She waved her antennae and four more ants came forward, carrying two short lengths of wire, the kind most commonly used in the dinosaurs’ machinery. One wire was red, the other green. The ants set the wires on a frame, then wound the two white strips tightly around the middle of each wire, like pieces of white adhesive tape. Something miraculous now occurred: the two white strips began to change colour, taking on the hue of the wire they were wrapped around, one turning red, the other green. Within moments they were all but indistinguishable.

‘These are chameleon mine-grains. Once they’re fixed in place, it’s impossible for dinosaurs to detect them.’

A couple of minutes later, the mine-grains exploded with two sharp cracks, neatly severing the two wires.

‘When the time comes, the Federation will deploy an army of 100 million ants. One division of this army has already gone back to work in the dinosaur world; the other division is infiltrating the dinosaur world as we speak. This army of millions will affix 200 million chameleon mine-grains to the wiring of the dinosaurs’ machines. We have called this campaign “Operation Disconnect”.’

‘Wow, a truly magnificent plan!’ Senator Birubi exclaimed in admiration. The other senators fluttered their antennae in sincere and vigorous approval.

‘We have also initiated another campaign, to be conducted in parallel, which I am confident you will find to be equally magnificent,’ Jolie continued. ‘The Federation will deploy another army of 20 million ants to penetrate the skulls of 5 million dinosaurs and affix mine-grains to their cerebral arteries. These 5 million dinosaurs comprise the elite echelon of the billions of dinosaurs on Earth. They include, among others, their national leadership, scientists, and key technicians and operators. Once these dinosaurs have been eliminated, dinosaur society will be without a brain. We have therefore dubbed this campaign “Operation Decapitate”.’

‘This plan seems more complicated than the first,’ said Birubi. ‘As far as I know, all key personnel in dinosaur society are routinely subjected to high-precision three-dimensional scans. The Gondwanan Empire was the first to adopt this practice, and the Laurasian Republic quickly followed suit. In the Gondwanan Empire, even Emperor Dadaeus himself regularly undergoes such examinations.’

‘The first mine-grain of Operation Decapitate has already been planted,’ said Supreme Consul Kachika with a smug expression on her shiny black face. ‘It is currently lying in wait in Dadaeus’s brain, and it was put there by the medical team I led. The emperor has undergone a series of examinations since then, yet that mine-grain has remained safely stuck to his cerebral artery.’

‘You mean we’ve developed a new model of mine-grain that cannot be detected by high-precision three-dimensional scanning?’ Professor Joya asked.