from the space station. Ela Suvanatat is a freelance journalist doing a story on struggling fishing villages in Vietnam when the Equasys lab module crashes offshore. Although it is quickly declared off-limits by the government, Ela hires a boat and visits the crash site. She is able to scoop up a few stray LOVs which have survived atmospheric reentry and return to shore before the military arrives and cordons off the site. Fleeing from military patrols through marshland, Ela comes into contact with the Roi Nuoc, a group of children under the care of a nearly sentient computer program named Mother Tiger. The Roi Nuoc take her to one of their benefactors, a businessman named Ky Xuan Nguyen. At his house, Ela discovers that the packet of LOVs has torn and most of them are missing, but a few LOVs are still lodged in her forehead. Meanwhile, Virgil and Panwar attempt to escape from quarantine, but Panwar is gunned down and Virgil is only just able to reach Panwar's one-man automated submarine. Virgil soon receives a message from Ela, who is worried that her LOVs seem to be dying. He tells her that crown galls on some plants might contain nopaline, and orders her a supply of both nopaline and octopine tablets from a chemical supply company. Ela is forced to flee her safe house when the military begins a house-to-house search, but she stops to gather crown galls and then asks one of the Roi Nuoc to lead her back to the pool where she took shelter after swimming ashore. At the pool, Ela puts half of her crown galls into the mud, hoping to save any LOVs which had reached the water. 2001 American novels American science fiction novels Tor Books books 2001 science fiction novels Novels about genetic engineering Nanotechnology in fiction Novels about artificial intelligence