route today. Meridian underwrites this airline's entire liability policy. That means I outrank every decision made in this cabin in exactly one way that matters to all of you right now."

"That doesn't prove anything," Fiona said, but her voice had lost its floor.

I turned to Malik and pointed at the radio clipped to his belt. "Call your Safety Operations desk. Right now. Read them the flight number and ask for the duty officer."

Malik looked at Reyes, who gave one short nod, and keyed the radio without arguing this time.

"Base, this is gate crew on PA1183, I need Safety Ops, priority."

The radio crackled, and a clipped voice answered. Malik held it toward me.

"This is Adaeze Bello, badge number on file with your office," I said into the radio, steady, loud enough to carry down the aisle. "Read my seat number back to me."

A pause. Then the voice came through the small speaker, tinny but unmistakable to everyone standing close enough to hear it. "Seat 2A, ticketed and cleared at six-ten this morning. Confirmed."

"And who is the seat currently assigned to on the manual override log?"

Another pause, longer this time.

"Employee override, seven-oh-two AM, by flight attendant Fiona Marsh, reassigned to a Cordelia Renner."

The cabin had gone completely silent. Even the girl filming two rows back had lowered her phone slightly, the moment suddenly too real to catch without flinching.

Fiona's hand froze over the intercom button on the wall, radio still crackling in Malik's grip, and for a long moment nobody in that galley moved at all.