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“Except it’s in the driest part of the desert,” Dirk said, “and the grade runs off kilter to the pattern we see”

“So it’s ca?”

“Our experts think they’ve round compound of massive proportions Infrared scans have detected an inordinate aests uess what they were up to”

“Stealinginto production”

Pitt nodded “So it would seem The question is, why?”

Marchetti considered this for a second “I’e, but fron has been modified Obviously that would imply a different purpose At this point all we know for sure is that they attacked your cata no other vessels have been attacked or gone est it’s not their main purpose”

“Then why use them for it?” Kurt asked

Marchetti glanced at Leilani for a second and then spoke “Under normal circumstances the boat would have been picked clean Not a speck of organic matter would have remained And the bots would have disappeared back into the sea”

Kurt understood “No evidence No witnesses The boat would have been found in perfect working order like the Mary Celeste Only they didn’t count on the crew setting a fire to fight them off”

“Exactly,” Marchetti said “Without the residue you found, there would have been nothing to tell us what had happened Even if another vessel had been watching fro”

Pitt returned the conversation to the original track “So they can be a danger to shipping,” he noted, “but if that’s not theirthe temperature anomalies our team discovered?”

“Possibly,” Marchetti said “I’m not sure how, but to some extent what they’re capable of depends on how many of them are out there”

“Can you explain that?” Pitt asked

“Think of the problem—one wasp, one ant, one terh of them in the san was capable of reproducing autono ad infinitum That was the only way tothe sa Millions of them can cause problee vessel or oil platfor the size of Aqua-Terra, but trillions of them—or trillions of trillions—that could threaten the entire sea”

“The entire sea?” Joe asked