Above them signs waved, signs calling for justice, for the release of Nexus children, for Stockton’s prosecution, for freedom to enhance one’s own mind. There were other signs, signs with faces, faces of heroes. He saw faces he didn’t know. He saw Kade’s face, held aloft. He saw his own face and had to turn away, and suppress his own sudden burst of fear that he’d be recognized.

There was Nexus everywhere, thoughts and emotions spreading like viruses across electromagnetic vectors to human mind hosts. Waves of excitement and anxiety warred across the crowd. The Supreme Court would uphold a voter’s right to change his or her mind in the face of such shocking new information, would effectively hand the election to Kim. No, the Supreme Court would throw the suits out, would back Stockton.

Above it all, the air was thick with drones. Quadcoptered camera drones buzzed by, taking video for newscast, for police forces, for Homeland Security. Long-endurance aerostats, helium-filled, floated higher, their robotic gondolas bristling with high-zoom cameras and microphones, surveiling the crowd, looking for… well, for people like him.

Higher yet, Cheyenne had seen fixed-wing drones circling, circling, had sent the image to them all over the tight directional beams their booster antennae facilitated. Why? Why did Homeland Security need those killer drones here?

Rangan resisted the urge to look up. There was nothing to be gained in exposing his face to the sky, no matter how well disguised it was.

They were spread all across this half of the Mall, the six of them. Tempest resented that he was here, but even she saw the value in it. They had a vast area to cover. Moving through the thick crowds wasn’t easy. More of them here was better. It meant they’d have a better shot of faster response, of being able to get two of three of them around the hostile transmitter quickly after it came online.

If it did. If they hadn’t just blown some set of coincidences out of proportion.

They all had their eyes open for anyone who looked suspicious, who looked like a possible instigator. The problem was they had an abundance of choices. There were plenty of people here who had scarves at the ready. Rangan was one of them, though he had a better mask in his backpack.