The vibration didn't come from the earth; it came from the sky. High above the smog of the Grey Zone and the glass fortresses of the High-Rise, the "Solstice Satellite" a relic of the elder Sterling’s paranoia was aligning its thermal lenses. In five minutes, a concentrated beam of solar-ionized radiation would descend, "sanitizing" the city of the Lunar frequency by incinerating everything in a three-mile radius.
Inside the sub-basement of the Old Cathedral, the air was ionizing. Static electricity danced between the stone pillars, snapping against Astra’s skin.
"They’re going to burn it all," Astra’s mother whispered, her voice trembling as she clutched Astra’s arm. "The tenements, the clinics... everyone still in the slums."
Astra turned to Dante. The bond between them was no longer
