Read "The City Condemned to Hell" by Randolph Craig online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
AS Jeffrey Fairchild drove up out of the tunnel under the river, he looked again at the sky. Suddenly, he stiffened at the wheel. The purple beacon atop the Victory Building went out even as he looked at it. It was out for a full minute, while Jeffrey's roadster wormed its way through the nearly empty Manhattan streets--and then it flashed on again.
But now it was a different light. That illusion of topless height had gone; the beacon's tip lost itself visibly into darkness. The glow was steadier, without that eerie sparkle which had given it a queer light of its own.