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Chapter 48: Dominion Protocol
The Dominion didn’t negotiate with the Burn Market.
They tolerated it—barely—because destroying it would mean digging through layers of urban rot so deep that even the Guard’s scanners would choke. But when the Dominion Protocol came down, tolerance ended.
It wasn’t just a law. It was an order.
A shift from passive surveillance to active control.
And when the Protocol activated, the city stopped breathing.
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Dante woke to the sound of silence.
Not the kind that meant peace, but the kind that came when the city’s constant hum—the distant generators, the static hiss of comm signals, the faint rumble of the mag-trams—vanished all at once.
He was on his feet before he even registered the movement. Lira was already by the window, peering through the
