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Véra was actually in her early forties but she had the appearance of a life-experienced woman in her mid-sixties. Years of living underneath overpasses and scrabbling around for food and the necessities of life had left their mark on her.
Her ordeals had also toughened her up and she shrugged off the biting cold, as she trudged through the streets towards one of the few conversion stations that were still open. In response to the false-flag sophont atrocities and flexing his DSA directorship muscles, Candidate Zlikovac, using his ministerial influence, had closed down sixty per cent of the public charging stations. His logic was simple – if the sophonts had nowhere to recharge, they would eventually deactivate, making their collection by his DSA units no more difficult that scooping u
