The third level of the hospital was eerily quiet. The staff moved patients in hover chairs or beds, soldiers searched every part of the wards meticulously, and nobody spoke above whispers or murmurs. Adina and Caya moved down the corridor, Adina now with her sidearm in her right hand.
“Can you sense her?” Adina glanced back at Caya.
“No. I don’t function like that. She should be able to sense me though, unless someone in great pain or distress drowns me out.” This had happened before. Briar was getting better with each passing day when it came to tuning out the noise around what she really wanted to home in on. Still, it was hard to filter out someone overwhelmed with emotions or in excruciating pain.
“What’s going on? Where are you taking me?” An old woman clung to the railings of the hoverbed, staring at the soldiers with frightened eyes. She was Gemosian and so emaciated, it pained Caya to see her thin, transparent extremities. She was dressed in a light-blue shirt that matched her starkly blue-veined skin in a distressing way. Part of Caya wanted to reach out to the woman, but she feared if she touched her she might be inundated with the woman’s long history. Was this to be Caya’s future—fearing the touch of other people?
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Adina said, as if she had read Caya’s mind. “You will be well cared for at another unit until we sort everything out. Just relax. You’re in good hands.”
The old woman tilted her head and looked at Adina and then at Caya. As she gazed into Caya’s eyes, she suddenly smiled, which looked completely out of place. “Ah, yes. She awaits you in room four. You best hurry on, little miracle girl. Time is of the essence.”
Caya gaped at the woman slumped back against her pillows as she was whisked away by the staff. “What—what was that about?”
“I have no idea, but I suggest we might as well find room four and check it out.” Adina hurried down the corridor, twice as fast as before. Caya kept a lookout for the room numbers located above the door frames. When they reached a fork in the corridor, Caya spotted room four on the far right.
“There,” she called out, then began running.
“Wait!” Adina caught up with her. “Stay behind me. I’ll go in first.”
“Adina?” a familiar voice said, and Briar poked her head out through the open door to room number four. “I heard your voice.” She ran up to them and pulled them both in for a quick, strong hug. “I believe that room four—”
“—is where they placed the white garnet.” Caya nodded. “We have to discuss how you managed to use an old lady as a conduit just now, later.” She walked with Briar to room four, only to have Adina yank both of them back by tugging at their coveralls.
“You’re not going in there, in case you’re correct.” Adina stepped in front of them and motioned for someone behind them to approach. “I’m Commander Vantressa. I need this room swept before you continue to do anything else.”
“I’m Commander KahSandra,” a melodious female voice said from behind them, and a stunning woman circled them, followed by eight soldiers. “This is Lieutenant Diobring and his team. We’re reporting directly to President Tylio, and she said nothing about you being here, sir.”
Caya studied Commander KahSandra and wondered if they were really going to waste time by arguing who was in charge of what. Exchanging a glance with Briar, she didn’t have to mentally connect with her sister to realize she was thinking the same thing. Caya saw Briar nod discreetly, motioning with her head toward room four. As Adina and KahSandra faced off over what needed to be done and in what order, Caya and Briar moved stealthily along the wall until they managed to slip inside room four.
“Creator…can you smell that?” Caya crinkled her nose. She was sure she had never encountered that exact odor before. Something chemical and tinged with metal, it made her nauseous.
“I can’t smell anything other than regular hospital scents.” Briar frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“That foul, sickly sweet smell. Surely you have to notice it?” Caya spoke in a whisper to not alert the ones outside the door of their whereabouts. “It’s from over here.” She walked to the left part of the room, where the heads of the beds had been before they were evacuated. A multitude of cords, hoses, and different outlets confused her at first, but then she realized the odor came from an outlet marked TPN. “Here. It’s from here. What’s that?”
Briar joined her and sniffed at the outlet. “You have to be wrong about this, sis. That’s where we hook up patients that need complete nutrition via infusions. Total Parenteral Nutrition.”
Caya thought fast. If what they were looking for, the white garnet, was in the TPN system, and infused into someone…This couldn’t be true. “Either way, the guys in the corridor need to bring their scanners. If I’m right—”
“The whole hospital needs to shut down their TPN lines.” Pale now, Briar hurried to the door and called Adina’s name. Soon the entire room was filled with KahSandra and Diobring’s team.
“How the hell did you slip in here?” Diobring growled.
“Never mind that,” Briar said calmly. “Scan this room for white garnet. Even trace amounts can be lethal, so be careful.”
“What does she know of white garnet?” Diobring muttered as he and his team took out their scanners.
“More than you, Lieutenant,” Adina said and rubbed her lower arm.
Caya shuddered at the memory of how Adina had been seconds from having her arm severed by the volatile substance only days after Pathfinder launched. Briar had saved her by adding a neutralizer, something that was standard fleet issue now in the shape of small aerosol canisters. Adina had hers already prepared to administer.
Commander KahSandra pulled out her scanner, a larger, more elaborate tool than what the soldiers had on hand. She ran it up and down the wall, starting by the corner, and when she reached the tubes and outlets, it began to sound a low hum that increased until it literally howled.
“Here.” KahSandra pointed at the TPN outlet, and it was her turn to go pale. “I’m reading concentrated amounts, but no corrosion, which doesn’t make sense.”
“It actually does.” Adina joined her. Briar put her arm around Caya’s shoulders and approached them carefully. “White garnet has a very slow impact on silicon-lined tube systems like these.” She was already tapping furiously at her tablet. “I’m issuing an alert to all medical facilities on Pathfinder. Caya’s vision showed only this ward at this hospital, but we need to be prepared.”
“What happens if someone gets this into their system mixed with the TPN?” Caya asked, nauseous at the mere idea.
“I’ve never even heard of anything like that,” Briar said.
“Sir.” KahSandra turned to Adina. “We must study the blueprints and make sure we know exactly where this TPN line has outlets.”
“I can tell you that if you’re prepared to listen,” Briar said calmly, but her turquoise eyes glimmered dangerously.
“Ma’am—you are a civilian—” Commander KahSandra stopped talking when Adina raised her hand.
“Before you step into what you’re about to say with both feet, let me inform you that this is Briar Lindemay, also known as Red Angel. She’s saved my life twice, and when she speaks, those of us who know her and her abilities also know when to listen.”
“Yes, sir,” KahSandra said, her lips tense.
“Anyway.” Briar motioned toward the TPN outlet. “This goes from the basement straight up through the walls. Each line has its own canister down there. They should all be checked, naturally, but for now, it is this one, and on all the levels.”
“What if someone has already been infused?” Caya asked. “I mean, it’s early afternoon. If you’re on TPN, surely you get some of that stuff at breakfast?”
“Damn.” Adina slapped her communicator. “Commander Vantressa to Admiral Heigel.”
A brief moment later, Korrian responded, sounding agitated. “Heigel here. What’s up?”
“Admiral. A quick question. What will white garnet diluted with Total Parental Nutrition do to a body?”
“What?” It was obvious the question shocked the otherwise seasoned admiral.
“We have a reading suggesting that this is happening through a certain room on the wards directly above each other on the hospital, cube eleven.”
“Madam President, you need to hear this,” Korrian said, and soon Adina’s tablet showed the Pathfinder logo and then Korrian’s and Thea’s faces. Caya stepped to the side, trying to become invisible. If Thea saw her here—it wouldn’t be a good thing. And it would distract them all when they needed to focus on the crisis at hand.
Korrian rubbed her forehead with her thumb and middle finger. “Diluting it with any harmless fluid would slow the volatile process. It might even give us a chance to stop this before it goes any further. Let’s hope we’ve caught it in time.”
Caya tuned out the discussion, and then a vision of the old, emaciated woman she’d met in the corridor flickered through her mind. Every thought of trying to stay out of Thea’s view vanished. “And if it has already entered a body? What would that look like?”
“Depending on how much it has been diluted, it will eventually turn the individual into a living, breathing explosive device.” Korrian’s voice was hollow. “They would no doubt look close to transparent, as all their veins would be emphasized…dark blue.
Caya groaned and walked over to Briar and Adina. “Adina. The old woman from before. She was from this room. Wasn’t she, Briar? You must have seen her and used her, involuntarily or not, as a conduit for reaching out to me so I could find you.”
“Yes. The little old Gemosian woman. She was so afraid.” Briar blinked.
“We need to find her.” Caya was about to rush after the old woman when Thea’s voice boomed over the comm system.
“Caya? How the hell can you be in cube eleven?”
“I can explain, but not now. We don’t have time. There could be more patients with explosive TPN in their systems. It’s not only about this unit. I was wrong. It only starts here, but if other people in the hospital have white garnet in their veins, the entire cube, and ultimately Pathfinder, is in jeopardy.” Caya rounded Adina and met Thea’s furious glance. “We need to locate all patients who have been subjected to poisoned TPN. You need to figure out what we’re supposed to do with them when we find them.”
“She’s right,” Adina said. “We don’t have much time. Depending on the amount of white garnet mixed into the TPN, we may have an hour, or we may have only minutes. Either way, we need to hurry. Commander KahSandra and Lieutenant Diobring’s team will accompany Briar and Caya to where they are caring for the ones evacuated. In the meantime, I’ll take my engineering team downstairs to test the TPN containers. From there, we should be able to use the computer to track who has been given the nutrition and how much.”
“We can do that from here.” Korrian looked grimly at them from her tablet. “Just take the samples and let me know the concentration of white garnet. I’ll do my calculations accordingly.”
“Yes, sir.” Adina gave Briar a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried out the door. Caya heard her gather her engineers and disappear down the corridor.
“I can show you which ward received the evacuated patients. Follow me.” Briar began to run and Caya bolted after her.
“Quick. Take my hand. I need to make sure we’re not forgetting something.” Caya reached for Briar, who squeezed her hand as they ran.
“What are you thinking of?”
“Help me extend my range of visions. If the ones behind this had a backup plan and placed white garnet somewhere else apart from in the TPN containers, we need to know, or we might be walking into a trap.”
“Clever girl.” Briar nodded and massaged the back of Caya’s hand with her thumb as she hummed under her breath.
Caya was glad Briar was guiding her, as it was damn near impossible for her to half run and focus on visions at the same time. They simply didn’t have time enough for her to stop and seek out seclusion for this. Images scattered, fractured, and reassembled at a furious pace, but no matter how she searched the patterns and examined every part of them, she couldn’t find any evidence or hint that the culprits had tampered with anything else. Instead she saw shadowy figures stir with long rods in what looked like metal barrels. She saw them open and close three barrels standing side by side in a room with green walls. When she couldn’t find anything else, she let go of Briar and nearly fell over as she was tossed out of her vision, rather than slowly easing out of it like she was used to.
Tapping her communicator, she paged Thea. She could have chosen to talk to Korrian, but the admiral was probably busy carrying out her end of the frantic search. “Caya to Commander Vantressa.”
“Caya. Adina here.”
“Look for three containers in a green room. As far as my vision allows me to see, those are the only containers they managed to reach. I think the lockdown may have prevented the terrorists from reaching more, if that was their intention.”
“Thank you. We’re entering the level in question now. Where are you?”
“About to enter the ward where the evacuated are kept.” Briar spoke into Caya’s communicator. “Be safe, Adina.”
“You as well. Vantressa out.” Adina’s clipped voice showed them how close to disaster they all were.
Behind them, Commander KahSandra paged Korrian asking for information regarding which patients they needed to locate.
“Korrian here. You have eight patients that have received TPN within the last four hours. I put four hours as a safety margin, as I don’t think it would be likely for anyone to survive white garnet in their bloodstream any longer than that. I’m sending the list to your tablet as we speak, Commander.”
Briar and Caya stood on either side of KahSandra, reading the names. “We can find two of them each.” KahSandra waved to Diobring to join them and handed out two names to each of them. “I think you better look for your little Gemosian lady and this young boy.” She pointed out the names on the list to Caya, who began moving between the beds.
It didn’t take her long to find the old woman. She was pale, and beads of sweat had formed on her forehead. Despite that, she was shivering under her bedcovers.
“Ma’am?” Caya said and loosened the break on the hover function. “I’m going to move you to another location, where we need to treat you. You are having a bad reaction to the TPN solution.”
“I think something worse than that is happening to me.” The woman looked up at her with her amber eyes appearing like they were on fire. The whites of her eyes were grey-tinted, which made her look like a storybook wraith.
Caya moved the hoverbed over to the door leading out of the ward, where two of the team lined it up with the other beds as Briar and the others located their patients. The young boy was easy to find as well, as he was the only one that young among the evacuated. Like the old Gemosian lady, he was pale, blue-veined, and possessed the same grey-tinted eyes.
“Good job, everybody,” KahSandra said and looked at the two rows of four connected hoverbeds. “Admiral Heigel sent me coordinates to a place where emergency medical teams will meet us and exchange their blood volume. Engineers will come and jettison the containers of tainted blood from Pathfinder as we work.” She motioned for them to start moving.
Caya helped Briar guide the long train of four beds by holding on to the last one. The Gemosian woman looked up at her, smiling gently. “I’m Gioliva.”
“I’m Caya. Over there is my sister Briar.”
“Red Angel.” Gioliva nodded. “She is the revered one. You are the oracle. Some people fear you.”
“I know.” Caya swallowed hard. “I wish they didn’t. I’m harmless.”
“That may be.” Gioliva coughed and grimaced. “Your power to foresee the future and recollect the past is enough for some to feel threatened. They lack basic honesty themselves, which makes it impossible for them to perceive how strong your sense of integrity is.”
Baffled, Caya struggled to keep up with the hoverbeds and listen to Gioliva at the same time. “How do you know this?”
“I don’t know how. I just do. One moment the knowledge wasn’t there—and then it was. I think it has something to do with your sister. Her power of empathy and insight is amazing.”
“Yes.” Caya wiped quickly at unexpected tears. “Just rest now, Gioliva. We’re going to take care of you.”
“You may not be able to rid us of the poison in time.”
Horrified at how perceptive Gioliva had become, Caya didn’t know what to say. “We’re sure going to try. This team consists of the best.”
Gioliva merely nodded and closed her eyes. Caya was secretly relieved. Gioliva’s whites had now turned almost black.