King of War Tech novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Engineer

The engineer looked over my shoulder at the swinging door.

Then he looked back at me, and his forehead was wet.

"I know what I heard at the rehearsal," he said. "Third sensor gain. Nobody in that building could have said it."

"Calm down."

"I've been calm for two months, and it hasn't helped."

He swallowed.

"I took the credit and I said thank you to Stellan. I hated myself in the elevator."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to not go to prison."

"And I watched that mother walk to the podium today while I sat there holding a fork."

"I'd like to be someone who stands up, once."

He unzipped the laptop bag and held it open so I could see inside.

"The recovered build fails at ten seconds, every time. Stellan has watched it fail a dozen times. He knows."

"Then why is he still holding the demo?"

"Because he doesn't plan to run it."

I waited.

"The Navy lets Merrick supply the target for a first demonstration, it's in the contract," he said.

"Our drone flies a fixed pattern. I've flown it forty times."

"We load the pattern into the rig, so the rig doesn't track anything."

"It just knows where the drone will be."

"And when it loses the pattern anyway?"

"One of the chief's men sits in a back room with a recording of the best run."

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