The Divine had not known. Or she hadn’t known that someone else knew. “Who else have you reported this to?” asked Linuka Omga. “No one, Shaajis.” “Not Terg?” she asked. “Why not?” Cha chose his words carefully. Whatever was happening beneath the colony, Linuka’s first concern wasn’t what they had found. It was who knew about it.

Something is moving beneath the colony. Cha Dzeeny has a theory about the mysterious vines attacking Green Wave, and this time, he has a way to test it. Armed with a powerful scanner and growing doubts about what everyone else accepts as part of the plan, he follows the trail underground. What he finds raises a far more dangerous question.

The attacks are too obvious. “Why attack now, same place each time, with spectacle? Bent fences, severed limbs. The stealth vines I saw were sophisticated enough to reach anywhere in the colony silently, undetected.” Cha Dzeeny sees a pattern his alien superiors refuse to acknowledge. And if he’s right, the attacks at the perimeter aren’t the real danger. The danger may already be inside.