But as he went to delete the patch from his history, the screen refreshed. The 72-hour timer was already counting down.

“Don’t ask where I got it,” she whispered. “Just install it.”

“Put the old strut back in,” Kai said, yanking the USB drive out. “We tell the client there’s a supply chain delay. We never saw this file.”

She typed a string of numbers into her own terminal. A hidden FTP server bloomed on screen, anonymous and raw. One file sat in the root directory.

Kai scanned the suspension strut’s barcode. The screen blinked. Then, a miracle.

Kai looked at the rear camera of the R8. The lens seemed to follow him. The “unofficial patch” wasn’t a leak. It was a lure. Someone wanted them to install this. Someone wanted to see who was desperate enough to reach for forbidden parts.