Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Nick and Parker rushed down the empty hallway. He could hear footsteps behind them, and when they got to the elevator, Zahide and Avila slid in with them.
Avila pressed a button for the second floor. “It was one of the cops working the crime scene.”
“Where is everyone?” Parker asked, although he frowned like he might know.
“They didn’t let everyone go, did they? Like, this isn’t the end of an Agatha Christie movie.
There isn’t one killer, oh hey, everyone else can go home.
Although wasn’t there one where it was everyone? So, wow, I hope we aren’t in that one.”
“Everyone is sheltering in place. We wanted hallways free, and CDC agreed that if it is airborne, we needed fewer people congregating together.” Avila looked at her phone.
“Captain said they’re talking to the CDC, and now that they found someone who’s got the circles, they might start letting people go if they are clear of circles. ”
Nick’s face twitched. “We don’t know how long it takes to spread or how long someone is contagious before they show symptoms.”
Avila held up her hands. “I’m just the messenger.”
Nick couldn’t help the frown he knew settled between his brows. He was overly cautious—it had been a complaint multiple teachers had expressed about his alchemy for years—but there was overly cautious, and there was foolishness. This definitely veered toward the latter.
The door finally opened, and they stepped out into a station that was entirely unfamiliar. Doorways were covered in plastic, taped to prevent more airflow. People in yellow hazmat suits walked up and down the hall.
As soon as they got off the elevator, four people in hazmat suits got on, carrying the gear to lock down the next floor. Given that it couldn’t have been more than three hours since the first person had exploded, Nick was impressed at their efficiency.
“Detectives?” Someone to their right spoke, their voice muffled through their respirator and face guard. Level C suit, Nick judged. A respirator, goggles, and a bodysuit that prevented accidental skin contact with anything hazardous.
So, the CDC was taking it seriously, but not so seriously that they’d broken out the Level A suits that had complete coverage and an independent air supply.
“I’m Detective King. These are Detectives Avila and Zahide, and Parker Ferro, a consultant of ours,” Nick introduced.
“Dr. Vanora Lawless,” she said. “Before we start, we want to make sure everyone is being safe.”
She held out a box with respirators and goggles, and they all took one. Lawless checked them once they were on and gave them the thumbs-up. It was impossible to see anything other than her eyes with all her gear on, but she seemed friendly enough.
“I’m lead on the scene, at least until my boss gets here.
We’ve been using the spells that Detective Zahide provided, but unfortunately, we don’t have enough registered alchemists on staff to check everyone in the building.
” She let out a soft breath that might have been a chuckle of frustration.
“You might not believe this, but we’ve never dealt with an alchemy disease before.
We requested help from the local FBI office.
They’ll have more alchemists available, but it will take some time for them to get here. ”
“You found someone else?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, we wanted you to wait in the room and just explain how you got rid of it, but Detective Avila said that it was specific to Mr. Ferro?” Lawless turned to Parker expectantly. “Was there a reason you couldn’t just describe how you did it?”
Nick’s stomach didn’t drop out, his blood didn’t freeze, nothing so dramatic. He’d seen Parker tap-dance his way out of more specific, pointed questions. But still, this was the sort of questioning that made Nick review every backup plan he had.
He and Parker could flee to his parents’ compound up north. Parker could go to the Far Realm immediately, vanishing from any human’s ability to recapture him. They could hold a press conference and make it very public who and what Parker was so that it would be impossible to disappear him.
Or they could rely on the expensive defense attorney to keep them safe.
“I’m a witch, not an alchemist, so I see things differently. The circle didn’t look complete, so when I went to probe it, I accidentally drained it.” Parker was smiling that charming gosh-so-sorry-I-didn’t-mean-to smile under his respirator. Nick could tell from the crinkle in his eyes.
“You drained it?” Lawless said, frowning.
But she didn’t say it with the hysteria that Nick and Zahide had felt, the panic born from seeing training videos of what happened when you drained a circle.
(The joke among young, talented alchemists was that you knew who was the best by what age their teachers showed them the old video, traumatizing them for life.)
“Yes. By accident.” Parker was still grinning brightly, even if she couldn’t see his mouth. “I could—”
“He can’t repeat it,” Nick jumped in. “It might have been an accident, but Zahide and I both agree it’s too dangerous to replicate.”
The training video was a recorded experiment from World War II. A military alchemist, acting against council guidelines, put his hands on an existing circle and attempted to drain it. The end was, even in black and white, very gruesome.
“Well, huh.” Lawless frowned. “I don’t know that that helps us, then.”
“Could I see whoever was infected?” Nick asked. “I’m a good alchemist, and we don’t understand a lot of how this works.”
“King. Your captain said you and Zahide were the best he had. It can’t hurt. If this spreads as quickly as we think, we need to know how for certain.” She gestured to the respirator she wore. “And find out who else is infected.”
Lawless led them to a small room, the door covered with a portable clean room. Lawless went in first, followed by Zahide, who didn’t even hesitate. Nick moved to follow, and he could feel Parker right behind him.
Firmly, he turned. “No.”
Parker’s eyes went wide. “Nick—”
“No, Parker, I mean it.” Nick kept his eyes locked on his husband’s. “This is alchemy. You need to stay out here where it’s safe. I’ll let you know whatever Zahide and I find, but I’m really good at this. Let me do this.”
Because he was asking, not telling. Parker had never done anything but what Parker wanted, even when it was dangerous or even suicidal. Parker was the strongest, most creative, and tenacious person Nick knew, but right now, this was Nick’s strength.
“Just… be careful. Don’t do anything I would do,” Parker said, and his eyes were wide and panicked, but his voice was calm through the thick respirator.
“You hear me? If it gets into your head, hey, this is something Parker would do, I want you to stop and just… do the absolute opposite thing. Except for basic things, obviously, like breathing. Do lots of breathing. But not if it’s airborne.
Then don’t breathe… I mean, don’t breathe in the disease.
Like, I wouldn’t breathe in disease, so don’t do the opposite of what I would do either. Just be careful.”
“I’ll be careful,” Nick said.
“Good.” Parker nodded and reached out, squeezing Nick’s arm. Then he let go and stepped back, standing next to Avila, his panic only visible in his sky-blue eyes.
“You coming, King?” Zahide prompted.
“Yeah, right here,” Nick said. Then he did the thing that always felt impossible, and he turned around to walk away from Parker.
They passed through the small setup, which wasn’t a full clean room so much as a tent that had a filter attached. After Nick zipped the back closed, Lawless opened the front, and they stepped into one of the interrogation rooms.
There were two people inside, an officer and another member of the CDC.
The officer was sitting down in the metal chairs that were purposefully uncomfortable, bent over his knees, his leg jiggling.
The CDC had taken their advice about the Mehmud Observation Circle although the magic was fading fast. The circle still lingered on him, just enough that Nick saw hints of the alchemy on his bones.
Both of the people in the room looked up, and Lawless waved her coworker out. Nick exchanged a glance with Zahide. The circle they’d seen on McArdle was small, barely the size of a coin. These were larger, spreading the entire length of the officer’s arm.
“Hey”—Nick checked the officer’s uniform—“Gile. I’m King, this is Zahide. I’m going to put a new circle back on you so that we can see what’s going on. It shouldn’t hurt.”
Gile looked up. “Am I going to die?”
“We don’t know,” Nick said because he wasn’t Parker, and he could never look someone in the eye and say, “I’m not going to let you die,” without knowing how he was going to keep them safe.
Parker would say it and mean it, and it wouldn’t matter that he didn’t know how he was doing it. Because if he said it, it would happen.
“Officer, stand up,” Zahide said, no-nonsense and her order so firm that Gile got to his feet. She glanced at Nick, and he walked forward, sketching another Mehmud Observation Circle quickly. He was careful with the detailing, making sure that every line made sense.
When he raised it and placed it on Gile’s uniform, the circles on his bones looked even worse.
With a fully functional circle lighting him up, it was obvious how bad it was.
Every bone was covered with moving circles, and Nick stepped forward before he could even think to worry about how the infection spread because what he saw was impossible and terrible.
The language most alchemists used was based on Latin, with some variations depending on origin. His father called those bastardizations not true alchemy, but it was still closer to alchemy than witchcraft.
This spellwork moved so fast, spinning so quickly, that Nick struggled to read the language he’d learned at the same time as English.
Parker was wrong—the spells weren’t shifting like a translation key from a Cracker Jack box.
Instead, each time the spells turned, they added another layer, a new element of spellwork.
“It’s a countdown,” Nick said.
Zahide swore.
“How much time do we have?” Lawless asked.
“Let me time it,” Zahide said. “The most complicated circle on record was eighty layers deep.”
“But this will be less.” Nick pointed at where the circles were edging closer. As they gained layers, they were expanding toward each other, and once they touched, they’d disrupt the next circle. It would lead to an explosion.
“Am I going to die?!” Gile asked, taking a few steps back. “No. I’m not going out like this.”
He took a few lurching steps toward the door, but Zahide was faster, brushing her fingers over a trap circle that released immediately, gluing him to the floor. “Calm down.”
Gile shouted out, trying to pull himself free. He was moving too much for Nick to read the circles.
“Gile! Calm down,” Nick said. He waited for the officer to meet his gaze. “I’ve been counting, and we have a good fifteen minutes before anything happens. I can’t help you if you’re moving around. I need to see this spellwork. Do you understand?”
Gile swallowed, his head bobbing, his mouth working before he finally nodded.
“Okay, hold out your arms,” Nick said.
They had to move quickly. As soon as the circles touched, they’d interfere with each other, and everything Nick feared when Parker drained a circle would happen.
As soon as he started reading the circle spinning on Gile’s forearm, he inhaled sharply. Zahide was there instantly. She squinted, but the circle was spinning too fast.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“It’s custom,” Nick said. He wasn’t sure she’d understand the code, but she jerked her head, looking at him in surprise.
“Are you sure?” She kept her tone flat.
“Yes,” he said. He moved his gaze, following the spellwork until he was staring at the circles that rotated on Gile’s torso.
Custom was code for made exactly for someone.
Alchemy circles were complicated, and creating new ones was the sort of thing that took years in any normal circumstances.
An alchemist as talented as Nick could create one on the fly, but not something designed to hurt exactly one person, not one designed for Redmond Gile, male, 32 years old.
What he saw on Gile’s ribs made his mouth go dry.
“Everyone out! Now!” His command was so quick, so immediate, that Zahide reacted as though she’d heard a shot. She ushered Lawless through the door and out into the hall, where Parker was pacing back and forth, only held back by Avila’s stern gaze.
“What’s wrong?” Parker asked immediately.
“I know who the next target is,” Nick said.