The Disconnected City

Lin and Zhao had made sixty-seven thousand with a twelve-hour advantage. Someone had been harvesting an entire city with this network every day. Oracle emitted a piercing alarm. All the golden links went dark. Garbled symbols flooded the black interface. The terminal verified the transmission three times, then produced a broken translation. [Emergency distress protocol... DAWN SEVEN... core temperature uncontrolled...] [Requesting Administrator terminate FIRMAMENT takeover...] [Timestamp: October 8 next year, 21:17:04.] Zhao stared at the date. “The system is broken. Today is October eighth this year.” Lin did not answer. He searched public databases for Dawn Seven.