Nybbas is surprised by the terror when it strikes him. Oh, not fear - he's used to fear, lives in fear constantly; it's part and parcel of being a Prince, hardly anything to worry about. Fear isn't this. Fear isn't the sudden feeling of your throat reaching down into your stomach and twisting. Fear isn't the lightheaded feeling like you're screaming somewhere where nobody can hear. Where nobody can hear.

No. That's terror.

It strikes him as he's standing beside Vapula, moments after a button has been pressed. An experiment, of course. Depriving a certain percentage of North America of their power. "Powerlessness is helplessness," Vapula had said calmly. "Make them remember their reliance on us."

And now: this.

Terror. It starts small but builds. He hears all the world's media at once, fed into his ears; he sees it through his glasses. Suddenly blackness, blindness in one lens; an admirable percentage of North America, he thinks, has no television playing. And he hears -

Silence from there. It's not total; he hears Europe's radio, music, playing in the background but this is where he's focussing on, Vapula's experiment: part of Canada, part of the United States of America. And there he hears- no. Not silence.

White noise.

It's an apocalyptic sound and he fights shivers as he hears thousands of people turning their radio dial and hearing nothing but white noise from station after station after station - nothing. No news. Papers, he thinks, as thousands of people think it to, then realizes: No. They'll need electricity to print.

He fights his hands to a standstill at his side, wants to cover his ears and block out the white noise of no broadcast. It could all end, he suddenly realize, it could all end-

"Interesting," Vapula says beside him, as statistics and readouts pour out from machines around them.

Nybbas turns to grin at him, unable to speak, the hate welling inside him and curling around terror. He smiles cheerfully, the same sleazy smile everyone sees and thinks of killing Vapula, thinks of getting free from him. Thinks of everything he can't do without technology - no, without electricity. He grins at Vapula.

Vapula smiles back and says again, "Interesting."