Chapter Three: Buying a Factory Made of Debt

The supplier, expecting bankruptcy, had withheld delivery. Shen used his newly unlocked conditional trace. Gold lines extended from the patent file through the wall and toward the warehouse. [Associated target for missing condition “critical material formula” located.] Inside were twelve tons of rejected valve bodies. In the deepest crate, a senior technician found three dull metal bars. “Waste from a trial five years ago,” Tang said. “The composition was unstable.” The System disagreed. [Nickel-Molybdenum Master Alloy Samples. Surface contamination.] [Usable internal material: 41.7 kg.] [Trial production capacity: 2,600 microvalves.] “Cut away the surface and run spectroscopy again,” Shen said. “On what basis?”