DATE: Year 487-A, Sol 2

  LOCATION: Hotel Florida, Catwalk (Europa)

  The speed of the fire from the explosion cut off the path Poe had planned on using to make his escape. He had instead to cut through an elevated catwalk to a stand-alone elevator tower. He had the best view, from there, of the dragons. They appeared, as if out of nowhere, a few dozen meters from the side of the hotel whose fa?ade had caught fire. Some witnesses later said the dragons had appeared on the outside of the dome, but from his vantage point Poe could clearly see that wasn’t the case.

  The authorities themselves, within hours, had put out a bulletin that the dragons had been holographically-generated. The NEC’s official statement linked the bombing on the top floor to the dragon apparition, saying the same unknown perpetrator was responsible for the bombing and the dragons, producing holographic generators they said the Saganite investigators found outside the dome. This, they explained, accounted for conflicting reports about whether the dragons had appeared inside or outside the dome, and how many there were. They had been projected, the authorities said, from the outside onto the glass dome, creating the effect that it did. There was not a lot of video of the incident. Video storage was expensive and the equipment was heavy.

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  Poe heard the first reports, and knew they were lies. There were three dragons, one white, one brown and one green. They looked like ridged worms, with wings. He was close enough to see their scales. Holographic tech, on the other hand, was basic. Sure, the industrial-sized one might be higher quality than the kind he’d been exposed to, but there was no way they could produce this kind of life-like quality.

  The only thing the holograph story had going for it was how quickly the dragons appeared and disappeared. Where would they have gone?