They returned to the aircraft before sunset. Once the panel was photographed, Erik removed the screws one by one while Nora held the light steady. The metal lifted with a dry groan. Beneath it was a narrow compartment, just deep enough for flat cases and document tubes. Someone had built it into the cargo floor long before the flight. Inside, they found a sealed canvas pouch, two undeveloped film rolls in metal canisters, a second cargo manifest, and a stack of customs tags whose numbers did not match the official paperwork. Beneath those sat several photographs wrapped in waxed cloth. Nora laid them out on an empty crate one by one.
The images showed carved stone figures, bronze pieces, and small gold objects packed inside plain industrial boxes. The labels on those boxes matched the fake company listed on the second manifest. The “machine parts” in the hold had not been machine parts at all. Part of the load had been smuggled antiquities hidden inside an ordinary freight shipment.
For Nora, the discovery explained the note at once. Adam had not hidden the evidence after being bribed or threatened. He had hidden it before anyone reached the crash site, while he still believed he and the captain might die in the snow or be blamed for the route deviation. He had created insurance against whoever was behind the cargo. Erik looked at the false manifest in silence. “Someone wanted this plane off the normal route,” he said. “And someone else wanted the proof gone.”