The chapter opens with a description of the mission. It is to infiltrate an abandoned radioactivity-refinement plant. The new world brigade has taken over the plant, and the four members of the rescue team have been lost. The major is worried that he has heard some strange noises. He decides to go to the plant and secure the float deck so that they can bring in Bato and Salato. He tells the captain that he heard something, and they go to investigate. The captain tells the major to stay put until they make contact with the plant. He then tells him that they picked one signal from the brigade, and that they have all been killed. He wonders if this is just the brigade they picked lip one signal, meaning that they all have been wiped out. He also wonders if they are going to the hole in the wall, and he wonders if it is the same brigade that has wiped out the four rescue team members. He thinks that prosthetics are part of humanity's liberation front, but he doesn't think that it would be effective given that she is and cloned humans can't legally inherit but that she should be younger than she is