Chapter 37: The Ordinary Route
"Celeste."
The name arrived through the same pressure behind Marek’s right ear.
The woman reflected in the unused monitor had already turned away. Her damaged cart began moving again before Marek could decide whether the timing meant anything. One wheel caught against the uneven floor, squeaked, then continued toward the next medical station.
He watched until another stretcher blocked his view.
"Is that your real name?" Marek asked.
"It is the name I gave you."
"That was not what I asked."
Celeste did not answer.
Marek decided one name was enough for now. He had spent several days collecting answers that immediately produced worse questions. He could survive one more.
"What about the three Seals?"
"Wait for the next medical-supply cart."
"You are putting them on the cart?"
"Eventually."
Marek expected another instruction.
None came.
He returned to Clara and Henry near the occupied-center records. Cooper had found a chair and was attempting to adjust his immobilizer with one hand despite having been told several times not to touch it.
Clara removed his hand from the strap.
"I was fixing it," he complained.
"You were making it loose."
"That was part of fixing it."
Clara tightened the strap again.
Marek left them to settle themselves and checked the Stillglass Seal beneath his shirt. The fine crack remained short. It had not reached the outer edge.
The patch was still working.
He could sense the people around him without feeling his Mark immediately search for somewhere to place what it found. The difference was uncomfortable mainly because he had become accustomed to the opposite.
For the next forty minutes, nothing unusual happened.
That became unusual by itself.
Marek had expected Celeste to manipulate another ventilation system, electrical panel, or locked compartment. Instead, medical supplies continued moving through the ward exactly as they had before.
Workers carried boxes between stations. Volunteers collected opened cartons and returned unused supplies. Nurses signed sheets. Portable scanners chirped whenever someone recorded a package.
The first blue plastic tote passed him without stopping. Then, another.
A third entered from the eastern supply lane on a cart pushed by two volunteers.
"Watch that one," Celeste said.
Marek followed it with his eyes.
The tote did not come toward him.
One volunteer scanned the label. The handheld device rejected the destination and directed them to another station. They turned around.
At the second station, a nurse removed several sealed packages, added two unopened boxes of transparent wound film, rescanned the tote, and handed it to another worker.
The printed destination changed again.
Marek frowned. "Are you controlling the scanners?"
"I am changing which existing route they follow."
"That sounds like controlling the scanners."
"It is more precise than that."
The tote changed hands three more times before arriving at the rear medical station where Marek, Henry, Clara, and Cooper were working. Nobody carrying it appeared to know that its route had been altered. A supply worker placed four boxes beside the cabinet, scanned the tote, and moved on.
Marek waited.
Nothing fell from the ceiling. No light failed. The ventilation remained normal.
Celeste spoke again.
"Second box. Third packet beneath the divider."
Marek opened the box after the supply worker disappeared into another section.
Ordinary transparent wound films filled the upper compartment. Each was sealed individually and marked with a local manufacturer.
Marek removed the divider. Three thinner packets rested beneath it. No writing identified them. He also touched none of them.
The delivery had taken almost an hour. At least six people had carried, scanned, redirected, opened, or closed the tote without realizing three foreign devices were moving through the facility.
Marek understood why Celeste had chosen it.
The first delivery had required twenty seconds of obvious interference.
This one had required normal people doing their jobs.
"That is disturbing," Marek said.
"Why?"
"Because nobody noticed."
"That was the purpose."
Marek closed the box.
He carried the three packets toward the rear assessment table.
Henry noticed immediately. "What did you steal?"
"I did not steal anything."
"That answer usually means you obtained it through a method I should not ask about."
"Correct."
Clara stopped writing.
Marek placed one packet on the table and pulled the collar of his shirt far enough aside to expose the transparent patch over his Mark.
All three stared at it.
Cooper leaned closer.
"What is that?"
"Stillglass."
"That explains nothing."
"It temporarily restricts a Mark to one controlled action."
Clara was already examining the edge without touching it. "How long have you been wearing this?"
"Less than two hours."
Her expression changed.
"You put an unknown object over your Mark before telling us?"
"I inspected it first."
Cooper raised his good hand. "I think the unknown-object part was the concern."
"It worked."
"That is usually what people say after doing something unsafe successfully."
Marek ignored him and explained what Celeste had told him without mentioning Celeste.
The Seals copied an individual Mark. They could not simply be exchanged between bearers afterward. Each person had to decide what one movement the Seal would allow. Everything beyond that movement would meet resistance until the Seal weakened or was removed.
He explained the cracks and the thirteen-heartbeat binding. He also told them what the Stillglass could not do.
"It does not teach control," Marek said. "It gives you time to practice one controlled response without the Mark completing whatever else it wants to do."
Henry examined the three unopened packets. "Where did they come from?"
"Someone inside the facility had access to them."
Clearly, Marek had no intention of elaborating.
Henry glanced toward the ceiling. "Same someone who threw yours through the ventilation?"
Marek paused and looked at Henry. "I did not say anyone threw it."
"You did not need to."
Clara picked up one packet by the sealed edge. "Before anybody wears one, I want to examine the material."
Henry nodded. "And I want to check whether it reacts to current before it touches me."
Cooper remained seated. "What do I do?"
"Nothing."
"That seems to be my specialization."
Marek took the packet away when Cooper reached for it. "That is exactly why you are doing nothing."
They used an unused examination station at the back of the section. Clara checked the outer packets first. Nothing leaked, discolored, or reacted to the disinfectant swabs available in the ward. Henry moved a disconnected sensor lead near the material and watched for changes. The packets remained still.
The tests were crude.
Earth did not possess equipment designed to certify something nobody on Earth officially knew existed.
It was still better than putting the Seals on immediately.
Marek also checked the Stillglass over his own Mark. The crack had lengthened slightly after his examination of Devin. The transparent lines remained intact.
Henry noticed it. "You are using yours up? Is that what it means?"
"Yes."
"How many hours will it last?"
"Several."
"That is not a number."
"It is the number I was given. It was not a number when I received it either."
Henry accepted that with visible dissatisfaction.
Marek opened the first new packet. The transparent Seal inside remained completely still.
"Whose first?" Cooper asked.
"Henry."
"Why me?"
"Because you will notice a problem before the rest of us do."
"And if I do not?"
"Then we will learn something."
Henry stared at him. "That was almost reassuring."
Marek had another reason.
Henry understood systems. Clara understood foreign substances. Cooper had remained beside them through every relocation despite having no clear idea what his Mark wanted from him.
If Marek could stabilize all three, the ward would have four people capable of recognizing different Ophiuchus problems instead of one. That was the reason he had given Celeste.
It was also incomplete.
His notebook still contained the registration records for Mara and his mother.
MARA VALE.
WEST DISTRICT SECONDARY STABILIZATION FACILITY.
AMARA VALE.
DEPARTED WITH SOUTHWEST CIVILIAN GROUP.
CURRENT LOCATION: PENDING CONFIRMATION.
Marek had read those lines enough times that he no longer needed the pages. Every hour he remained inside the Exhibition Center was another hour in which either location could change.
On the other hand, he could not leave the occupied-center patients without anyone capable of recognizing what was happening to them.
Henry, Clara, and Cooper could become that replacement. It seemed like the section had started relying on them without deciding to.
Marek began cleaning the skin around Henry’s Mark. He had not told Celeste that part. He had not told the other three either.
For now, they only needed to learn how to stay in control.
Marek needed them ready before he left.