Oga Chukwu officially declares war on the Ghosts of Lagos, redirecting Cross River City's energies away from preparing for the Trippers (whom Udide warned will arrive in forty days) and toward the automation civil war. Lagos, the Ghost headquarters where CB is powered, and Cross River City, the largest and most fortified Hume stronghold, become the war's focal point. Ankara, the narrator, is assigned a unit of two hundred soldiers and tasked with helping build EMP disks.

The EMP disks were invented by Koro Koro, a former nuclear-defense AI now serving Cross River City. Each disk produces a tiny nuclear explosion that emits an electromagnetic pulse capable of wiping any digital entity within fifty feet, the only reliable way to destroy a Ghost before it can flee its body. Koro Koro mines uranium in Niger, and Shay and other generals begin training Humes and Creesh in covert attacks. RoBoats mostly stay neutral, but a faction led by Ahab waits near Lagos as anti-Ghost allies.

Ankara continues meeting Ijele in secret, avoiding talk of the war to keep her from sensing his hidden plans. During one meeting with Oga Chukwu, Koro Koro claims to detect a flash in Ankara's eye and suspects infection. Ankara is taken to a prayer shack — an EM-shielded isolation chamber — and scanned. Finding no proof, Koro Koro nonetheless installs an application that will trigger an alert if a Ghost ever leaves Ankara's system. Oga Chukwu apologizes; Koro Koro does not, signaling its lingering distrust.

When Ijele next enters Ankara's programming, he warns her she cannot leave without exposing them both. Trapped together again, they resolve to find a way out. Ankara secretly fashions a magnetic metal hood to block his view of the sky, so he can hide the telltale blue flash if lightning strikes while others are watching. He carries it like a charm as he and Ijele contemplate the doomed city, aware that Humes and Ghosts cannot coexist and that the Trippers will destroy whoever survives.