Before reading this page’s description, I recommend you read this summary description for this issue.

As with many Bonelli publications, page 5 begins the story. Here's the dialogue on pages 5 through 9, in which the fat cat Andrew Bacon and his robot servitor pay a visit to a recluse who owns valuable land, including a coveted water source.

“With all due respect, sir, it may not have been wise to leave the bodyguards at the helicopter.”

“There is no danger. This place has been deserted for centuries.”

“Deserted, certainly. But then, perhaps the information about the hermit is bogus.”

“It's not bogus. Shut up and walk. Over there. What was I telling you? Here's where he lives.”

“Again, respectfully, sir, about that business of the bodyguards...”

“I said, shut up!”

(They arrive at the hermit, who speaks.) “You are not welcome here.”

“I can change all this. I can give you a comfortable place to live. Fresh food every day. And women... as many as you want.”

“You have all that, and yet you seek more. I have nothing, and I seek nothing. I repeat: You are not welcome here.”

“I suppose you know what I am looking for, don't you?”

“You seek the mother of all springs, but it is well hidden from those with eyes like yours. Instead, it will show itself to one who looks at the world with a respectful soul, so that he can make good use of it.”

(Bacon points a gun at the hermit.) “So much chatter. You bore me. I will ask you only one more time. Tell me where that damned spring is.”

“For you, it does not exist.” (Bacon shoots the hermit in the head.)

(The robot, as they leave.) “Who knows what he meant by, 'To him who looks at the world with a respectful soul, it will show itself, so that he can make good use of it'?”

“The question is not 'What did he mean?' but to whom he was referring. And I know.”

Pages 10-14 show the consequences when Bacon gains control over the hermit's land: He ruins a farming community by building a dam which steals its water supply. The farmers are forced to move away.

On pages 15-23, an engineer named Max Powell rides in a robotaxi to his job at the new dam. His daughter Carolyn, a young adult, sends a voice mail that she's leaving home because her dad has failed to protect her from molestation by his boss, Andrew Bacon.

On pages 24-40, Carolyn is now part of a team of environmental activists who are sabotaging the dam with explosives. The dam's security chief, Larry Frost, prevents the sabotage from doing much damage. He seems ready to execute the saboteurs on the spot, but another bomb provides both destruction and distraction that allows the saboteurs to escape. Special Agent Nathan Never and his Mutate partner Branko are on the scene as well. Nathan finds Frost overbearing and trigger-happy, and tells him so.

On pages 41-44, over dinner, Nathan's boss Solomon Darver informs politician Elania Elmore about Nathan's concerns with Frost and the water project, but she dismisses them, saying that the dam is important for the greater good.

On pages 45-49, Darver assigns Nathan and Branko to keep tabs on Frost. An even larger dam project is in the works, with Max Powell again supervising construction. Nathan and Branko privately complain about their boss and discuss their family lives. What will happen next??

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