From Above and Below

March 10, m0039, continued

Back at Nova Iquitos, Dr Vartex receives a couple of messages. One, from the E.U. Martian Medical service, is simply a request for him to monitor Florence's psychological stability - they're aware that she's used live ammunition recently, and this sort of thing causes them concern. The other is from his contacts in the intelligence community, who say that they've been attempting to follow up some issues of concern to him, and have come to the conclusion that the SIA were up to something a year ago, and that they may well have sought to draw him in for some reason; they had access to enough E.U. recognition codes that, yes, a call from them might have caused him to divert his hopper on that crucial day. Meanwhile, Vajra uses available optical equipment to examine the microbots it salvaged from the snakebot's load, cross-referencing what it can determine about the design and construction with Web research. While the results aren't conclusive - whoever built these things made intelligent efforts to cover their tracks, and there's certainly nothing as incriminating as a serial number to be found - Vajra's best guess is that these things were constructed using the kind of equipment and technical references most usually found in TSA territory.

Meanwhile, in the rover, Jianwei has been composing a report for the embassy, summarising his view of recent events and including a recording of the recent anonymous message conference, all flagged for the ambassador's personal attention. Among other things, he's concerned that if somebody - presumably "Quipu" or some other TSA agent of influence - is playing tricky memetic games here, they may switch from the previous line to a claim that the Nova Iquitos researchers are the victims of sabotage by another faction - and while the E.U. aren't the obvious people to set up as the villains in that case, anything is possible.

Then, as the party in the vehicle arrives at the third oasis, a Web conference call comes in for Jianwei, Dr Vartex, and Vajra. Jianwei remains in the vehicle to deal with this as Florence escorts Dr Liang, who starts taking samples. It seems that the Ambassador Schmidt has been alerted to events around Nova Iquitos (not least an explosion) by Quentin, and has seen Jianwei's interim report. Hence, she's been pursuing matters with some energy, passing requests for more information on to appropriate contacts. "They pursued the matter further, and apparently made contact with some ... supposedly helpful acquaintances of their own. And do you know what they received in reply?"

Jianwei ventures guesses along the lines of "flat denial".

"Not even that, in fact, Mr Chen. They have been told absolutely nothing. One might almost think that the SIA were embarrassed. Our own contacts seem quite unhappy with them.

"Can you hear a buzzing sound at your end, Mr Chen?"

Jianwei, who can hear no such sound in the vehicle, says as much.

"Well, that is strange, because that is what one usually hears when one has kicked over a hornet's nest. Oh, and some other people are apparently concerned that Ms Adele has been using live ammunition.

"I have come to the conclusion that it might be wisest if we were to extract you from that situation there. I will open some back channels to the Chinese, but you had best see what Dr Liang wants for herself - but do help her to leave if she wishes. Anyway, I've somehow suddenly acquired the budget to send you a couple of rented hoppers; I'll leave it up to you how you use them."

The call ends, and Jianwei determines that the hoppers will arrive at Nova Iquitos in a couple of hours. The best option seems to be to use then to travel to the nearest stop, and then return home on the maglev. So he speaks to the others, including Dr Liang, about how they should handle matters. He's not going to disobey the instruction to withdraw from the area, and while Dr Liang would like to take more time to conduct tests and so on, he has little difficulty convincing her that it might be safest for her to depart as well. However, the group at the third oasis does take the time to collect a few more samples and to conduct a brief examination of the soil around the site. Dr Liang concludes that this site too has been seeded with fertiliser, albeit slightly less than the first two - a bit of variation in the results would doubtless help avoid having them look too suspiciously uniform - and there are some signs of soil disturbances that might indicate a snakebot coming and going. However, these last are in the direction of a fourth, nearby oasis, and not of the first two; it's a fair bet that there's at least one more snakebot out here somewhere, and possibly a couple.

So the team then mounts up on the rover and heads back to Nova Iquitos, arriving at about the same time as as the two rented hoppers sent by the embassy. They speak briefly to the Peruvians, warning them that there may be two or three more dangerous snakebots out there around the other oases. Then they quickly load their luggage into the two hoppers, instruct their rented rover to take itself back to its base, and take off, with Florence and Jianwei in one (Florence actually flying it, to keep in practise), and Doctors Vartex and Liang in the other, with Vajra riding in the luggage compartment, patched into the on-board computer system and the craft's sensors.

The actual flight to the nearest maglev halt goes uneventfully, and the hoppers begin an approach to its landing strip, Florence leading the way. Then, the group see another hopper rolling out onto the field, and just have time to note that it isn't responding to standard traffic management signals when its ducted fans turn to a vertical take-off configuration, and rather than make any sort of economical short take-off run, it throws itself into the air - and at them.

Florence's trained reflexes kick in, and she easily evades the attempted ramming; the hopper simply carries on, aimed at the second incoming craft, where Vajra is by now issuing instructions to the controlling LAI. This too manages to avoid the attack, and the hostile hopper temporarily loses control, hurtling off into the sky.

This gives first Florence and then the second hopper's LAI time to make hasty but safe landings, and as Jianwei hastily logs the incident for any subsequent investigators, Florence vaults quickly out of the cabin, Dr Liang is evidently unnerved and confused by the incident, and Dr Vartex works to keep her calm and get her to get away from the hopper - but by now, the attacker has turned around and is coming back. Florence springs to the cargo bay doors of her vehicle, using her implant to tell both them and her weapons case to open up as she goes. Her UAW is ready to hand, and she picks it up - it arms itself as its stock recognises her hand - and spins around in time to see the hostile hopper bearing down on her. Her implant overlays targeting data on her vision, and she fires the shotgun barrel, once.

Her explosive shell enters one of the hopper's wing-mounted ducted fans, and detonates, shattering rotor blades and damaging mechanisms. The high-tech craft handles the disruption remarkably well, but its automatic emergency stability systems cut in, and it drops neatly to the ground. Members of the group hasten over to it and hit any emergency cut-out switches they can find.

Meanwhile, however, another group of people have emerged from the maglev halt buildings and are approaching rapidly; large oriental individuals, all similarly and plainly dressed, and all with drawn guns. The Europeans turn to meet them, some with their own weapons still in hand, and there is a brief tense moment, especially as, despite Jianwei's smoothly tactful greetings, they seem uncertain what to make of most of the newcomers and highly suspicious - but their personal identity codes mark them as Chinese government agents, and it's clear that they're here to escort Dr Liang safely back to Chinese territory.

And so the two groups settle down and wait for the next train - which turns out to have two carriages, both empty. The Chinese agents take over one, and the Europeans decide that it's most tactful to use the other. Some quick administrative footwork by Jianwei has that effectively declared E.U. diplomatic territory for the duration of their occupancy, which allows Florence to keep her weapons to hand, just in case... But anyway, the group begin their long return haul to Port Lowell.