26.      Selling Poseidon

Riker deals with escalating attacks from VEHEMENT, including a bomb that destroys a cargo drone delivery to Vancouver Island and sabotage of the space farm irrigation systems. He coordinates a replacement delivery with Premier Grady and Homer while grappling with the difficulty of tracing VEHEMENT's methods of infiltration.

Charles informs Riker that VEHEMENT has destroyed a cargo drone carrying supplies to Vancouver Island with an explosive device, eliminating food and equipment meant for the struggling fishery. Riker receives a call from Premier Grady, who accepts the loss without blame but expresses concern about feeding his population. Riker arranges for Homer to coordinate a replacement delivery via secure short-range laser communication that cannot be intercepted. Riker acknowledges to Grady that VEHEMENT has escalated from a nuisance to a major threat. Charles also mentions ongoing attacks on Florianópolis in Brazil, which receive more public sympathy as revenge for the war, unlike the supply chain attacks. The chapter shifts focus to sabotage discovered in one of the orbital donut habitats, where chemicals introduced into an irrigation system kill three sections of kudzu before automated systems detect and halt the damage. Riker recognizes that VEHEMENT's ability to access the space farms—restricted to Bobs—suggests sophisticated hacking, drone infiltration, or stowing away on returning vehicles. Unable to determine the mechanism, Riker sets his AMI monitors to review a month of traffic and begins searching cryptographic literature, archiving all data for future analysis and looking for intercepted communications between VEHEMENT members.