Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 611
"And that," he finished, "is why nobody’s found the
Flaw. In fact they may have found one or the other at various
times, but never both."
"Ventus has been studied by dozens of groups," she said.
"They all gave up, and they didn’t all share their data.
"Oh." She sat down. "Axel. This is wonderful. This is
what we’ve been searching for. It’s way more than I hoped to
see in my lifetime. Far more than I ever hoped I’d
accomplish..."
He sat down opposite her, and dragged his chair close
enough for their knees to touch. He raised his glass. "I guess
there’s an article or two in this, eh?"
Before she could reply, a voice burst into his mind from
inscape.
"This is an urgent bulletin. I thought you should know."
It was the voice of the Government. Marya had
obviously heard it too; she jerked back, spilled her drink, and
cursed.
"Oh, what is it!" he snapped at the ceiling.
"The god Choronzon has won over enough votes to send
six destroyers of the Archipelagic fleet to Ventus," said the
Government. "He has made a convincing case for Armiger
being a resurrection seed of 3340. Since you and Calandria
failed to stop him on the surface, the fleet has orders to locate
him from orbit and nuke him."
"That’s crazy!" said Axel. "You can’t find Armiger from
orbit, we tried that. Why do you think we had to go down to
the surface?"
"If they are unable to locate him, the destroyers have
authorization to sterilize as much of the surface of the planet
as they need to in order to ensure his destruction. Choronzon
believes that the infrastructure of the Winds makes a