"Elias... the lights... they're going out in London. Now Tokyo. It's not a simulation. It's a remote execution ."

"Don't do it, El," a voice crackled through his headset. It was Sarah, his remote tech support and the only person he trusted. "I ran a trace on that build number. 9534533 isn't a version. It's a coordinate. Specifically, a deep-sea trench in the North Atlantic." Elias ignored her. He right-clicked and hit Extract .

He downloaded it over a shielded fiber line, his pulse thumping against his ribs. The file was massive, nearly four terabytes. When the progress bar hit 100%, he moved his cursor over the icon.

"El, your power draw is spiking!" Sarah yelled. "Your local grid is redlining. Shut it down!"