Chapter 13 · Two Dawns for a Dead City

The core control room had no windows, but Eve could still feel the acid rain above them.

It came through the walls as a faint, restless hiss, a thousand needles scratching at the buried research district. Water dripped from the ceiling in slow green beads. Each drop struck the metal floor and smoked.

Cain Rook stood three steps behind her, one hand pressed against the hole in his side. Blood had soaked through his shirt, his coat, and the strip of emergency sealant Eve had wrapped around him. He looked gray beneath the control room's blue light. His knees trembled once.

He pretended they didn't.

Eve noticed anyway.

The Dawn Core turned above them, a sphere of white fire suspended inside a cage of black alloy. Every rotation sent a pulse through the room. The pulse entered Eve's bones, traveled up her spine, and settled behind her eyes.

A thousand dead machines woke in the walls.

Then the central display changed.

RESTART SEQUENCE AVAILABLE.

Beneath it, two columns unfolded.

OUTER GRID POPULATION: 8,416,902. SURVIVAL PROJECTION: 91.7%.

INNER DISTRICTS POPULATION: 1,104,388. SURVIVAL PROJECTION: 0.3%.

Eve stared at the numbers until they blurred.

The display did not say death.