Over the next four hours, she built a ghost map.
The ePay log showed the payment routed through a standard supplier: "CleanCorp UK Ltd." CleanCorp was real. They’d supplied Airbus for a decade. But this specific invoice had been paid into a bank account ending in -8842, not CleanCorp’s usual -2291 account.
That evening, Clara filed her report. It was titled: epay airbus uk
But Code #UK-7729 was an anomaly. The system had flagged a single invoice: £14.87 for a box of anti-static wipes, paid via ePay, authorized by a manager named "T. Ashworth," and delivered to "Bay 12, A-wing."
But Clara knew the money wasn't the real story. The real story was what else the Phantom had accessed. Because ePay wasn't just a shopping cart. It was a gateway. From there, the Phantom had peeked into the inventory system, learning exactly when the Broughton plant was low on carbon-fiber prepreg—the expensive, sensitive material used for wings. Over the next four hours, she built a ghost map
The problem? Bay 12 didn't exist. Clara had cross-referenced the Broughton plant’s 3D BIM model. Bay 12 had been decommissioned in 2017, replaced by a composite curing oven.
She flew to Broughton the next day.
Clara worked for the European Audit Agency, a body so obscure that even its own employees joked it was a punishment posting. Her current assignment was a routine compliance check on "ePay," the digital procurement platform used by Airbus UK’s Broughton plant for small-tool purchases. Think drill bits, safety gloves, and calibration sensors—a million tiny transactions that kept the A350 wing assembly line humming.