Chapter Two: The Rooftop Fabricator

News cameras saw only modified industrial drones. On Lin's tablet, however, the tower turned transparent. Ninety-three yellow points appeared across four floors; seven were fading quickly. “West conference room, floor fifty-one,” she said. “Seven people, low oxygen.” “Open the sprinklers.” “Insufficient pressure.” “We'll borrow the water cannon.” Two swarm units positioned themselves before the fire hose. The high-speed stream struck a curved field between them, atomized into billions of droplets, and climbed the facade like an inverted silver waterfall. The crowd roared. “This belongs to Earth's technological lineage?” Lin asked. “Electrohydrodynamic atomization. There are papers.” “Papers can lift water two hundred meters?”