Velda made a sound of distress and moved back against the wall, and Ritter stared down at Linao, frozen in horror.
Ethan edged back to stand shoulder to shoulder with Velda, up against the wall.
“You.” Nirro pointed at Ritter and the scientist took a step back, hands up, palms out.
“I don’t even know what you two were talking about.”
“Show me how this works,” Nirro said, pointing to the box. He snapped out a command and a guard stepped into the room, grabbed Linao’s ankle and dragged her out of the room.
The time is coming, the voices in Ethan’s head said.Get ready when they open the box.
He had to agree. Nirro was already shooting him quick looks, as if he suddenly saw Ethan a little more clearly.
Ritter’s gaze skittered around the room, landing on Nirro, on the armed guards just outside the door looking in, and on Ethan and Velda. He walked to the table and his hand shook as he lifted the small clamp he used to handle the balls.
He carefully lifted one out of the box, held out a hand. When he was sure Nirro was watching he dropped the ball onto his palm and they all watched it melt away.
Then he retrieved the small device that was also inside the box and activated it, holding it against his hand, and the ball rose back up.
He grabbed it with the clamp and returned it to the box.
Nirro had watched the whole thing with growing interest. “Do you feel different?” he asked.
Ritter shook his head. “A little nauseous, for some reason, but otherwise, no.”
“And you did this to the crew of your runner, as well?”
Ritter nodded.
“And to these two?” He glanced at Ethan and Velda.
Ritter nodded again.
“And you were planning to do what today?” Nirro lifted the clamp and studied it.
“I was going to use up the last four balls on them, giving them two each, and check their vitals to see if it would make a difference. If each one is working even a little bit, it may be there is a cumulative effect.” Ritter’s hand waved vaguely.
“I want to try one on my own people,” Nirro said. He gestured one of the guards into the room and spoke to him in Caruson.
The guard seemed very unhappy about being part of the experiment, but Nirro was tapping the little device, which Ethan took to mean he was reassuring him they’d both just seen the ball being lifted back out without any issue.
Eventually the guard held out his hand and Nirro used the clamp to lift a ball into his palm.
It disappeared and the guard closed his hand into a fist, in an almost reflexive action.
Then he shivered, his lips moving back in a snarl, and he fell forward, directly into Nirro, who caught him as he went down, twisting him to the side to lay him on his back as his feet drummed on the floor and his back arched up.
He screamed, and then went absolutely limp. Velda crouched down, hands out to balance herself, and Ethan saw a silver ball roll across from the body toward her, and then disappear when it reached her fingers.
She turned her head to look up at him, a little wild-eyed, and he joined her, going onto his haunches.
It seemed as if neither Nirro or Ritter had seen the ball leave the guard’s body. Ritter had gotten as far away from the flailing guard as he could and still be in the room, and Nirro was shouting for help from the guards outside.
He grabbed the device that extracted the silver balls and lifted up the guard’s hand, pressing the device into his palm.
Nothing happened.
“Why isn’t it coming out?” he shouted at Ritter.
