CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Unknowns
Evelyn summoned me to her office the following morning. I had a feeling I knew what this was about. In the wake of the AF-1 demonstration, she probably wanted me to step aside on the flier design. That’s what had happened after the Condor demonstration, when Greaves had scrapped my design: She pulled me from the project and told me to keep my head down. I could sense a similar conversation looming as I got off the elevator and made my way to her office.
For the first time ever, Evelyn wasn’t behind her desk when I found her. She stood over by the windowsill that held many of her carnivorous plants. Even these failed to capture her attention; she was looking out across the desert through her tinted glass.
“Hello, boss,” I said.
“Noah.” She didn’t have her usual smile for me, but she didn’t look angry, either. More concerned. And this was me trying to read a person whose face showed little emotion. It was a guess at best. “How are you doing?”
“I’ve been better.” I walked and stood by her, wondering what she was staring at. The view of downtown Scottsdale still amazed me, but to her it should have been old news. That was assuming she ever took a moment to enjoy it. Most of the time she never got out from behind her projection monitors. “Yesterday was bad. I really don’t know what to say other than sorry.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said. “The dragons flew well.”
Right up until they crashed. “That’s not the part of the demonstration I was talking about.”
“I understand, but you need to remember the big picture. The goal yesterday was to verify that we’ve reached the minimum performance specs, especially the difficult ones to measure, like horizontal flight speed.”
“We didn’t get to test them on endurance,” I said.
“Are you really worried about that?”
“Not as much as some of the other categories.”
“Then the exercises were worthwhile.”
“I’ve been thinking about the way I tackled the design,” I said. “Especially the strength, dexterity, and sensory trade-offs.”
“And?”
“I know we’re short on time, but I think we could get a better result if we started the design over. I’ll let Korrapati and Wong work more of their magic.”
She shook her head. “That’s too drastic, and we really don’t have time for it.”
“I know, but it’s hard not to want to change something after what happened.”
“It was an accident, Noah.”
“An avoidable accident.” A memory that would probably haunt me whenever I watched my pet dragons flying around. How many times had they played their silly flying games out in the desert, never realizing the risk? It had been hard enough losing two dragons I barely knew.
“It only seems that way in hindsight,” she said.
“What if it happens again?”
“You are forgetting a key element of this contract.”
“Which is what?”
“The training program designed by your new best friend, Tom Johnson. Have you read the training manual?”
“I haven’t gotten to it yet.” Not for lack of interest, but I’d been too busy.
“Noah, you are as bad as our customers that you always complain about.”
Touché. “Have you read it?”
“Of course,” she said. “There are many drills aimed specifically at spatial awareness and collision avoidance.”
“Oh.” I wished I’d known that; maybe I’d have let Tom put the dragons through their paces before a live demo. Yet deep down, I knew that probably wasn’t true. I’d wanted to see them fly as badly as anyone else. “Do you think that will help?”
“I think that with the right training and precautions, dragons will be able to avoid midair collisions.”
“God, I hope so.”
“The military doesn’t send soldiers into combat until they’re well-trained. This is similar. So don’t worry so much, Noah.”
“I’ll try not to,” I said.
“Good.” She did smile then, because we both knew I’d remain paranoid until the final field trials happened, and then probably a while afterward.
But her tone had a finality, suggesting we were done talking about the AF-1. Which meant she’d asked me here to discuss something else.
“How are things going?” I asked.
“About the same.” She glanced at the projection monitors that hovered over her desk, but seemed to find no comfort in them.
“Anything up?”
“I just got off the phone with our lawyers. It seems as though we’re close to getting an injunction against Greaves and his operations.”
Deep inside me, a glimmer of hope started to form in the darkness. “That’s great news.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I’m not a lawyer.”
“Wait a minute. You aren’t?” I deadpanned. “This has all been a big scam.”
“Our real lawyers made it sound like Robert is not putting up much of a legal fight.”
“Doesn’t that make it easier for us to win?”
“Any lawyer worth their fee has countless ways to make litigation like this difficult. They can ask for delays and extensions that push things back for months.”
“Maybe he’s out of money.”
“Don’t count on it,” she said.
Yeah, that’s too much to wish for. The guy had been loaded even before he landed the lucrative CEO job and the stock options that came with it. “All right, so let’s chess-match this out. What happens if we win the injunction?”
“Then Robert and his team would not be allowed to produce dragons using the protected part of the technology.”
“Aren’t they already not supposed to be using our tech?”
“At this point, all we have is a claim against them. Until the court makes a ruling, they are not breaking any laws.”
“What happens if we win the court case?”
“They’d have to cease operations, at least until they negotiated a license or reengineered the process. We would petition the DOD to get back sole supplier status. They’re very careful with IP stuff, so we’d have a good chance of getting it.”
“So we’d probably win the contract, and Greaves would be out of business.”
“At least as far as the U.S. military and U.S. jurisdiction goes.”
Something about the way she said that gave me a sudden chill. “What about outside the U.S.?”
“It’s a gray area. He could, in theory, move his operation outside U.S. jurisdiction and resume operations.”
“Still, it doesn’t make sense. It takes time and resources to compete for the DOD grant.” It was damn near killing me and my team, frankly. Between that and the dragonets and seeing Summer, I was low on sleep. The stresses of the home stretch in this competition were running us ragged.
“This is what I’m thinking, Noah. Robert does not care about winning the DOD contract. Or at least, that’s not his ultimate goal.”
“Then what is?”
She looked back out at the cityscape beyond her window. “I wish I knew.”