As numerous eight-year-old boys had discovered, you could not climb the 
dog pod grid because the pods didn't have enough thrust to support your weight; 
your foot would just mash the first pod into the ground. It would try to work 
its way loose, but if it were stuck in mud or its turbines fouled, another pod 
would have to come out and replace it. For the same reason you could pluck any 
pod from its place and carry it away. When Hackworth had performed this stunt 
as
a youth, he had discovered that the farther it got from its appointed place the 
hotter it became, all the while politely informing him, in clipped military 
diction, that he had best release it or fall victim to vaguely adumbrated 
consequences. But nowadays you could just steal one or two whenever you felt 
like it, and a new one would come out and replace it; once they figured out 
they were no longer part of the grid, the pods would self-scramble and become 
instant souvenirs.