The words hit the rain-soaked intersection like a bucket of cold lye.
[FINAL MUNICIPAL RULE 109: EMINENT DOMAIN CONDEMNATION]
Across the street, behind the display windows of Store #04, two hundred Volunteer Clerks went dead quiet.
Sammy Chen’s face pressed against the thick display glass, his eyes wide and dark under the neon glow. Beside him, Dr. Beatrice Hahn looked down at the heavy property ledger in her hands, her knuckles going paper-white.
“Condemned?” Mac growled, taking a heavy step forward into the flooded street. “You can’t condemn a chartered union hall! We’ve got an active transit concession stamped on the door!”
Vance Sterling laughed through the limousine’s horn speakers. The sound was like a shovel scraping across frozen gravel.
“Your transit concession was issued by a municipal board that I just liquidated, Marcus!” Sterling sneered.
Sterling stepped down to the bottom of the granite stairs. His silk jacket was plastered to his shoulders by the dirty rain, but his eyes were bright with a manic, feverish intensity.
