The new laws arrived quietly, then with thunder. Television screens filled with Cole’s speeches: Purity. Safety. Order. Newspapers praised his “reform.” Police uniforms grew darker, checkpoints sprouted like weeds, and whispers of integration centres spread through the streets.
Ellie stood at her window in London and watched soldiers march in rhythm past St. James’s Palace. Kahlil had vanished weeks earlier. Rumours said he was in a detention camp near Dover. She no longer knew what to believe.