“I know.”
Silence.
Then Victoria said, “I meant what I said about your time having value.”
“No.”
“You don't even know what I'm offering.”
“That's why I'm saying no early.”
“Elias.”
“What?”
“You spent six hours helping protect a stranger who insulted you.”
“Yes.”
“Why is accepting compensation harder?”
He did not have a good answer.
Pride, perhaps.
Or fear that once he allowed the old world to pay him again, it would begin making claims on him.
Victoria seemed to hear his silence.
“This isn't charity.”
“I didn't say it was.”
“You're thinking it.”
He smiled unwillingly.
“Maybe.”
“I need a consultant to document the mechanical evidence from a witness perspective.”
“You have engineers.”
“None of them saw the vehicle before it was disturbed.”
“Marcus did.”
“He wants you there.”
Elias looked toward home.
He had one transmission job scheduled.
The client could wait until afternoon.
Rent was due in six days.
“How long?”
“Two hours.”
“Three maximum.”
“Two and a half.”
Victoria laughed.
“Fine.”
“And I'm gone before school gets out.”
“Yes.”
“No job pitch.”
A pause.
“Victoria.”
“No job pitch.”
“Promise?”
“I promise not to offer employment.”
The distinction made him suspicious.
“Fine.”
At Hale Cybernetics, Elias felt more out of place than he had on the highway.
Glass.
Steel.
Security gates.
Silent elevators.
People wearing clothes that cost more than his monthly mortgage.
He arrived in clean jeans and the least stained work jacket he owned.
Reception expected him.
That alone felt wrong.
A security officer escorted him upstairs.
Marcus met him outside a secure conference room.
“You came.”
“For two and a half hours.”
“Victoria told me.”
“I'm serious.”
“So am I.”
Marcus handed him temporary credentials.
Elias looked at them.
“Consultant?”
“Don't get excited.”
“I wasn't.”
Inside were police investigators, corporate counsel, two forensic vehicle specialists, and members of Victoria's internal security team.
The damaged SUV appeared across several large screens.
Elias spent the next two hours explaining only what he had actually observed.
No dramatic claims.
No speculation beyond evidence.
The damaged tire looked inconsistent with ordinary road failure.
A separate defect in a critical vehicle system appeared recent and deliberate.
The combination suggested planning.
The road contamination and later junction obstruction made coincidence increasingly unlikely.
One investigator asked, “Could a random mechanic have recognized the initial signs?”
Elias considered the question.
“Some could.”
“But you did because of your background.”
“Yes.”
“What training?”
He described it.
The room changed the way the roadside had.
People recalibrating him after discovering his résumé did not match his clothes.
Elias hated that moment.
He always had.
Before credentials, he was a mechanic.
After credentials, suddenly his sentences weighed more.
The sentences had not changed.
During a break, Marcus found him standing by the window.
“You okay?”
“I hate rooms like this.”
“Conference rooms?”
“Rooms where people decide whether you're worth listening to after they read your résumé.”
Marcus looked at him.
“That directed at me?”
“Partly.”
“Fair.”
They stood silently.
Marcus eventually said, “I've spent twenty-three years assuming the unknown variable is dangerous.”
“That's your job.”
“Sometimes.”
Elias looked over.
Marcus continued.
“Sometimes it just becomes habit.”
He thought about the roadside.
“When I saw you next to her vehicle, I didn't see a guy helping.”
“What did you see?”