Marcus: What... what is this paperwork[cite: 1]?
Caleb: It's the original patent registry for the Phantom-X tactical guidance sensor, Marcus[cite: 1].
Marcus: That sensor system is proprietary intellectual property owned exclusively by Sterling Defense Systems[cite: 1]!
Caleb: Your company didn't develop that guidance code, Marcus[cite: 1].
Marcus: Our engineering division spent forty million dollars developing that hardware over four years[cite: 1]!
Caleb: My team built that sensor inside a command bunker in eastern Syria while your father laundered government subsidies[cite: 1].
Sarah: Look at the designer signature at the bottom of the page, Mr. Sterling[cite: 1].
Marcus pulled a pair of gold-rimmed reading glasses from his blazer, his hands trembling as he stared at the fine print[cite: 1].
Marcus: 'Chief Project Architect: Colonel Caleb Vance... Co-Signer: General Robert Vance'[cite: 1]...
Caleb: My late father gave your father temporary manufacturing licenses while I was deployed overseas[cite: 1].
Marcus: Temporary? We hold an exclusive fifty-year commercial manufacturing lease[cite: 1]!
Caleb: Clause twelve of that lease clearly states that all licensing agreements expire immediately upon my return to active civilian life[cite: 1].
Marcus: You were declared legally deceased by the Dallas County Probate Court four years ago[cite: 1]!
Caleb: A declaration your family's crooked estate lawyers filed using forged medical death certificates[cite: 1].
Sarah: They declared you dead to bypass your voting shares in the family trust fund[cite: 1]?
Caleb: Exactly. While I was recovering in an overseas military trauma hospital, Marcus forged my signature on the trust liquidation[cite: 1].
Marcus took a step backward, his face turning an ashen shade of grey beneath his groomed designer haircut[cite: 1].
Marcus: That trust fund had two hundred million dollars in commercial aerospace assets! You walked away from it[cite: 1]!
Caleb: I didn't walk away from anything. I stayed in the shadows until you brought those stolen prototypes onto federal soil today[cite: 1].
Marcus: You're bluffing! The Department of Defense signed our three-billion-dollar procurement contract twenty minutes ago[cite: 1]!
Caleb: That contract hasn't been countersigned by the Undersecretary of Defense, Marcus[cite: 1].
Marcus: The Undersecretary is sitting in the executive VIP tent waiting for the flight demonstration to begin[cite: 1]!
Sarah: The Undersecretary isn't in the VIP tent, Mr. Sterling[cite: 1].
Marcus turned his head toward the reviewing stand, where two dark green staff cars had just parked beside the podium[cite: 1].
Four full-bird colonels and a three-star general stepped out onto the tarmac, their ribbons glinting under the hot daylight[cite: 1].
Marcus: General Miller? What is General Miller doing on the civilian flight line[cite: 1]?
Caleb: He's here to inspect the serial numbers on your prototype drones, Marcus[cite: 1].
Marcus: Those serial numbers match our military production catalog perfectly[cite: 1]!
Caleb: They match the catalog because you scrubbed the original Vance Aerospace defense codes from the metal chassis last week[cite: 1].
Sarah: Colonel Vance, look at the hangar doors. They're rolling out the test model right now[cite: 1].
Across the paved runway, a massive grey unmanned combat drone was towed out from Hangar Four[cite: 1].
Painted across the nose was the bright logo of Sterling Defense Systems, surrounded by corporate sponsor decals[cite: 1].
Caleb raised his battered manual camera, clicking the zoom lens into focus as he took three rapid photographs of the fuselage[cite: 1].
Marcus: Put that damn camera down! It is a felony to photograph classified military equipment on this tarmac[cite: 1]!
Caleb: It's only classified if you actually own it, Marcus. And you don't even own the bolts holding those wings together[cite: 1].