Chapter 160: Briefings (Bonus Chapter)
The FAA’s registry office in Oklahoma City was rarely exciting. Rows of cubicles stretched under buzzing lights, the monotony broken only by the hum of servers. Most days, the biggest stir was when an old tail number lapsed into deregistration.
But today was not most days.
At 1:16 p.m., an analyst leaned forward at her monitor, eyes narrowing.
"Uh... Supervisor? You need to see this."
Her boss, a graying man with coffee-stained shirt cuffs, shuffled over reluctantly. The analyst pointed at her screen, where the registration entry for N914LX glowed in black and white.
"Aircraft Type: Airbus A380-800. Configuration: Private."
The supervisor blinked in slight disbelief, "That’s not possible."
"It’s in the system. Valid registry, all documentation were cleared last week."
"Owner?"
The analyst hesitated before answering. "One individual. Liam Scott. Date of birth: September 2007."
The supervisor froze. Then he muttered the only thing that came to mind: "Jesus Christ."
***
FAA Headquarters – Washington, D.C.
The phone on the deputy director’s desk rang with the shrill urgency of a fire alarm. She snatched it up, already bracing herself.
"Tell me it’s not true."
A voice on the other end sadly confirmed, "It’s true. An Airbus A380 registered to an eighteen-year-old American citizen. He departed LAX less than five minutes ago."
The director pinched the bridge of her nose. "Get me Homeland. Now."
***
Homeland Security – Office of Intelligence and Analysis
Within minutes, a conference call formed. Screens flickered to life in a secure operations center. Representatives from FAA, TSA, FBI, CIA, and Treasury filled the grid, with tensed looks on their faces.
The FAA deputy spoke first, with a firm voic, doing her best not to show how rattled she was.
"The tail number N914LX has been verified. The aircraft is an Airbus A380-800, private configuration. It is airworthy, cleared, and currently airborne, destination filed as a private island located in the Caribbean. The owner of record is Liam Scott, U.S. citizen, age eighteen. Repeat: eighteen."
The room erupted with chatters.
"That’s impossible—"
"An A380? Privately? No way—"
"Where did he get the money?"
"Silence," barked the chair from Homeland, and the voices died instantly. "Continue."
The FAA deputy cleared her throat. "The paperwork is legitimate. Registry processed last week, fees paid in full, all documents verified. The application came through a Delaware-based holding company but the ultimate beneficial owner is listed directly as Liam Scott."
The Homeland chair turned sharply. "FBI?"
An agent with close-cropped hair leaned forward. "We ran the name. Liam Scott, born in California, currently residing in Los Angeles. Eighteen years old. No criminal record, no red flags in standard databases. Parents are alive but they are separated from him, and each are remarried.. not to each other. Seems like he was abandoned at a young age. His personal tax records show no significant income. But—" The agent paused. "—there’s more."
All eyes fixed on him, as he clicked a file open, revealing a cascade of photos, bank ledgers, and property deeds.
"A month and four days ago, Scott purchased a penthouse apartment for $1.5m, paying in cash. He bought a apartment complex a few days later for $20m and he bought Bellemere Mansion in Holmby Hills outright for $73m. All purchases were paid in cash."
Gasps echoed across the line.
"Just last night, his Family Office structure tied to JP Morgan Private Banking was activated. And under he Family Office, he also established multiple trusts across the Cayman Islands, Singapore, and Luxembourg. The complexity of the structures is beyond anything we’d expect from a private individual, let alone an eighteen-year-old."
Another click was heard and there was more documents.
"There’s a security camera feed collected from the private hangar the aircraft was in and he was seen stepping down from a Maybach 6 Cabriolet concept vehicle — previously thought to exist only as prototypes — registered under his name in California. That’s the same car spotted causing traffic chaos en route to LAX. Viral footage already has over 200 million views online. We have to confirm anything from Mercedes but considering that it’s a one-off car, just like the one he drove last two weeks, we are made believe that the car belongs to him"
Murmurs erupted again.
"Also, he owns a luxury super yacht that’s supposed to cost at least $300 million and a Sikorsky S-92 Executive that cost $20m. And now," the agent finished grimly, "he has revealed possession of the only private Airbus A380 in existence. Estimated cost: over five hundred million dollars. Again, purchased outright."
The Homeland chair’s face hardened. He can’t believe that someone like this was able to make such insane financial transactions in the country without detection.
Not that he wasn’t detected. He was, as everything went through their systems but he did everything legitimately, which was impossible for an billionaire and even more impossible for someone his age.
But he didn’t let that get to him, as he continued the meeting.
"Treasury?"
A woman with sharp glasses and sharper eyes adjusted her headset, as she spoke, "We’ve been digging since the registration hit our system. His accounts ballooned with cash deposits beginning about a month ago. Transfers routed through layers of offshore entities, trusts, and special purpose vehicles linked to an inheritance record. But there’s something strange about it. The inheritance record, I mean."
"What’s that?" the Homeland chair repeated, his tone sharp.
"The inheritance record goes back to decades before Liam Scott was born but he was clearly stated there as the beneficiary. And the total assets value is undisclosed. It’s like someone’s shielding it. We’ve checked for any discrepancies or tampering, but nothing. Clean as a whistle. That leads me to believe he’s not a random teenager — he’s likely tied to an ultra-old family or a sovereign fund. Rockefeller-level."
The room fell silent.
The silence was broken by the CIA officer who spoke next, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a teenager playing rich. This is either someone fronting for a sovereign entity... or someone who has resources we cannot yet explain."
"Could it be foreign-backed?" one voice asked.
"China? UAE? Saudis?" another suggested.
"Why would they hide behind an American teenager?"
The Homeland chair raised a hand, silencing the speculation. "Enough. The key question: is Liam Scott a threat?"
The FBI agent replied carefully. "No hostile activity so far. No weapons purchases, no extremist affiliations. What we’ve found is... strange, but not overtly dangerous."
"Strange?"
The agent hesitated, then pulled up more files. "His digital footprint is inconsistent. He has two social media accounts but he’s a ghost. He does have contacts — a group of friends and the Manager of his Family Office. Also, over the past month, he has received calls from the Investor Relations department of JP Morgan and all the big tech companies in the world, which are all American companies. He also got calls from Disnēy and Eli Līlly."
"I think he has shares in these companies and judging by the scale of his toys, we can safely assume that he has an asset portfolio value of at least $10-50B. That’s based on his apparent liquidity and capital expenditures. He could be worth more, or it could be leveraged"
The CIA officer leaned back. "So, a ghost in the system, with toys that someone his age shouldn’t have."
***
The Homeland chair exhaled slowly. "Lock down the registry, effective immediately. FAA, scrub his ownership from public records and replace with ’Private Holder – Confidential.’ Treasury, continue tracing funds. FBI, full background investigation. CIA, monitor international chatter. I want a task force standing up within the hour. Treasury, see if you can dig up more on him and also get the IRS to dig too."
He looked around the room, voice firm. "Until further notice, the existence of Liam Scott’s ownership is classified. Public will get nothing. Not his name, not his age, not his origin. If asked, we state only that the aircraft is legally registered to a private entity."
The FAA deputy nodded grimly, "Understood."
The CIA officer added, "He’s already in the wind, en route to the Caribbean. We’ll have satellites watching every mile."
***
Meanwhile, Liam and his team just got down from the aircraft, are currently making their way to the villa.
Daniel still have that shocked expression on his face, as he had just been given a fresh dose of it.
He really has a private island. What else does he have?