22
01:37
Waking with a start, Sarah-Jane Burnett rubbed her weary eyes and checked her Ktab. Its clock read 01:37, but the status display was blinking an unusual message and it was making a shrill beeping sound she had never heard the device make before. The same alarm was sounding from every other screen in the room, both the smart mirror above her dressing table and the advertising screens built into the window glass. It only took her a second to realise that the sound was also echoing down the corridor outside her room. The same message had appeared on every single holo in the Kaoteck Industries Home for Children of the Rainbow.
ATTENTION CITIZENS OF NEW BRITAIN:
INCOMING PRIORITY MESSAGE….
She leapt out of bed, dashed to the lounge and stared at the holo display with bated breath,
