Up until the moment that fragments hit London, Addis Abada, Beijing, Delhi and New York everyone still believed it was a meteor. Even after the rock fragmented, even after the pieces drifted differently than the models said they would, even after the first piece set off the Yellowstone caldera, we thought it was an accident or an act of God. But then the biggest cities on Earth were targeted, vaporized. Then we knew. We knew we had been attacked.

We didn’t really know. Not yet. We would not know for another thirty years, not until after the Ring was complete.

Chapter 2