The silence that descended upon the skyscraper was heavier than any physical weight Sarah had ever carried. She knelt on the debris-strewn concrete, cradling Elian’s head in her lap. His skin, which seconds ago had burned with the violet fire of a dying network, was now pale and clammy, matching the grey chill of the room.
Elian? Elian, breathe.
She pressed her ear against his chest. For an agonizing heartbeat, there was only the sound of distant wind whistling through the broken glass of the upper floors. Then, a ragged, hitching intake of air. He wasn't dead, but he was barely tethered to the world of the living.
Sarah pulled a thermal blanket from her pack, wrapping it tightly around his shivering frame. She looked up at the main power trunk he had touched. It was charred, the insul
