Chapter 55: The Same Trail
He recalled everything that he had found out during his tracking of Mara’s location. The first facility had no record of Mara. The second had a handwritten note from a Gemini group asking for medical supplies. The third had seen the woman in silver-white clothing.
This information narrowed the trail, but it did not exactly solve anything.
He returned to the car again.
Some time later, the sedan developed a high-pitched vibration whenever Marek drove faster than forty kilometers per hour.
He immediately slowed down.
’Please don’t die on me, oh Holy Car.’
He kept the speed below thirty-five after that. At another intersection, Marek noticed a crowd before anyone noticed him.
He stopped behind an abandoned bus, turned off the engine, and waited.
The crowd surrounded a temporary stabilization tent. A government officer stood on the bed of a truck and read several names through a loudspeaker.
Marek listened to all of them. He did not hear Mara’s name. He restarted the car and left without entering the facility.
Another stabilization facility had four Ophiuchus bearers under observation. Marek should have kept walking. He knew that.
Unfortunately, one of them had an occupied center that pulsed irregularly every time a nurse changed the dressing around his arm.
Marek noticed it from the doorway.
’...Seriously?’
He remained there for twenty-two minutes.
The condition inside the Ophiuchus bearer did not seem connected to the actual wound. Instead, his Mark reacted whenever a specific part of the dressing touched his skin.
Marek asked the nurse what she had used.
"Cleaning solution. Standard adhesive."
"Same one every time?"
"Yes."
Marek looked at the Mark again.
The chemical smell coming from the discarded material was also stronger than what he expected from the injury itself.
"Remove the adhesive."
The nurse looked at him. "Why? By the way, what the hell? Who are you?"
"Just try."
She ignored who he was and just followed what he said. It would never hurt to try. Anyway, Earth’s situation right now could not be called a major scientific change.
The occupied center reacted again when the material was pulled away, but after the nurse cleaned the area using a different solution and replaced the dressing with another material, the irregular pulsing gradually stopped.
Marek watched for several minutes.
Nothing returned.
’So that’s what it was.’
He had not taken anything into himself. He had not opened a route either. Recognition remained separate from intake. Marek checked the man’s Mark one last time. The occupied center no longer pulled at his attention the same way.
He picked up the pen beside the chart.
Nobody had asked him to write anything, but leaving without explaining the cause would probably result in another nurse using the same cleaning material several hours later.
Marek wrote on the back of the chart.
REACTION ASSOCIATED WITH ADHESIVE/CLEANING AGENT.
DO NOT REAPPLY SAME MATERIAL WITHOUT OBSERVATION.
He hesitated before signing.
Then wrote:
M. VALE
Marek stared at it afterward. ’That’s barely anonymous.’
The nurse read the note. "Are you from the Exhibition Center?"
Marek put the pen down. "I was."
"They’ve been looking for Ophiuchus people who know what they’re doing."
"Then, they should keep training the ones they already have."
The nurse looked like she wanted to ask another question.
Marek left before she could. Helping for twenty-two minutes had already created another trail behind him.
That was becoming a problem.
Every time he stopped somewhere and actually did something useful, somebody remembered him afterward.
’Maybe I should start giving fake names.’
He immediately dismissed the thought. He would probably forget which fake name he gave to which person.
Celeste spoke after Marek reached the car. "You stopped."
"Yes."
"You said you would avoid these facilities whenever possible."
"It was possible."
There was a short pause.
"And yet you stayed."
"He would’ve kept reacting to the dressing."
Celeste made a sound that Marek could not tell was amusement or something else.
He started the engine. "What?"
"Nothing."
"You’ve repeatedly demonstrated that ’nothing’ usually means something."
Celeste ignored him.
Marek drove north.
The roads became stranger the farther he went.
A four-lane avenue suddenly narrowed into two after an unfamiliar stone arch occupied almost half of the intersection. Several larger vehicles had been abandoned around it because there was no longer enough space for them to pass.
Marek looked at the opening.
Then at the car.
’You should fit.’
The sedan passed through.
Well, barely.
Marek continued until another line of portable floodlights appeared ahead.
Another facility.
He parked behind a warehouse and approached on foot again.
This one had placed its registry board outside instead of inside the building. Marek remained near the edge of the crowd and read the newest notices.
One had been added less than an hour earlier.
GEMINI MINOR GROUP — MOVED NORTH UNDER PRIVATE ESCORT.
No names. No destination either.
Marek photographed the notice with his phone. ’Private escort again?’
A man standing near the board noticed the photograph of Mara still open on Marek’s screen. "You’re looking for that girl?"
Marek immediately turned toward him. "You recognize her?"
"Didn’t say that. Someone else was asking about her earlier."
Marek’s attention sharpened. "Who?"
"Woman. Short hair. Talked too much."
That description was almost completely useless.
"Government?"
"Didn’t look like it."
"What did she ask?"
The man shrugged. "Same things you’re asking. Which Gemini group went north. Which road they used. Whether that girl was with them."
Marek looked at Mara’s photograph again. "When?"
"Maybe twenty minutes ago."
’Twenty minutes?’
Someone else was following Mara’s trail.
And it was not the silver-white woman, because Mara was supposedly travelling with her already.
Marek slowly looked toward the crowd. ’Then who are you?’
The pressure behind his ear changed.
Celeste’s voice came through quieter than usual.
"Leave."
Marek remained where he was and asked, "Why?"
"Because whoever asked those questions has been following the same trail you have."
Marek looked toward the road behind him. The car was still hidden between the two warehouses. He could not see anyone obviously watching him.
Of course, that did not mean nobody was.
’Great. Another problem.’
Marek closed Mara’s photograph and put the phone back into his pocket.
Then, he walked away from the board.