“Evelyn, the question is not whether he guessed correctly.”
“I didn’t guess.”
Mason’s voice remained quiet.
Cameron looked at him.
Mason added:
“I knew where to look.”
Evelyn stared.
“Why?”
Again, silence.
She sensed something larger.
Cameron sensed the same thing and moved first.
“Whatever his claimed familiarity, the violation remains.”
Evelyn looked at Mason.
“Why didn’t you bring this information to Isaac?”
“I almost did.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Mason thought of everything that would follow if he said his name in the engineering office.
Questions.
Lawyers.
Richard.
Emily.
The past.
“I didn’t want anything from Vortex.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No.”
He met her eyes.
“It’s the answer I have.”
Evelyn leaned back.
Cameron placed a hand lightly on her chair.
Mason noticed.
The gesture was subtle.
Possessive in the language of influence.
Evelyn did not.
Not consciously.
She had relied on Cameron since her father became ill.
He knew the company.
The board.
The contracts.
The weaknesses she had not yet learned to see.
“Mason,” she said, “the company cannot ignore an unauthorized intervention on a competition vehicle.”
“I understand.”
“Your employment is terminated effective today.”
Three seconds passed.
Mason nodded once.
“All right.”
His calmness bothered Evelyn more than anger would have.
“You’re not going to argue?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You already signed it.”
She glanced at the termination form.
He was right.
Mason buttoned the cuff of his work shirt.
At the door he stopped.
“Before you run the car this weekend, read the original GT7 design drawings.”
Evelyn’s hand stilled.
“Not the current revision.”
“The original.”
“If you still have them.”
Cameron’s face became unreadable.
Mason opened the door.
Evelyn said, “Why?”
He looked back.
“Because the car remembers what the paperwork forgot.”
Then he left.
Mason collected his things from Level Two.
There were not many.
A thermos.
Work gloves.
A small photograph of Luna taped inside his locker.
A spare shirt.
A notebook containing facility repair measurements.
Dominic stood nearby.
“They fired you.”
“Yes.”
“For fixing the car.”
“For crossing the tape.”
“That tape cost them eleven days.”
Mason almost smiled.
“Policy.”
Dominic swore.
“You going to tell her?”
“No.”
“She deserves to know.”
“Maybe.”
“Mason.”
“I came back for the car.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You keep saying that like it makes sense.”
“It does to me.”
“What about your work?”
“Vortex owns what it legally owns.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Mason closed the locker.
“Credit won’t give Emily back.”
“No.”
“It won’t give Richard back.”