Chapter One: The City Only I Could See

He seated Su in his chair and made her look from exactly his angle. "Lin," she said slowly, "you look ill." "You honestly can't see it?" "See what?" The dark-red heart at the city's center flashed. Seven, six, five— He counted without meaning to. The light was not a pixel. It seemed projected against the inner surface of his retina. At zero, symbols appeared above the city's right wing. They belonged to no language he knew, yet their meaning arrived intact. FIRST OBSERVATION ESTABLISHED. "Turn off the main display!" Lin sprang up. The entire hall went dark. Servers continued to hum, their indicators like ranks of red eyes. Emergency power returned three seconds later. The Antarctic image now showed only ordinary ice. The city was gone.