Across the lot, Dale Hutchins had appeared at his fence again. He watched Cameron make a phone call, then watched the car leave.
"That one owe you money?" Dale shouted.
Isaac returned to the monitors.
"Something like that."
An hour later, Eleanor arrived.
Adrian told her exactly what had happened.
She listened without interrupting, then asked Isaac whether Cameron had threatened him.
"Not directly."
"Did he reference the NDA?"
"Yes."
"Did he discuss classified details?"
"No."
"Did he know the reserve tradeoff estimate?"
Isaac looked at her.
"His face did."
"Faces don't go in reports."
"Good."
She studied him.
"You agree?"
"I'd be disappointed if you wrote it down as evidence."
That was the moment Eleanor stopped worrying that Isaac's anger would distort the mission.
His anger existed. She could see it in the controlled spaces between words.
But he did not want revenge disguised as analysis.
He wanted the system forced to tell the truth.
That distinction would save more than the satellite.
The legal notice arrived the next morning.
Nexora's general counsel argued that Isaac's participation risked unauthorized use of proprietary methods developed during his employment. The filing was sophisticated, narrow, and deliberately timed. It did not claim his technical work was wrong. It argued that the government could not freely use analysis derived from protected commercial intellectual property.
Several members of the oversight board took the argument seriously.
Eleanor's deputy director called at 3:20 p.m.
"We may have to pause him."
"For how long?"
"Counsel says three weeks to resolve cleanly."
Eleanor looked through the garage window at Isaac, who sat cross-legged on the concrete floor surrounded by telemetry printouts.
"We do not have three weeks."
"I know."
"Then don't pause him."
"That's not your call."
"It becomes my call when the engineering clock is shorter than the legal clock."
"Eleanor."
"How many days?"
"Until what?"
"Until the board decides."
"Forty-eight hours."
"We have twenty-eight days of modeled mission margin and less if the burn rate changes again."
"I know."
She ended the call and walked inside.
Isaac did not look up.
"The software remediation won't work," he said.
"I know."
"No, I mean worse than the reserve estimate. Look here."
He pointed to three orbital events.
"Every time the vehicle performs a correction burn, the pressure disturbance broadens. The fatigue rate isn't constant anymore. The assembly is entering a nonlinear stage. Our thirty-one-day estimate was optimistic."
Eleanor sat on the stool.
"The board may pause your access while counsel reviews Nexora's claim."