CHAPTER 205 — WHEN THE SYSTEM TURNED AGAINST ITS OWN CREATOR
The city no longer looked like something built by the system.
That realization settled into Elena's chest sometime after midnight as she stood near the towering glass walls of the control room, watching endless movement flood through the streets below like rivers breaking through collapsed dams. The skyline still carried the marks of centralized authority everywhere she looked, emergency advisories flashing across giant screens, immobilization barriers cutting through transit districts, enforcement drones circling high above the towers like restless predators searching for order that no longer existed.
But beneath all of it,
the city belonged to the people again.
