“There you go.”
But Diana wasn’t looking at him.
She was staring at the control module.
Vance Automotive had spent heavily on reducing thermal losses in compact hybrid combustion systems.
The problem was not producing a good result once.
The problem was keeping efficiency stable under changing load, temperature and fuel conditions without creating reliability failures somewhere else.
Diana recognized the problem because she had sat through enough presentations about it to hate every graph involved.
And Elijah’s layout appeared to attack exactly that problem.
“How are you controlling injection adaptation?” she asked.
Elijah met her eyes.
“Software.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
Now even Carter looked at him differently.
Martin gestured toward the inspection bay.
“We’ll find out what it does soon enough.
Mr.
Monroe, bring it inside.”
Elijah lowered the hood.
Grace took his hand again.
As they walked toward bay three, Diana followed.
Carter fell into step beside her.
“You’re not taking this seriously.”
“I’m watching an entry.”
“It’s a garage project.”
“So was half this industry once.”
Carter’s jaw tightened.
Inside bay three, the glamour of the Invitational disappeared.
The floor was bare concrete.
Ventilation ducts hung overhead.
Diagnostic equipment lined one wall, and a controlled-load testing system occupied the center of the room.
Only authorized staff and registered participants were permitted beyond the barrier.
Grace stayed in a marked observation area with Biscuit tucked beneath her chin.
Elijah positioned the Dodge exactly where Martin instructed.
A second technician began connecting sensors.
“Any unusual shutdown procedure?” Martin asked.
“Red toggle beneath the steering column if the controller fails.
Main disconnect behind the passenger seat.”
“You expect either?”
“No.”
Martin nodded approvingly.
Diana watched Elijah move around the car.
There was no nervous fumbling.
No desperate attempt to impress anyone.
He checked each connection once, answered questions precisely and kept glancing toward Grace whenever a new machine started making noise.
At one point she lifted Biscuit and made the rabbit wave at him.
Elijah smiled and waved back.
The gesture lasted less than a second.
Then he returned to the engine.
Charlotte appeared beside Diana with her tablet.
“I looked him up,” she whispered.
Diana turned.
“Elijah Monroe.
Former senior powertrain engineer at Meridian Components.
Laid off after the acquisition four years ago.
Mostly contract engineering work since then.”
