In the cold buffer space between the temp’s skin and balloons, Pham meets Ezr under a localizer-fed deception. Pham teaches Ezr to seed and command localizers and to begin adapting to their optic-nerve “vision,” grooming Ezr as a necessary ally for an eventual move against Nau and Brughel. Ezr presses that the Focused must be freed, and Pham pointedly promises Trixia’s release.

During security briefings, Ritser again urges deploying localizers inside Hammerfest. Despite Anne Reynolt’s indefinite caution, Nau—tempted by Qiwi’s planned underground lake and persuaded by Ritser’s arguments—authorizes power beaming to the motes. The net stabilizes into a vast sensor/computing fabric; multi-day sweeps across Hammerfest, starships, and even the arsenal vault expose numerous procedural lapses but no signs of subversion, bolstering Nau’s confidence.

With pervasive coverage, Nau’s team can now locate individuals and infer emotional and cognitive states. Nau tests the system during his routine meeting with Ezr, reading real-time physiological and attention metrics while Ezr outlines Spider geopolitics: the Kindred’s rocketry and weapons edge versus the Accord’s computing surge, and a likely detection of the humans within ten years.

Seeing Ezr relaxed but guarded, Nau deliberately needlesticks his identity by praising Pham Nuwen and presenting non-Qeng Ho histories depicting Pham as a ruthless conqueror. He transfers these archives to Ezr, observes sharp agitation, and concludes the new tools enable active manipulation. Nau resolves that Ezr’s self-image—rooted in Qeng Ho myths—might be turned. Meanwhile, Qiwi completes cave excavation and installs wave servos, with soil brewing underway and water to follow.