A sleek silver-gray drone bearing the Penacony Tourism Bureau logo hovered about twenty meters above the swimming pool.
Its camera was like a cold, unfeeling eye. Its red indicator light blinked steadily, aimed with perfect precision at where she stood.
That red dot looked exactly like a targeting reticle.
At the same time—
On Golden Moment's ever-neon-lit, ever-crowded main street, every giant outdoor screen flickered at once.
The footage abruptly switched from the Dream Holiday reality show—a group of scantily clad handsome men and beautiful women playing by the beach while completing challenge missions.
In its place appeared a live feed from beside the pool.
Wet tiles. Overturned lounge chairs. Tourists fleeing in every direction.
And at the center of the screen, a girl covered head to toe in unidentified grime, staring up at the sky.
The data bar beneath the giant screens, which should have displayed the challenge's progress, now showed four flashing red words: "Segment Malfunction."
The host was a young man in a bright pink suit, his hair sculpted into an exaggerated style with gel.
He was addressing the camera with a radiant smile.
"Alright, viewers, the next stop our contestants are about to reach is—"
He instinctively turned his head toward the giant screen behind him, intending to check on the contestants' live progress.
Then he saw it.
He saw Firefly.
He saw the brownish-yellow mess all over the ground.
He saw the apocalyptic scene by the pool, as though it had been bombed.
His smile froze on his face.
"Uh..." His Adam's apple bobbed as he struggled to move his gaze from the giant screen behind him to the teleprompter in front of him, then back to the screen, then back to the teleprompter.
Three times in a row.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on