"Ew."

"Yeah."

"I am going to guess Nai probably finds this guy extremely distasteful if he's aware he exists at all, which he might not be."

"...string of plant thefts..."

Wait what. Zash turns the volume of the radio up.

"...that it might be related to the wanted fugitive Zash the Stampede and his associates. While he has not been sighted on the scene of the last two incidents, reports suggest methods very similar to those employed in Jeneora Rock weeks ago."

"Well, damn. And we're heading to a singular plant? That's nice and easily stealable?"

"... Compared to the cities or really entrenched outposts, yeah. Though it's also mobile, and its location is kept relatively secret, I only know where it'll be because they wanted to hire me."

"Cool, cool. Just checking. Heh, I guess I get to say I might get to meet God! Hey Zash, think my big laser gun will do anything to God himself?" (Giggle.)

Zash... doesn't answer, and keeps frowning at the radio.

"...here with Joan McBride, a policymaker from May who specialises in resource management. Good afternoon, Joan."

    "Afternoon, Mark."

"So, what do you reckon the damage of these thefts will be?"

    "Very hard to calculate. The incidents themselves were very bloody, and my heart goes out to the families of the victims, but I fear this may only be a hint of what's to come. As the targets were mainly smaller towns, they've entirely lost their means of staying afloat, and many do not have any reasonable way to move to one of the Cities..."

Yvette winces. Even if they could manage to get to one of the Cities, those Cities have a habit of being very picky about who they let in to use their limited resources. Not precisely, 'you must have certification to enter,' though her home city of December is in fact actually that strict, but even the more lax cities will just sort of. Charge people for everything and let them starve if they can't pay for it. With various levels of ripping them off first, depending on how seedy the city itself is. She suspects that anyone trying to find relief by moving will.... probably not find it. Especially not with there being a whole string of plant thefts. Cities will occasionally absorb dying towns and are accustomed to a gradual influx of people immigrating from the outside, but that many? That... is not going to be good. Lots of people are going to starve, or die of dehydration, or exposure.

And there's not really anything she can do about it.

"—sorry, you asked, uh—no, I don't think the laser gun will do much unless it's very very powerful. I've tried a lot of things to kill myself and none worked.

"Why is Nai doing this, there can't have been that many red plants, can there? They're not that frequent."

"No. Unless I'm really badly informed, the numbers have actually gotten better over the past few decades, though a lot of that's just the small towns drying up and not getting replaced."

"Well, do you think you're badly informed?"

"I have spent the better part of a decade studying plants in red state and gathering data collected from various cities of nearby settlements and the plant engineers dispatched to them. ... No, I really don't."

"Right. So. Something's changed."

    "...and while Zash the Stampede has been active for years, the past six months have seen more action than the five previous years, so one can only speculate what his goals could be."

"And there have been no signs of these plants in the black market?"

    "None whatsoever, at least not that May's government is aware of. If he's planning to resell them, he might want to create a lot more demand beforehand."

"I can't imagine anyone would want to associate with such a criminal..."

    "You would be surprised what people do when they're desperate."

"Six months? That's before Jeneora."

"Does he... have the infrastructure set up to properly care for them now?? Can now scale up because he can take care of them? Because that's the only thing I could imagine changing, he. Certainly isn't planning to sell or use them."

"I'd be surprised if there was anyone on the planet with better infrastructure than his. Maybe Brad's team. I can't imagine that's changed."

"Then... I don't know. More ability to steal them? ... A better transport system, maybe?? Because if the thefts have continued since Jeneora he has covered a lot of ground."

"Uh, can we pause the dissection of his motives and whatever for a bit and focus on practicals? Because it sounds like Zashy-kins over there is going to get even more of a price on his head, and your plot to poke a plant will be taking him pretty damned close to actual civilization. That screams 'massive risk' to me and like he's just going to get arrested."

".... That... is a good point."

Zash closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.