The city was planned on a relentless grid, windowless prefab boxes stretching along either side, identical buildings on and on. Only the roads were lit, their geometries indicated by dim orange lighting. Patrol cars cruised past, their whine echoing from the hard surroundings. Alice crouched and moved to the rooftop’s other side. At first, the view looked the same—miles of blank boxes—but then she saw a break in the pattern. In the far distance, a row of upload towers jutted into the sky. The towers were of a size and design she’d not seen before; typically, they were an overwrought nest of cabling and supports, but these were silver needles that pulsed red in the dark. As her eyes adjusted, she picked out an electrical glow that up lit their metal forms.