DOMINUS
Prologue At first there was no signal that anything unusual had occurred. Across the planet the evening unfolded the way evenings usually do, with the quiet rhythms of ordinary life repeating themselves in millions of homes, offices, restaurants, and late-night apartments where light spilled softly from screens. Televisions murmured in living rooms. Radios hummed in kitchens where dishes were being rinsed beneath running water. Game consoles flashed color across darkened bedrooms while players leaned forward with the intensity reserved for small victories that meant nothing beyond the moment. In Houston, a man named Carlos Mendoza sat with his teenage daughter on a worn leather couch while the television replayed the final quarter of a football game neither of them had watched closely until the last few minutes. Outside the broad windows of the house, the humid Texas night pressed against the glass and the distant glow of refinery towers painted the horizon a dim industrial orange...