New Technological Idea Part 2

The experimental room behind the heavy tool bay was windowless, illuminated by a dozen suspended gas mantles that hummed in the quiet air.

It was a private sanctuary. Here, under lock and key, sat the prototypes that were not yet ready for corporate boardrooms or patent clerks: high-pressure fuel injectors, experimental alloy samples, and an array of precision drafting linens pinned to two massive pine tables in the center of the concrete floor.

Hollen stepped through the threshold, his boots dragging slightly, his ash stick clicking against the floor. He halted before the main table, looking down at the immense linen sheet spread out under the gaslight.

He stared for a long, unbroken minute.

The drawing depicted a four-wheeled road vehicle. It carried the graceful lines of a formal landaulet—enclosed passenger compartment, leather seating, curved mudguards, and an upright steering column—but the forward chassis ended abruptly in an open, structural dash.