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Russia. A year after, the newly-formed Federal Security Agency had started mopping up. It took them several years to properly establish the new totalitarian regime. That had been their hay day - purges and arrests - right up until the Coup of the Seven Generals.
    "Okay," the captain slapped his hips and turned pointing to the direction of the mainland. "Course north west, fifteen degrees starboard from Elephant Ridge.”
    " Leave them, Grunt," Georgie spoke. "Just look at them: they wouldn't tell north west from a shit sandwich. And that slanted-eye monkey don't speak no Russian."
    The captain sighed. "In other words, row till you hit the shore. Oakum! You on lookout, make sure we don't lose the current. Keep an eye on the wind, too. Give your paddle to the Asian. Let him work for his rescue. Georgie, keep a bead on them-"
    " Depend upon it!"
    "... it would be safer for us all," the captain concluded.
    The kid passed his paddle over to the Chinese and sat in front next to the captain. I nodded to the Asian. We made a couple of strokes adjusting to each other and paddled away. Luckily, the wind was at our backs otherwise we'd have to drift and no amount of paddling would have helped, not with all this windage. Now I understood why they'd rescued us: they’d needed someone to paddle. I glanced back again. The island and the Fort receded slowly but surely, and I couldn't see the debris any more.
    "Permission to speak," the captain clutched his hands on his belly and reached out his legs. "Rookies have lots of questions."
    Georgie snorted. I looked at Wladas. He sniffled with his head dropped onto his chest. The dumping and the shock had been too much for him.
    "Why didn't they rescue us?" I pointed my paddle at the Elephant Ridge with its beam trawlers. "Couldn't they come and help?"
    " Trawlers have no business in the Fort area," the captain said. "They'd be sunk straight away. And during these vortex incidents," he raised his eyes to the sky, "the Fort closes the channel and tells them to leave at full steam."
    "How big is the base water area, then?"
    "About five miles south from the Elephant Ridge. Right up to Cape Fang."
    He pointed over Georgie's head to the east where a crooked black cliff hung over the shore. Far beyond it , mountain tops barely showed through a gray mist: that was the beginning of the mountain range that encircled the continent's east coast. The swamps had to lie by the northern foothills.
    "The only way to get to the base is by ferry boat," the captain waved his hand, "and only when they're expecting a new shipment of convicts. We take carula on board, then wait for the go-ahead from the Fort commander and approach the base. Then we unload, ship the men on board and go back."
    I ’d barely heard his last words as the Information clicked on again in my head,
    Herba C earula, or blue seaweed, commonly known as carula, grows exclusively in the New Pang area. It is the only source of biocyne.
    Biocy ne? I thought, thus activating a new page:
    Biocy ne is a biologically active substance produced by the seaweed species herba caerula. It facilitates DNA breakage repair resulting in improved environmental tolerance and longevity...
    "Quit gawking and row!" the captain shouted.
    The Information finally shut up allowing me to paddle with renewed vigor. I glanced at the unconscious Wladas and the silent Chinese. What was going on here? Nothing but riddles. First the chain of accidents at the jumpgate, then this Chinese who looked as if he was keeping an eye on me. Now this complex informational software in my own head, and when had they ever had time to install it? I could only think of one instant when they could have done so: after the tribunal when army surgeons had removed my combat implants. They'd had to put me to sleep. But if the surgeon had installed the software, he couldn't have done it on his own accord, could he? He couldn't have cared less about me. Which meant he'd been forced into it - why else