Chapter 651
Sienna and Thea caught the murderous intent in his eyes, not entirely understanding what he meant.
Marcus seemed to notice their confusion, and his aloof voice sounded in their ears.
Sienna turned her head and met his indifferent gaze.
“Before a private jet takes off, it must pass a series of checks.
The culprit laid the trap beforehand, making it seem covert. But all it takes is a single dynamic pressurization test prior to liftoff.
A tampered interface like this would one hundred percent rupture during ground testing. It would never survive the climb to thirty thousand feet p>
The entire scene went dead silent.
The technician pressed his lips together, saying nothing.
Marcus continued, “To bypass a full pre-flight inspection, there are only two possibilities.
First, all the diagnostic equipment the crew used that day had its data manipulated.
Second, the saboteur didn’t strike early on the ground.
Instead, they waited until the plane took off, reached a stable cruising altitude, and shut down the secondary self-check system—striking mid-air p>
Sienna’s heart skipped a beat.
She had assumed the killer had laid the trap beforehand.
But after hearing Marcus’s theory, she realized the enemy’s methods were far more terrifying than anyone had imagined.
The killer had actually been on the plane?
A sharp glint flashed across Marcus’s usually lazy, detached eyes as he turned to look at Jarred.
Jarred’s icy stare swept over the field of wreckage, his voice dripping with freezing intent.
“The saboteur was incredibly professional, highly trained in standard pre-flight protocols, and intimately familiar with all of Maloney’s private crew’s operating habits.
This person not only needed a strong grasp of mechanics but also required flight clearance.
They needed authorization to access the cabin systems and know every single blind spot in the crew’s self-checks.
It wasn’t an outsider. It was an inside job p>
The wind howled through the forest, biting right down to the bone.
Sienna completely understood.
There was a traitor in Maloney’s inner circle.
Beside her, Thea glanced at Sienna, her face filled with equal disbelief.
Jarred’s already cold black eyes clouded over instantly.
He turned to the police officer behind him, his voice low. “How many crew members were registered for that flight? Do you have their detailed files p>
“Yes, sir,” one of them hurried over, handing him the documents.
“There were six in total. The captain, the co-pilot, and two cabin crew. Finally, there was Maloney and his assistant p>
Jarred took the file and flipped it open, his gaze as sharp as a scalpel.
His years of criminal investigation allowed him to prioritize suspects in an instant.
Marcus dropped his aloof expression, and Sienna and Thea leaned in to listen closely.
“Out of the six, the two flight attendants were restricted to the passenger cabin without cockpit access.
They had no way of reaching the fuel lines, the equipment bay, or the wiring hubs.
Even if they were bought off, they lacked the technical skills and spatial freedom to install an explosive device on their own p>
He slid his finger down the page, his eyes landing on the captain and co-pilot’s names.
“Both pilots.controlled the entire flight system, were present for the pre-flight checks from start to finish, and knew every blind spot on the plane.
In theory, either one of them had the opportunity to alter the data and plant a bomb p>
These two had flown for Maloney for over a decade, so Jarred was reluctant to believe they would betray him.
But nothing was impossible; maybe those ten years had simply been their cover.
Jarred frowned deeply, his eyes locking onto the final profile.
“Then there’s the assistant, Dustin Vale. He didn’t fly the plane, but he had greater access to information than the crew.
He knew the habits of every crew member, including Maloney’s.
He was authorized to enter the cockpit and could quietly slip into the equipment bay to plant the detonator when everyone’s guard was down.
He can’t be ruled out either p>
At this point, Jarred changed the subject and turned to Captain Halloway. “Have the families identified the recovered bodies p>