Part I – Nine Days
Six floors above Midtown, Victor Crane watched dawn crawl over glass. Beneath his office, Manhattan looked like circuitry—bridges and freeways lit with a constant electric heartbeat.
The city was already his, but today he meant to prove it.
A secretary entered with coffee, eyes carefully neutral. He dismissed her before she finished the question. His attention remained on three walls of screens, each showing a different pulse of Project Ashes Phase Two. Data streams flickered in coral and indigo; countdowns synchronized down to the millisecond: 08 days 22 hours 47 minutes.
Crane tapped a sequence on the console.
“Initialize public‑sector node simulation,” he said.
“Target?” asked the system.
“New York City. All of it.”
Behind him, Charlotte Reed’s reflection mate
