But in the face of a billion dollars worth of military hardware, they were going to need a lot more than stoves, tents, and sociobiology to avoid being slaughtered.

Chapter 27

I was woken by the shelling. The rumbling sounded distant – but the bed was shaking. I dressed in seconds – then stood in the middle of the room, paralyzed by indecision. There were no basements here, no bomb shelters – so where was the safest place to be? Down on the ground floor? Or out on the street? I balked at the prospect of exposure – but would four or five stories over my head offer any real protection, or just a heavier pile of rubble?

It was just after six, barely light. I moved to the window cautiously, fighting down an absurd fear of snipers – as if anyone from either side would bother. Five columns of white smoke hung in the middle distance, funneling out from hidden apexes like languid tornadoes. I asked Sisyphus to scan the local nets for close-up vision; dozens of people had posted footage. Reef-rock was resilient and non-flammable – but the shells must have been spiked with some chemical agent tailored to inflict damage beyond the reach of mere heat and percussion … because the results looked less like shattered buildings than mine tailings dumped on empty lots. I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving inside – but the adjacent streets hadn’t fared much better, buried meters deep in chalk dust.

The people camped outside the hotel showed no sign that they’d been taken by surprise; half of them were already packed and moving, the rest were taking down their tents, rolling up blankets and sleeping bags, disassembling stoves. I could hear young children crying, and the mood of the crowd was visibly tense – but no one was being trampled underfoot. Yet. Looking further along the street, I could make out a slow, steady flow of people north, away from the heart of the city.

I’d been half expecting something deadly and silent – EnGeneUity were bioengineers, after all – but I should have known better. A rain of explosions, buildings reduced to dust, and a stream of refugees made far better pictures for ANARCHY COMES TO STATELESS. The mercenaries weren’t here to take control of the island with clinical efficiency; they were here to prove that all renegade societies were doomed to collapse into telegenic mayhem.