The City Was Already on a Timer

“We cannot confirm this is a coordinated attack,” she said, “but we can confirm multiple waterfront sites lost power at the same time, and there is ongoing risk of secondary explosions.” Then she stopped talking for a second, as if someone had slipped new information into her ear. She looked at the camera again, and her expression changed. “We’ve just received contact from the White House and the FBI,” she said carefully. “Officials are calling this a regional infrastructure failure and are asking the public not to spread unverified terror claims.” Elias stared at the screen, almost laughing at the lie. Failure? Before he could turn it off, an unknown private message popped up. The sender icon was a gray circle. The message said: