Our hero goes to the window-wall and looks out. The city lies beneath him, all aglitter. It reminds him of a living thing, this huge conurbation. Its millions of inhabitants like the busy cells of a body, moving hither and tither about their business. Their interactions, their loves, their squabbles - the everyday life of a gigantic superentity. And yet, like an organic body depended on oxygen being supplied to every organ, this immense city also lived through its great streets - those huge arterial thoroughfares. And just as the body has a brain, the core of this city lived in the sprawling, protected complex of CarMax. Bejewelled with a million floodlights, this watchful sentinel stood guard over the city and her people.
Behind him, the dusky beauty stirred under the covers. 'Can't sleep honey?' she asked. He turned around and said 'I'll be back in a moment'. Then, the unthinkable happened. The lights started going out. Street by street, block by block, the city plunged into darkness. His breath caught in his throat. He felt the long forgotten tightening of his chest. Far in the distance, he saw the lights of CarMax itself grow dim. 'No!' he whispered. That bilious taste in his mouth was that old familiar fear.

And then, a searchlight speared out of the darkness and reached for the clouds. The oval in the the sky shone for just a few moments before it, too, was extinguished. But he saw the silhouette etched in sharp relief. His name. DeMuro. He turned back. When he spoke, his voice was rock steady. 'Stay here. You will be safe. I have to leave - there is work to be done.'