“Yes.” Evrim looked back at the terminal, where in a dozen panels the octopus battled against humans, fighting to escape with its life. “Yes. That is exactly my point. These are the heroes of the sea. And who are we? We are their nemesis. We are the enemy. Do you remember what I said to you on the beach? When Altantsetseg killed those men from the AI ships, it was a necessity. It was done as a matter of course, to protect this place. And that’s it: I think these killings are simply a matter of course. I think the octopus may have killed the ranger because of something he did, but not necessarily. It may have killed him because he was in the way, and he startled or irritated it, or did something else it did not like. Something threatening. The same way all those men on the ships are dying because they are part of something that threatens our work.”

Ha remembered Evrim, expressionless, pushing a body into a hole they had dug in the sand. Evrim’s foot on the man’s torn torso. A shove, and gone.

A matter of course.

At that moment, an alarm went off.

It was different from the other alarm. This was a Klaxon accompanied by a flashing light from a ceiling-mounted unit.

“The sea perimeter?”

Altantsetseg entered the room. She was clothed in black, with a short-stocked rifle in a sling, moving in perfect silence toward the door of the hotel. She wore a helmet, and in front of her face a dozen scenes hovered in the air—camera feeds, Ha realized.

“No,” Evrim said, “that alarm signals a breach of the land perimeter. Our perimeter.”

Altantsetseg turned to the two of them. “You are staying here. Most likely malfunction. I go.”

“No,” Ha said. “Don’t go out there. And don’t let your drones do anything.”

“This is perimeter penetrated. Possible threat.”

“No. Shut down that alarm.”

Altantsetseg flicked a finger in her control glove, and the Klaxon stopped. The flashing light ceased as well.

Through the open door, they could hear the sibilance of sea waves on the sand, in the dark beyond the hotel’s terrace. All three of them were still. Altantsetseg scanned the screens floating in her field of vision. Ha was rigid, every muscle tensed, her face turned toward the sea, though she could see nothing in the hotel’s window but her own reflection and the reflection of Evrim beside her, like a strange twin, translucent on the glass.

“Do you see anything?” Evrim asked Altantsetseg.

“There is wind. Movement in trees. Not helpful. Many things move. Breach in area of sand. Three drones in this position. Heat signature vague. Not solid hit. Now—nothing on cameras. I thought boat, human in wet suit. No. But—there. Movement on beach. I go.”