The air raid sirens had been wailing for six hours when the first riots began. Not the spontaneous outpouring of fear and confusion that might have been expected after the angels' public appearance, but something more coordinated, more deliberately destructive. Across Eidolon City, crowds of seemingly ordinary citizens were gathering at strategic locations—government buildings, media centers, transportation hubs—and proceeding to tear them apart with methodical precision.

Maya watched the ...