Cargo One Part 2

At seven o'clock the following morning, the massive sliding wooden doors of Experimental Workshop Number Two were locked from the inside.

A continuous six-foot roll of heavy vellum drafting paper was pinned across the wide mahogany layout tables. Two brass desk lamps illuminated the clean surface, casting a warm pool of light over pencils, steel rules, beam compasses, and mechanical calculators.

Ernest picked up a stick of soft sketching charcoal. At the top of the vellum, he wrote:

TEUCHER COMMERCIAL MOTOR PLATFORM

Hollen, who was pouring two mugs of strong tea from an iron kettle on the heating stove, stopped and frowned at the title.

"That is a dreadful, bureaucratic name," Hollen said bluntly, setting a mug on the table.

"It is an accurate, functional description," Ernest countered.

"It sounds like a government agricultural report. Call it what it actually is."