They were still clumsy. The renovator had assured him they would eventually synchronise with his nerve impulses. Till then, he had to wear special gloves. It would not do to let people know his distinctive identifying mark. He was now back to his usual darkly handsome self. Pity about the renovator; the man had been good at his job. But one could not leave loose ends lying about. Maximus eyed his watch, figuring he had only a few hours left. That was how long it would take Lotang’s hunkies to triangulate his position and snatch him. He was sure Lotang would want him alive, if only to gloat then consign him to a flash of obscene pain. Maximus would have done precisely the same if he were in Lotang’s position. Maximus had rented a disused laboratory in the vacuum zone near Reema’s north pole. It had once been used to manufacture bio-weapons in the Telugan War a century earlier, hence the vacuum buffer zone. Even exotic Level 5 viruses needed an atmosphere to migrate to hosts. The vacuum sector, in turn, acted as a pressure differential, so that leaks were always inwards, not outwards.
