Nuwell dropped the helicopter lower. He angled it down, and in a short time landed it on the desert near one of the four buildings of the Canfell Hydroponic Farm.
As he and Maya donned their marshelmets, a group of marsuited men emerged from the building's airlock and came across the sand toward them.
Maya stared curiously out the copter window. She had heard of this government experimental station, but had not visited it before.
"This is another reason I wanted to take a copter," explained Nuwell, releasing the air from the copter's interior. "There aren't any roads to this place, and I didn't want to drive a groundcar across the desert to bring Kensington's body here."
They emerged from the copter as the group from the building approached. Nuwell greeted the five of them and introduced them to Maya. Four of them were strangers to her, but the fifth she remembered: Goat Hennessey, white-bearded and watery-eyed.
"How are you adjusting to your new work here, Dr. Hennessey?" Nuwell asked him.
"Very well," answered Goat in his cracked voice. "They're using a different approach from mine, but I find it extremely interesting."
Remembering Goat's earlier experiments at Ultra Vires, it occurred to Maya to be grateful that Dark had not fallen alive into the hands of these people at the Canfell Hydroponic Farm.
Their entire stop lasted only a few minutes. Nuwell refused an invitation to remain overnight, explaining that he was anxious to get on to Mars City. The others unloaded Dark's coffin and moved with it back toward the building. Nuwell and Maya climbed back into the copter, and shortly they were airborne again and the buildings of the Canfell Hydroponic Farm were receding behind and below them.
Nuwell guided the copter almost straight westward now. It passed over Candor and buzzed out over the broad Xanthe Desert.