Something in the Water

The plane is a Gulfstream G650 and registered to a company in Russia called Aegys-Mutual Consultants. Aegys-Mutual Consultants is likely a shell company—a front for less savory businesses so they don’t get discovered. Erin’s pretty sure now that someone is missing the plane because “Sixty-million-dollar planes, their crews, and their owners don’t just vanish” (128).

While Mark looks through pictures from various criminal wanted lists to identify the bodies from the plane, Erin remembers the iPhone that was in the bag. Mark refuses to turn it on because it will project a signal, proving they found the bag and “hid the evidence” (132). Erin knows turning it on will save them time and give them information. She resolves to do it tomorrow and not tell Mark.

The next morning, Erin makes an excuse about needing to do something for work and takes the phone to the hotel business center to check it. She sets the phone to airplane mode, and connects to the hotel wi-fi. While she checks the text, the icon for someone typing comes up. Erin remembers iPhones “send read receipts to the sender,” which means someone knows the phone is in use again (139). Erin responds to the text and immediately realizes how stupid that was.