New York, Bloom.
Martin pushed open the door to Skye's studio and called urgently, "Skye, the city-"
"I know!"
Her furious voice came from speakers all around the room-
She was ctOS's chief operations engineer. Of course she'd be the first to know when something went wrong!
Lier had removed the Cross-Dimensional encryption, bringing almost all production lines to a halt. The Network encryption methods had all been rendered obsolete, and had to be replaced with others.
Even that one adjustment had thrown the Network into terrifying turmoil!
Almost simultaneously, unknown Network Attacks from all over the world-even direct attacks on information devices that bypassed Internet protocols-had paralyzed the entire Network!
More than a dozen smart cities across America had ground to a halt!
After seeing what was happening inside, Martin stopped pressing Skye:
The Coolant in the interface pod where Skye lay was boiling and bubbling furiously!
Pfft!
A massive electrical overload hit one of the interface pod's circuits. Skye arched and convulsed violently as if she were having an epileptic seizure. Martin was aghast.
Bzz-
Countless screens began to flicker. Dark red mosaics and indecipherable text completely took over the Network!
Martin stepped forward and hit the emergency disconnect button, but before he could do anything else to calm Skye, he froze:
The screens covered in dark red mosaics, their circuits burned out by the overload, began playing fragmented images:
He recognized the locations: New York's Hudson River, Washington's Potomac River, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and NASA John Space Center in Houston.
And the place where the president was giving his speech.
President-elect Barnes was at the podium, confidently describing the future: "...This country, this world, will become a better place through our cooperation-"
A low rumble suddenly drowned out his next words. At first, people mistook