...getting explanations for the things that were bothering me about Charlotte's abrupt change of heart.

So is Charlotte saying they required eight remotely-controlled gasbag drones with noise-cancelling devices? I was concerned about multiple machines severely raising decibel levels, but an online calculator says eight 20-db units would only increase it from 20 to 29 decibels, so it would appear that's not an issue if they were able to get the sound down to the level in Charlotte's simulation. As she said, the splatter would probably make more noise than that, and eight simultaneous drops would similarly be 45% louder than one would be, though (as Charlotte noted) harder to pinpoint. But if someone saw the splatter in progress, so to speak, whether they heard anything or not, one would think the first thing that witness would do would be to look up. Presumably the units are rising quickly -- their grisly ballast gone -- but would they all be out of sight?

We'll probably know more after the next chapter. (I wondered about the logistics of hiding eight of the things before and afterward, but from what we're seeing, concealing people and objects doesn't appear to be a problem there.)

Looking forward to more.

Eric