Chapter 3OVER THE COURSE of a couple of hours, troops arrived at major transmission stations, joined by local power company employees. The massive display of force drove off most of the intruders. Those captured told a story of acting to preserve the country from a takeover by an illegitimate government. The uniform message, like political talking points, contained a fingerprint, but no specific identity.
The grid slowly failed. Yet, in New York, the stock market remained active. Local outages had spread during a workday, so most of the country remained unaware. Even the expanded residential solar panels, which slowed a complete collapse, were not enough to prevent it. Crowds at the polling stations began to swell due to slowing response times, but the problem continued, generally unknown
