THE PRISON IS FAILING. PAYMENT REQUIRED.
The words held the center of Eli’s interface while the paper drawing remained visible behind them. There was no definition beneath the demand, no account of what would be paid or who would bear it. No speaker identified itself. No choice appeared that made the terms understandable.
At the perimeter, an Aegis hunter read the same warning aloud. Another interrupted him before he finished, saying the words were in her interface too. Sera copied the text exactly. Bram asked the nearest independent hunter to read his version without seeing her page.
The wording matched.
“Don’t interpret it yet,” Juno said. “Preserve what appeared. Report the time and the clock source you’re using. And keep the route work moving.”
A deputy took the reports while the local commander stayed with the departure lanes. The new warning did not supply a safe direction through the streets or a replacement for the accessible vehicle already collecting people. Nonhunters could not see it simply because the hunters around them had stopped looking at ordinary things.
The first distant confirmation came through a capital response desk away from the facility district. Hunters at a transit assignment had received the same text. Another report came from the hospital defense network in the other city, where the local team was still handling the aftermath of the bridge evacuation. Their operational interfaces showed it too.
