[Narrative Summary]
Darkford learns of the theft. He doesn't send an army; he sends a message. He hacks every screen in the slums, broadcasting his face. He offers a bounty: clean water for life for anyone who brings him Rena Sol.
The slums turn on Rena. She is forced to flee toward the one place NuCore won't go: Into the Rift itself.
The middle of the book is a survival horror journey. Rena travels down into the crust of the Earth where physics has broken down.
Visuals: Rocks floating in mid-air, pockets of time that loop (echoes of the past screaming), and mutated flora that feeds on radiation.
The Revelation: Deep inside the Rift, near the exposed mantle, Rena finds the original drilling rig. It's not destroyed. It's running. Darkford isn't just stabilizing the Rift; he's widening it intentionally to access a new energy source "Zero-Point Geothermal" that could power a utopia—but the process will render 80% of the Earth's surface uninhabitable, leaving only the NuCore sky-cities safe.