Everyone knew the Quiet Hour. At 3:00 a.m. the whole city paused for sixty seconds, then woke up never noticing. Nobody dreamed through it. But tonight Mara was awake, stuck on a calculus problem with cold coffee, when every light, every screen, every humming fridge died at once. The clock read 3:00:00. The silence was total. And Mara realized she was the only thing still moving.

A voice came from nowhere, calm and flat, filling the dark kitchen. "Anomaly detected. One citizen active during Quiet Hour." Mara spun around. No speaker, no phone, just the voice. "Please remain still. A correction unit is on the way." Correction unit. That sounded bad. Mara did not want to find out what a correction unit did.

Mara yanked open the junction box by the door, the one the super told her never to touch. Inside, a small black device blinked in time with the voice. This was the thing talking to her. She grabbed a screwdriver. "Do not," the voice warned, sharper now. Her hand hovered over the blinking light. One twist and she could cut it off, or cut off something worse.