Page 137 of Mile High Ruin

I look at it again. The transfer came through the aviation staffing company that handled Sloane’s assignment, which would ordinarily make it unremarkable, except that I own the company and know exactly what its contractors are paid.

“This is too high.”

“Much too high,” Iosef says. “Her agreed rate was entered correctly when she was booked, but the amount that actually left the agency account was several times larger.”

Marek leans forward to look at the screen. “How much larger?”

Iosef tells him.

Marek’s expression changes. “That is not an administrative error.”

“That’s what concerns me,” Iosef replies. “The agency records show the correct amount until the final payment authorization, and then someone manually altered it before release.”

I look at him. “Who approved it?”

“That’s what we’re tracing now. The authorization credentials belonged to someone inside the company, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the person whose credentials were used actually made the change.”

Anton folds his arms. “So somebody with access to one of Vadim’s own companies quietly pays Sloane far more than she is supposed to receive on the same day a tracker hidden in her bag leads Petrov’s men to the aircraft.”

“Yes.”

The room goes still.

I look down at the transfer again. That is no longer something I can dismiss as unfortunate timing.

If an outside company had paid her, there would be dozens of explanations worth examining. This payment came from an account I control, through a company whose payroll structure I understand, and somebody interfered with the amount after Sloane had already been assigned to my flight.

Marek watches me. “She knows you own the aviation company?”

“Yes.”

“And she knows you can see its payments?”

“I doubt she has thought about it.”

Iosef shakes his head. “If she arranged this herself, doing it through one of your own companies would be remarkably stupid.”

“That doesn’t make it harmless,” Anton says.

“No, but it changes the question,” Iosef replies. “We are no longer asking only whether Sloane was paid. We need to know who inside the agency altered the payment and why they wanted the extra money to appear as legitimate wages.”

I look at the number again. The implication is obvious. If someone intended to frame her, this is useful evidence. If she is involved, it’s equally useful as payment disguised inside an ordinary transaction.

Either way, somebody expected us to find it eventually.

Marek picks up the tablet and studies the authorization trail again, his earlier amusement gone now that the problem has moved from Sloane’s bank account into one of our own companies.

“So either someone inside the agency is compromised, or someone with enough access to imitate an internal authorization wanted the payment to look legitimate,” he says. “Neither option is particularly comforting.”

Anton leans over his shoulder and looks at the entry. “Can we identify the account that changed it?”

“Eventually,” Iosef says. “The credentials belong to a payroll manager in New York, but she says she never touched the file after the original amount was approved. Her log-in was used remotely less than an hour before the payment batch closed.”

“From where?”

“We’re still tracing that.”

I look at him. “How long?”