Bella sat in the command room like a queen on a high throne.

Around her, twenty secretaries waited-each one a machine with a name and a job. Their eyes tracked every screen; their fingers hovered over keyboards.

They waited for Bella's next order.

"The Los Angeles internet is down," Bella said.

"Alfred ordered a blackout-no feeds, no leaks. He wants this city blind while he does what he's doing."

Outside the blackout, the military, police, and the truly connected elite still got updates through satellite links.

They weren't going blind. Only the masses were.

"I want every line severed. Cut the city off from the world-land, cellular, and satellite. Six hours. Absolute blackout."

She looked at two secretaries. "You two, make that happen?"

"Roger. We'll link to the hackers and fire up the jammers-sweep starts now," one replied immediate.

"Good." Bella nodded and the two moved to the console, fingers already dialing, voices already routing contacts.

"Last week we set the special comms for our people and the rebel leaders," Bella added.

"Keep that channel secure. We will move them to the target on my mark."

"We're linking with the rebels, Vermont's elite soldiers, the homeless leaders, LA gangsters, and VIPs," another five secretaries said as they slid into their stations and took over the logistics feed.

They were now responsible for every connection.

Bella began issuing orders-sharp and exact-directing thousands like a conductor bringing an orchestra to a single, brutal note.

Her commands were small, clean bullets: one instruction, then the next, no wasted breath.

The field answered in rhythm.

Up on a famous Los Angeles rooftop, a different kind of storm was unfolding.

LA's rich and bored gathered to watch the city burn. They stood with champagne, smoke and light painting their faces.

"This is the best party ever," one young adult shouted, voice thin with inherited arrogance, raising a glass.

"After this purge, Charles Kingston promised me fifty young women," another slurred, grinning like a wolf. "Imagine what we can do with that many."

"He promised me one hundred twenty strong people to play the life-and-death game," someone else said, eyes glittering with excitement.

squid game live. We could bet money while they bet their lives. Now that's

Angeles governor's the best," a voice

laugh cut the

pure greed," the man said, voice flat with contempt. "Came from poor Vancouver and now money's his god-he's lost both heart and

he'll become your lapdog," another said, eyes cold. “I've heard he'd sell his

"No conscience, no restraint.

dark. Crowds shoved, screamed, fought,

poured, music roared, and money kept

someone at the rooftop suddenly shouted,

frowned. "But that old greedy Kingston promised the feeds for us

wifi are cut too," another

a laugh that didn't reach his eyes. "Keep the party-after

the revolving doors and

tight

through the crowd without

you to the rooftop," she said,

leader nodded. Ten hotel security men, room boys,

them down. They started killing our people-now it's time to pick a

"Fear not. After tonight, Los Angeles will belong to the

into the elevator. The maid swiped her access card to the penthouse; the lift hummed upward.

whispered

They've been molesting us for years. They get away with it because

be delayed, but never lost." The rebel

God nodded-because tonight there was no choice between

breathed, voice low and raw, "in this hour of kill or be killed, we have

this place. If we fall, welcome us home. If we

the doors slid open to

staffs burst out at once,

roar,

gunfire thundered through the penthouse, bullets hunting for souls

become beasts, driven only by the need

celebrating,

flames, at the screams, at the moans, at the distant crack of gunfire—sure that money wrapped

ripped through the penthouse, cutting

chaos on the streets below. Rich or pool

silk and flesh alike. Men fell mid-toast, beer spilling from their mouths

the

weren't invisible either. The poor had broken through, and now the rich stood face-to-face with the very people they had once

did its work-tearing flesh, snapping bones, claiming life after life

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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