"Precision Dine Technologies' lawyer said something into the statement I think you need to hear directly." She pulled the phone back, scrolled, and read aloud in the flat, careful tone of someone quoting rather than editorializing. Given the ongoing $5.9 million public reward associated with this vehicle, our client believes any repair or continued use of the motorcycle in question would constitute active willful infringement, and we are prepared to pursue both civil and criminal remedies if necessary. The word criminal landed in that garage like a dropped wrench. They're threatening criminal charges, Sal said disbelief thick in his voice.
Over a motorcycle. They're threatening criminal charges because there's $5.9 million of attention on that motorcycle. Denise corrected gently. Nobody files an injunction over a quiet repair in somebody's garage.
They file it when the cameras are already there. Marcus closed his eyes for a long moment, and when he opened them, there was something in his expression that Dutch hadn't seen in years. Not the confidence of a man who'd survived 30 years of impossible situations, but the raw exposed uncertainty of someone realizing the ground under him might not be as solid as he'd believed.
Ethan, Marcus said. The boy looked up. Whatever you're about to tell me about that engine, Marcus said, you might not get the chance to prove it today. Ethan didn't answer right away. He looked down at the multimeter still in his hand at the bike he'd spent the last hour finally beginning to understand after four days of watching grown men fail.
And something in his young face hardened in a way that made Reaper actually stop and look at him twice. "Can I say something?" Ethan asked. "Kid, this isn't your fight," Reaper said, not unkindly this time. Something almost protective underneath the words.
"This is a legal mess. Lawyers, patents, injunctions. That's not multimeter work. I know that." Ethan looked at Marcus.
But you said you vetted every supplier. You said you trusted Ricky Delgado's word. I don't know anything about your business, sir, but I know engines. And if that injection housing was actually reverse engineered from someone else's patent, it wouldn't be a perfect fit for a custom-built system like this. It'd be close, not perfect.
Marcus frowned. What are you saying? I'm saying I noticed something about that housing when I was checking the pressure points 20 minutes ago. Ethan set the multimeter down carefully on the workbench. It's not standard.
Whoever machined it modified the internal channel geometry to match your engine's specific tolerances. That's not something you do if you're stealing somebody else's design wholesale. That's something you do if you're building something custom from scratch and just happen to land on a similar solution because there's only so many ways to solve the same physics problem. Sal straightened up slowly. You're saying it might not actually be their patent.