Summary

Cienfuegos flew them north to the Opium border, which was a shimmering curtain like a force field. They landed at the Alacran Bioshpere - a collection of long buildings surrounded by a clear bubble. El Patron had copied the biosphere from the United States; during the drug wars he took all of the animals from it and brought them to his own biosphere. It had been established eighty years before. El Patron’s main purpose in creating the biosphere was to make a model on which to base his Scorpion Star.

When they enter the biosphere, they all had to be disinfected by robots and dressed in new clothes. Then they are allowed inside the clear bubble. The colors were bright and the air smelled clean; it was raining and there were dozens of species of plants and animals. The people were not...