Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Three: And New Friends

As usual, Nancy from reception was the one to announce my visitors. “Mr. Belessar, they’re here!” 

“I presume you mean Anne and her classmates?”

“Yes!.... Ahem, I mean, yes, Miss Drake and her classmates are here. Mr. Drake is giving them the safety talk and the PPE.”

“I’ll be down shortly. And I will ask Sally Keaton for that autograph for your nephew.”

I could almost hear the receptionist blush. “Thank you, Mr. Belessar, he’ll really appreciate it.”

Chuckling, I adjusted my nanofibre weave. Five armour pieces in place, excluding the helmet, which would stay in inventory unless I really needed it (and at that point I’d probably be sprinting for the nearest Greyhound). 

Paul was wrapping up the safety video when I reached the reception. “So, in short, wear your safety shoes, hard hats and gloves; don’t touch anything without Belessar’s go-ahead; don’t wander off; and in an emergency follow Anne to the nearest safe location. Is that okay with everybody?”

Six heads nodded. A discreet use of Observe helped me put names to the faces.

REGINALD MASSEY

CLASS: STUDENT

FACTION: SANDHURST PREP

NICHOLAS PEMBERLEY

CLASS: STUDENT

FACTION: SANDHURST PREP

CHARLOTTE EDEN

CLASS: STUDENT

FACTION: SANDHURST PREP

SALLY KEATON

CLASS: THESPIAN

FACTION: SANDHURST PREP

FLAVIA DELMARRE

CLASS: INFLUENCER

FACTION: SANDHURST PREP

And, of course, there was my sister - not that I needed Observe to check her stats.

ANNE DRAKE

CLASS: SUMMONER

LEVEL 35

STR: 10, DEX: 10, VIT: 12

INT: 16, WIS: 11, CHA: 18

PER: 16, ATT: 11, LUK: 10

SKILLS:

MULTITASKING LEVEL MAX

SWARM COMMAND LEVEL 5: CAN MANAGE MULTIPLE NANOBOT SWARMS LOCATED AS FAR AWAY AS 80,000 KM. 

NANOASSEMBLY LEVEL 5: CAN CREATE COMPLEX NANOSTRUCTURES AND EMBED THEM IN NANOBOTS. 

NANOPROGRAMMING LEVEL 9: NOW, YOUR BOTS CAN DODGE, WEAVE, COUNTERATTACK AND EVEN CHOOSE A COURSE OF ACTION BASED ON YOUR PROGRAMMED RESPONSES. 

NANOSENSORS LEVEL 2: ENABLES OPTICAL, AND ACOUSTIC SENSORS FOR YOUR NANOBOTS.

CLOUD ENERGIZATION LEVEL 9: CAN WIRELESSLY POWER 10 TONS OF NANOMACHINES. 

Anne’s level had steadily risen from Level 4 to Level 35 as she successfully navigated battle after battle. Her XP bar had also shot up at various points, although we had no idea what caused it (since her interface wasn’t as active as mine). 

Along with her levels, her skills had skyrocketed. Her nanobots could now take on a wide range of actions of their own accord, her programming skills were enough to get her hired by any major tech firm even without her powers, and most importantly? 

She could now field ten thousand kilograms of nanobots, all drawing energy from her. Enough to monitor the entirety of any battlefield, and to track information from halfway around the world.

Actually, with a range of 80,000 km, she could command her nanobots to act virtually anywhere on Earth.

A terrifying power, indeed. We had quietly decided not to let the wider world know the exact limits of her abilities - I was scary enough on my lonesome, at least if you believe the press. 

My sister had come a long way from a burnt-out roof, but the less she had to deal with hostile reporters, the better. 

It didn’t make me any less proud. 

Clearing my throat, I gave our visitors a smile. “Hi, everyone. Ready for the tour?”

Five heads nodded enthusiastically (excluding Anne, who just grinned.) 

“Okay. So, we’ll do a walk around the shop floor, the inventory area, and the synthesis furnace. Any questions?”

“Can I take photos?” blurted the one Observe had tagged as Flavia. The other students shot her a disbelieving look. “Hey, it’s a perfectly valid question!”

I chuckled. “Actually, most of the areas you’ll be visiting are cleared for photography. You have to show me any photos you take, though, and I’ll be asking you to delete anything that accidentally captures confidential stuff.”

“Deal!” Flavia beamed. “And can I get some photos with you? For my channel?”

“If you behave,” Paul stepped in, “then Andrew will consider it.”

“I’ll be on my best behaviour, Mr. Drake!” 

I’d have agreed to the photos anyway - least I could do for Anne’s friends. Then again, Paul was a parent and Flavia was reportedly the one who had prank called Molly Pemberley…. 

Maybe getting that promise was a good idea. If there was a Parenting skill tree, Paul definitely had Troublemaker Management at a max level.

Maybe don’t think too hard about how that happened. 

“First step in the process is the Personal Protective Equipment, or PPEs,” I said. “Everyone got your hard hats and high-vis vests? If yes, put them on.”

In seconds, the six red-uniformed students were wearing fluorescent yellow jackets and strapping on their helmets.

“Ugh, these hats look horrible,” said Reg. “Isn’t there a better colour than lime green?”

“All hard hats are colour-coded,” I explained. “Blue for shop floor team, black for military personnel, white for design and office staff, red for the designated emergency coordinators, and lime green for visitors. If a fire breaks out, we want to know who does what without bothering to check.”

“Oh, that’s clever,” the girl who’d been tagged as Charlotte said. 

“It’s pretty standard in most factories,” I explained. “Or construction sites. I used to work construction before …. Well, a while back.”

“You weren’t always a superhero?” asked Sally Keaton, the girl identified as a ‘Thespian’. Ah, this must be Anne’s actress friend. 

“Nobody’s born a superhero,” I said. “Anne and I figured out our powers over time, but there was a phase where all I wanted to do was run an electronics repair shop.”

Sally gave an almost imperceptible nod. 

“Things got complicated,” Anne chipped in. “Anyway! Shop floor?”

“Safety shoes first. And for that, I have a little surprise.” From my inventory, I pulled out six sets of boots.

To be specific, Nanofibre Weave Boots. 

“These’ll protect you from any falling objects,” I said. “They’re on loan, of course - you have to return them before you leave the factory - but they should give you an idea of what wearing Nanofibre Weave is like. Anne, you want to show everyone how to wear these?”

Anne grinned, putting on her boots in a calm businesslike manner. The others seemed almost overawed by the thought of wearing Actual Combat Gear(™). 

“Are these real?” asked Reg. “I mean, these are the ones that actual soldiers wear and stuff?”

“They’re the genuine article,” I replied. “We usually sell these in sets; I’ve got four hundred sets of boots done but we’re doing the bodyplates and helmets next week, so these can’t be matched yet. In a couple of weeks, these boots will be shipped to the Rapid Response Division.”

“They fit like a glove!” exclaimed Flavia. “How did you know our sizes?”

“Autosizing. The boots resize to fit the user.”

“How on earth do you do that?” asked Nicholas.

I shrugged. “They’re inventech boots. Blocking weapon damage isn’t the only thing they can do.”

“Do they do power kicks?” asked Reg. “Like, rocket-powered?”

“I don’t have rockets in these boots,” I said. “Anyway, rocket-powered boots are not a great idea. Thrust direction is difficult to control, and you run out of fuel very fast.”

“But your suit can fly,” Reg pointed out. “I mean, the big one could.”

“The Wolf Armour was flight-capable, yes. The Wolf was also thirty feet tall and the boots had enough space for an antigravity thruster subassembly,” I explained. “Antigrav thrusters have a directional control component to them - you can ensure the antigrav field is oriented in whichever direction you want. So, moving your feet won’t send you spinning across the sky.”

“Why would you go spinning across the sky?” asked Reg.

Anne spoke up. “Reg, you remember Professor Dudley’s Physics lecture last week?”

“Uh, sort of?”

“Rockets send thrust in a single direction. So if you’ve got two rockets and they’re pushing at a different angle, you get torque. Which means you start to spin.”

“But you can just keep your feet straight, right?”

“So what’s the angle between your feet right now?”

Reg looked blank. “Uhh….”

“It’s very difficult for humans to maintain precise control over the orientation of our limbs,” I gently explained. “We move based on instinct and a sense of balance, not based on aligning our legs at precise angles. We frequently stand - or sit - with our feet asymmetrical. Asking a person to keep their feet at a precise angle - without bending their knees or moving their hips at all - is virtually impossible. So if I put rockets in a person’s footwear, they rapidly go out of alignment.”

“Oh,” Reg nodded sagely. “And antigravity is different?”

“Antigrav fields are generated by a thruster. The ‘thruster’ is a device that generates the field in a desired direction - which means it can be rotated. And computer controlled. Every antigrav thruster I make has microprocessors in it which can be used to make sure it stays aligned in the direction you want to go.” 

“Wow,” Flavia gushed. “There’s a lot of science in your stuff, right?”

“Well, I am an inventor. Among other things. Now, who wants to see a real antigrav thruster?”

Seven hands shot up, including two of Charlotte’s. Paul grinned. “They’re all yours. Have fun.”

Anne’s classmates were quite nice. Then again, I hadn’t hung around many younger kids (and wasn’t that a thought), so maybe they were the baseline and my sister was just a wee bit snarkier than normal. 

Flavia took every opportunity to take photographs, including one which she insisted should include everybody. “Group selfie with the awesome combat suit in the background!”

“What suit?” asked Anne.

“The grey one on the wall!” 

“That’s a cardboard mockup,” I pointed out. “The real Boar Armours are in the warehouse.”

Flavia pouted, then brightened. “Well, group selfie anyway! Now let me get this selfie stick to work….”

“Andrew, why don’t you hold it up?” asked Anne. 

“Yeah, Flavia’s liable to poke someone’s eye out with all that flailing,” Reg added.

“Am not! But I wouldn’t mind a little help.” Flavia gave me an appraising look. “You’ve got long arms…. I can set a timer and you can get everybody?”

“Set the timer,” I said. “And I’ve got something better than arms.”

I reached out with Levitation.

The camera weighed only a few hundred grams - enough that lifting it cost me a constant 1 MP, nothing more. As certain parties ‘ooh’ed and ‘aah’ed, I floated it over to a position from where we could all fit in the viewscreen. 

“That is so cool!” exclaimed Charlotte. “Can you make it spin?”

“Dontspinitthepicture!” Flavia blurted.

“I can, but it’s better I don’t. Now Flavia, is everyone in the image?”

“Yeah, I can see it through my phone! Everybody smile!” Flavia held her fingers up in a V sign. “Say cheers!.... This’ll be awesome for the channel!”

“You don’t levitate stuff often,” Sally Keaton, the Starwing actress, remarked. “I mean, most of the news doesn’t show you levitating things…. except for when you’re flying, of course.”

“It’s not the flashiest skill,” I agreed. “But it does have its uses.”

“Including for stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to do with fighting aliens,” nodded Sally.

“Most powers have mundane uses as well,” I pointed out. “Herculeans can be really useful in construction or dockwork, savants and precogs are good at business, and summoners and inventors are pretty general-purpose.”

“And flyers?” asked Sally.

“Asking for a friend?” I grinned. “Flyers are useful for moving stuff around, and they usually have a dash of superspeed with them. Very useful for emergency rescue, or mountain exploration.”

“Why mountain exploration?” asked Flavia.

“Because if a normal human being slips off the side of a mountain, they fall. Flyers just hop back up.”

“Why would a flyer need to climb a mountain anyway?” asked Nicholas. “Couldn’t they just - fly over?”

“They could be part of a team, or part of search-and-rescue. Or just getting stuff into - or out of - places where helicopters can’t land.”

“But that’s hardly mundane, like what you did here,” Sally said. “That’s work. Not like you can use superpowers to make sandwiches.”

I shrugged. “I use Levitation while cooking. Handy for fetching ingredients from the top shelves without having to leave the stove.”

“He also slices onions with a laser,” added Anne.

“It’s efficient,” I shrugged. “No messing around with knives, no cleaning afterwards, and we’re going to cook them anyway so a little char doesn’t hurt.”

“Your kitchen must be freaky,” Reg chuckled. “Floating ingredients and lasers slicing the ham? Sounds like something out of Harry Potter.”

“With lasers,” Nicholas added. 

“It’s not that odd,” I said. “I have ninety-six bottles of spices and condiments, though, so it needs to be properly organized. Also, I try not to float ingredients around too much, it annoys Paul.”

“Don’t you call him ‘Dad’?” asked Sally.

I shrugged. “Sometimes. Sometimes we go by first name. It’s… complicated.”

“Andrew, why don’t we check out the reactors?” Anne suggested. “You said the new ones were complete, right?”

Thankfully, the prospect of checking out functional fusion reactors seemed to distract the schoolkids. Or maybe they wanted to avoid the awkwardness. In any case, showing of the brand-new Type Five Fusion Reactors, of which eight were currently in stock, was a welcome distraction. 

“How many of you know how nuclear fusion works?” I asked. All of the hands went up - right, this was part of basic physics nowadays. “Well, these are compact fusion reactors meant to power large installations. Three hundred megawatts each.”

“Is that a lot?” asked Nicholas. 

“Each of these can run a quarter of a million homes,” I explained. “What you’re seeing here could power London.”

Charlotte blinked. “Wait, those eight phone booths could supply the whole of London?”

I chuckled internally. The Type Five lived up to its name of being ‘compact’ - each was no more than nine feet tall. “Yes, it could. And you do have a point about the size. It’s designed to be compact.”

“So this’ll help reduce electricity bills?” asked Reg. “Gran keeps complaining about how much it costs to keep the castle heated in winter….”

“Why don’t ultras do more of this stuff?” asked Nicholas. “Make power plants and factories?”

“Because they’ve got to be fighting aliens, silly,” said Charlotte. “Belessar and the others have more important things to be doing.”

“Actually, it’s all important,” I temporized. “Some ultrahuman powers are more suited for battle than others, but there are plenty of utility powers out there. The trouble is, the utility powers aren’t exactly flashy, so people don’t know about them.”

“What do you mean by utility powers?”

“There’s an ultra who can detect how many years it’ll take before a building will collapse. Great for construction work and earthquake safety. Another one, Mahaplumber, is good for clearing up flooded streets.” 

“Is there anybody who can control the rain?” asked Reg. “Because we could do with a bit less rain.”

“The UK doesn’t have that many public utility heroes,” Sally Keaton said.

“It’s not that you don’t,” I explained. “One in ten thousand people is an ultra. For the UK, that means eight thousand ultras. Many of them won’t have combat-focused powers. For most of them, there’s no real advice on how to use their powers effectively.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Sally said. “I started acting when I was thirteen, but I had plenty of drama classes and extra coaching over the years. Why wouldn’t ultras have, say, a school for training them?”

“Like Hogwarts?” asked Reg. “A secret ultra training school, hidden from the eyes of mortals….”

“It wouldn’t be secret if thousands of people had to attend,” I chuckled. “And ultras aren’t wizards. Very few ultras have the exact same power - in fact, there are plenty whose powers are completely unique. The largest group of people with the same powerset are Travelers, and there are only a few hundred of them worldwide.”

“So no secret school for ultrahumans,” Anne added. “Though if you tell your writers, it might make for an interesting episode.”

“I’d rather watch one about the battle at Liverpool,” said Reg. “Did you really get chucked into the stadium on a catapult?”

“It wasn’t a catapult, it was a trebuchet, and I wasn’t in the trebuchet wave, that was Chikaradzuyoi and other Herculeans. I was part of the hang-gliders that went over in the second wave.”

“Wow. That must have been cool.”

“A fair bit of fumbling in the dark. Though my nanofibre cord did help.” I pulled out a spool from inventory. “This is one of the other mundane applications of nanofibre weave - you can make it into thin but strong rope. Want to hold it?”

Reg took the cord gingerly. “It doesn’t look like much.”

“You could use a thickness of a milimetre to hang an elephant from a tree,” I said. “That is, if you could find a willing elephant and a sufficiently strong tree.”

“Are there suicidal elephants?”

“... That’s not what I meant by hang. Nanofibre cord has a number of potential applications, including in transportation, construction, and vehicle manufacture. It’s one of the products we sell to the civilian sector.”

“So you don’t just make weapons and tools of war,” nodded Flavia. “You make other cool stuff too.”

“Hopefully, things that can help people in the long term,” I said. “The goal of any society should be improving the lives of all its people, not just fighting for survival - though the former won’t happen without the latter.”

“OOH that’s a cool line! Can I use it on my channel?”

I chuckled. “I don’t see why not. Meanwhile, you guys want to see something else that’s cool?”

Six heads nodded. Including Anne, who had seen literally everything I had and probably was doing it to keep them company…. 

Might as well step up my game, then. 

“Our next stop is the Power Pack storage, on the third floor,” I said. “No photos once we’re in, but Flavia - you can record our journey there.”

Flavia looked puzzled. “Sure, but do you have a really cool lift or something?”

I grinned. “No lifts. No stairs.”

And with that, I ripped open a portal.

It was a small one - human-sized instead of the larger ones I used for the Shadowcat or the Wolf - but it still linked to the outside of the Power Pack Storage room, three floors up and half the factory away. The cost, 200 MP.

The expression on the faces of the six students? 

Priceless.

Even Anne was giggling as we walked through. “Didn’t expect that one, bro.”

“I’m full of surprises,” I deadpanned. “Anyway, this is the Power Pack storage….” 

“Group photo in front of the portal!”

“.... which we shall see, after we take Flavia’s group photo.” I levitated the camera into position again, with Flavia triggering the remote click as the students all held up a V sign. 

Although the way Anne held hers right next to my head, she might have been trying for horns. 

“The yawning spectre of the abyss, beckoning us with its endless void,” murmured Charlotte reverently. “... sorry, did I say that out loud?”

“It’s fine. Plenty of people find foldspace portals to be unnerving.”

“Is that what it’s called, foldspace?” asked Nicholas. “Why do they call it that?”

“That’s what my power calls it,” I said absently.

It was a moment before my brain caught up with me. 

Should not have said that part out loud…

Unsurprisingly, Sally Keaton was the one to catch it. “Wait, your power ‘calls’ it stuff? Like, talks to you?”

“That’s not what he meant, exactly,” Anne tried to interject.

I shook my head. “It’s fine, Anne. Sally - the rest of you - this is a bit of a secret, okay? Can I trust you won’t mention it outside? And certainly not on your channel, Flavia?”

“Deleting that from my memory now,” Flavia nodded seriously. “Though it does sound weird.”

“We’ll keep it quiet,” Nicholas said in a serious tone. “Whatever it is.”

It was a tone I’d heard before - but not from him.

In that moment, Nicholas Pemberley sounded exactly like Avi Goldman. The same timbre. The same pitch. The same voice. 

Avi Goldman, who had welcomed me into his base. Given me access to the information I’d desperately needed, to figure out how to fight the aliens. 

Avi Goldman, who’d died protecting Anne at London. 

“My power tells me things,” I found myself saying. “Details about science, the aliens, and technology.”

Nicholas looked puzzled. “Tells you things? Do powers talk?”

“Mine sends me text messages. Very annoying ones, too. However, they do include useful details, so I put up with it. Obviously, this is a secret, so I’d ask all of you to keep quiet about it?”

The students nodded. “Cross my heart and hope to die,” joked Reg.

“Thank you, everyone. Now, we’re going to enter the power pack storage room….”

After the Power Pack storage, we took a tour of the employee cafeteria (which was somewhat deserted at five in the afternoon), outbound shipping, and wrapped up with a visit to the break room. 

“I wish we could keep the boots,” Reg mused. “They look wicked.”

“Maybe someday,” I said. “I’m hoping nanofibre weave becomes commonplace enough that we can make stuff like this standard.”

“You mean available for civilians?” asked Sally. “Wouldn’t that be overkill?”

“A full suit of nanofibre weave also acts as pretty decent PPE,” I pointed out. “If we could afford it, I’d have everyone keep one handy. And make car bodies out of fullersteel, which would make them nearly crash-proof.” 

“If we had enough,” said Anne. “Someday?”

“Someday.”

“It sounds like inventors are a natural for factories,” Nicholas mused. “And Herculeans for construction, like you said. Are there areas where certain types of ultras do really well?”

“It’s not that cut-and-dried. But why don’t the rest of you try a few guesses?”

“I know!” Charlotte’s hand shot up in the air. “Precogs and the stock market!”

“Hypothetically yes,” I acknowledged, “but precogs usually have very little control over what they see. Accurately focusing on the price of a specific stock is really, really hard.”

“So much for the credibility of Episode 36,” sighed Flavia.

“Episode 36?”

“In Episode 36 of Freedom League, Starwing goes after a precog who’s secretly manipulating the stock market,” Sally explained. “We thought it was pretty well-researched.”

“You’re underselling it,” Nicholas pointed out. “The episode was a major hit. They passed a law afterwards restricting that kind of stuff.”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Powers are varied enough that - theoretically - you could end up getting one like that. I’m impressed that you managed to spark enough public interest to get a law passed.”

“It’s one of the more famous Starwing-focused episodes,” Sally admitted. “We generally go in a rotation - one focusing on Rockbiter, one on Swiftfoot, and one on Starwing.”

“That reminds me.” I pulled out a notebook from inventory. “Nancy from our office asked if I could get an autograph for her nephew? His name’s Mark.”

Sally blushed. “Only if I get yours?”

I blinked. “You…. want my autograph? I’m not exactly a TV star….”

<Nanocloud>: BRO! Manners!

“.... but I’ll be happy to sign one,” I trailed off. “Actually, you’re the first person to ask me for an autograph.”

Sally grinned. “It’s pretty simple. I give you something to sign, and you sign it.” She pulled out a small pink diary. “Trade?”

“Sure,” I grinned. 

We signed each other’s autograph books, and I pocketed Mark’s in inventory to give to Nancy the next morning.

“So are there any superpowers that would fit in best in the TV industry?” Sally joked. “Asking for a friend, of course.”

“Virtually anything can, but…” a thought came to my mind. “There’s an ultra called Shadow. Shifter, can alter her appearance to look like anyone. She’s actually pretty interested in acting, so you might want to reach out to her.”

“Shadow, huh? Can’t say I’ve heard of her.”

“Her powerset’s pretty bad for combat, but excellent for acting. Think of the amount you’d save in special effects, or having historical figures who actually look exactly like their portraits.”

“I’ll keep her in mind. We might have some time travel episodes coming up soon, anyway.” Sally grinned. “That’s also a secret, by the way.”

I chuckled. “You can count on my silence on that.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While the others headed back to their homes, Anne was waiting in my office. 

“Sally’s seriously your first autograph?” she asked. 

I nodded. “No-one’s asked me for one. They usually ask for interviews or healing. Or money.”

Anne nodded sagely. “I didn’t get asked for autographs until after the interview. Hand cramped up signing everything.”

“Maybe you should get printed cards to give out to folks.”

“Says Mister Number One on the leaderboards.”

“Hey, people don’t usually ask me.”

Anne gave me an unreadable look. “What do you think of Sally?”

“She’s …. nice? Why?”

“And Nick?”

“.... He reminds me a bit of Avi Goldman,” I said. “And….”

“And you regret not being able to save him?”

“.... Maybe.”

Anne tapped her fingers on the desk. “You’ve never told anyone about how your power talks to you. Nobody except me and Paul know. Not Pemberley, not Windsor, not Xavier or Doyle or Gideon. Just the three of us …. and now five of Sandhurst Prep’s finest. Or, in the case of Reg, not-so-finest.”

I shrugged. “It slipped out. And… I couldn’t look Avi’s son in the face and lie to him.”

“Sounds like you’re getting softer in your old age.”

“‘Old age’?” I said threateningly. 

“Yeah, you’re over the hill. You’re going to be, what? Twenty, next month. That’s not a teen.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, your exalted youthfulness. Don’t you have homework?”

“In a bit. I wanted to check on you. You’ve been …. tired.”

“I am a bit tired,” I confessed. “It’s the octanitrocubane.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing. There’s just way too much I need to make. I’ve been burning through my MP since the first batch of raw materials came in, and now I have fifty thousand tons in storage and no more raw materials left.”

“What do you mean, ‘no more raw materials’?”

“I need nitric acid, lithium, chlorine gas, and a whole lot of minor catalysts, all of which are in short supply right now. Deliveries are delayed, so I’m mostly twiddling my thumbs until they come in.”

“So when are you shipping the rest to the Indians?”

“Tomorrow,” I said. “The Travelers arrive tomorrow. And then… I’ll be in Mumbai for a while, until Gideon gets the remaining shipments here. Then back, and forth, and back and forth, until we start getting Aerovascar out for civilian use.”

“... You won’t have enough for everyone, right? You said you needed two hundred and twenty-five thousand tons in total?”

“Still do. This is enough for twenty per cent. The local government’s going to have to decide who gets priority. Which is going to be an unholy mess, because whoever you give it to, there’ll be others who feel they were unfairly denied. That they should get priority. I don’t know how the government’s going to handle that.”

“You’re worried.”

“I’m worried. We know Gellatoids infiltrated Tanisport - Mumbai’s a much larger city. How do we know there aren’t people waiting to sabotage things?”

“Do you want me to come with you?” asked Anne. “I can take a few days off from school. You could use nanobot cover to sweep the city.”

I shook my head. “Not yet. For the first shipment, I’m more worried about ambushes, and you can send nanobots without coming into the fray yourself.”

“Have you talked to Pemberley? Or Kalachakra?”

“They both agree with the possibility. That’s why the shipment is going heavily armoured, and we’re keeping the date and time of transit secret. As much as possible.”

“Are you going?”

I nodded slowly. “Tomorrow. In the Greyhound.”