THE SECOND BOOK OF THE LANDMARK TRILOGY OF THE 21st CENTURY In 2007, the Center for Nanobiotechnology Automation presented the software and hardware platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than a human cell to make medical diagnoses, perform repairs, and self-replicate. In the same year, the CBS television station aired a show about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, as it turned out, could erase even the memory of a particularly traumatic experience. At that moment, humanity had just discovered the means that would bring about its total destruction. And, at the same time, the means that would make it forget. In less than forty years from now, the world is still as we know it. Time continues to flow, but not for everyone in the same way. Only a few powerful people know what is coming. They are preparing for it. They are trying to protect us. They are putting us on a path of no return, leading to destruction; a path that will send us underground. The story of the silo begins here. Our future starts now.