Sharifi Enterprises begins research into an airborne, instantly-fatal biological weapon which can be used as a deterrent. Book IV (2091) In 2080 the United States loses its exclusive patents on Y-energy, leading to a massive economic depression. In October 2091, a new sliding-scale tax package is proposed to take advantage of the huge revenues going to Sanctuary Inc. and all associated businesses, which are, after all, incorporated in America. (To be specific, Sanctuary Inc. will be taxed a staggering 92% of total income.) With this in mind, Jennifer and the Sanctuary Council prepare to bid for their independence. Miri starts the volume with a trauma: her beloved younger brother Tony receives neural injury in a playground accident. Regardless of the total damage to his person and faculties, he will doubtless need to sleep for at least a portion of the day. Miri flies into a rage when Jennifer reminds her of Sanctuary's Yagaiist, community-first philosophy, and must be sedated; when she wakes, she is told that Tony has died of his injuries. Regardless, she and the other Supers band together for defense, recognizing that the Sleepless of Sanctuary have become so nervous of outsiders that even the Supers, created by the community and to serve it, constitute a threat due to their sheer alienness. Miri names the group "the Beggars." Miri's thought-strings—indeed, the thought-strings of every Super—have had structural flaws from the beginning, gaps where information ought to go that they don't have. Miri rectifies this gap when she is introduced to one of Drew Arlen's Lucid Dreaming concerts; the ability to tap into their unconscious allows the Supers to make a number of technological, medical and conceptual breakthroughs, including allowing Miri to cure the twitching and stuttering. The Beggars decide to install defensive overrides throughout Sanctuary's systems so that they can take over if necessary, discovering in the process the Sharifi Enterprises bioweapon. Packets of the organism have been secreted in several cities across the United States and it can be deployed at the touch of a button. On 1 January 2092 Sanctuary declares independence from the United States of America. The Internal Revenue Service decides to wait until non-payment of taxes on January 15 and then seize the orbital as collateral, but before then Sanctuary demonstrates its bioweapon on a cattle-ranching space station purchased solely for the purpose (all human tenants were evicted prior to the demonstration). The