"I've had a shipping manifest flagged for 2 years. Anything moving through Western US salvage channels that matches a specific weight range and carbon fiber component profile. " She paused. "I run a carbon fiber manufacturer in Woking. We have access to material batch data that goes back 15 years. " "Westfield Composites. " Cole said. He'd looked it up.
"We acquired it 4 years ago, along with their archived records. " She met his eyes. Including material requisitions from a project that was officially terminated in 2017. Cole was quiet for a moment. So, you knew the car existed? I knew a car existed.
I knew materials had been requisitioned for a prototype build that was never officially completed, and I knew those materials matched a very specific composite specification that Westfield developed in-house and has never used for any other client. She set the mug down. When the manifest flagged a salvage lot in Nevada with a partial carbon fiber body matching that weight class, I came to look. And then you bid. I bid because I wanted it before anyone else could get it.
She glanced at him with something that might, in other circumstances, have been dry amusement. I didn't expect competition. You lost. Yes. She looked at the tub again.
I'm aware. Cole straightened up. So, who built this car? Because you clearly know more than you said at the auction. Victoria was quiet for a beat too long.
That's complicated, she said. It always is. He crossed his arms. Try anyway. She looked at him with the kind of directness that Cole was coming to understand was just how she operated.
Not aggressive, just unfiltered. The project was run internally by a small team under a man named Gerald Marsh. He was a senior development director at the time. The project wasn't officially sanctioned. It was funded through discretionary budgets and kept off the main engineering ledgers.
When the company restructured in late 2017, Marsh was pushed out. The project was declared terminated. All physical assets were supposed to be destroyed per standard prototype disposal procedure. She paused. Except that Marsh signed the destruction certificates himself, which in hindsight was a significant oversight by whoever let him do that.