The pod carrying Leap’s two male drives rises quickly to transit height and then speeds away. Even though Leap is connected to Civ Net and would presumably let Chance know if anything went wrong, a few minutes from now this solo whom they’ve only just met, this Don Kim, will have all four of Leap’s drives in his delivery truck. What if the truck is shielded from net access? In fact, that seems likely. And what if the truck is no longer there when Chance arrives? Why had Don Kim insisted that they wait fifteen minutes? A delivery truck could get miles away and be lost on one of the new intercontinental thruways within fifteen minutes. And why wouldn’t Don Kim just drive away? After all, someone wants Leap badly enough to mount this whole farcical cloak-and-dagger exercise. As a point of professional interest, the sheer improbability of the situation both repels and fascinates Chance. What’s irresistibly compelling, though, is the potential involvement of Hamish Lyons, a founding pioneer of join science, a man whom Chance has both studied and idolized.
