Below, the crux of the ambulatory was lit silver beneath the pop flare of drum lights. A clear modular tent had been constructed over the operating table—likely to strive for some semblance of sterility. It felt like a laughable precaution.
A hush fell over the room as Jesse entered, followed closely behind by Vivienne. She looked unusually small from this distance, birdlike beneath the crinkled paper of her gown. Her chin lifted toward the transept, dark eyes darting from face to face before landing on his. His stomach settled into a knot. Next to him, Judd let out an excited woof.
The sound brought Jesse’s focus skyward. “Is that adog?”
“It’s two dogs, actually,” said a boy several rows away, casting a dark look in Thomas’s direction. “We tried to keep them out, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“You’re contaminating my operating room, Walsh.”
“It’s not an operating room,” Thomas fired back. “It’s a sacrificial altar.”
Stop, signed Vivienne, and he did. Gritting his jaw, he sank back against the pew. Jesse fired off one last scathing look before guiding Vivienne into the clean room’s outer module, zipping the door shut behind them. There came a blast of an air shower, and then they entered the main cube. The sanctuary was flooded immediately with the soft crackle of static. Over the former diocese’s sound system came Jesse’s voice:
“Testing, one, two, three. Am I coming through?”
Several pledges held up their hands in a thumbs-up.
“Good.” He slid a wheeled tray bearing several tools toward him as Vivienne climbed onto the table. “Per request, I’ll be talking through my process. The first several steps are standard. I’ll be administering two milliliters of ketamine via intravenous tube and following with a saline flush.”
It took him several tries to insert the IV. Thomas was on his feet before the end, his stomach tangled. Eric dragged him back down just as Jesse began to administer the ketamine. On the table, Vivienne lay with her hair splayed around her in a halo of dark.
“I’m going to push it in slowly,” said Jesse. “Over one to two minutes. She should be out by the end.”
“Should,” echoed Colton disdainfully. “Is he telling us, or is he reassuring himself?”
“Pretty sure this is his first procedure not performed on a cadaver,” said Thomas as Vivienne’s eyes fluttered once, twice, three times. They didn’t open again.
Asleep, she reminded Thomas of a page from one of his sister’s old storybooks—Snow White in the forest, slumbering under glass, the soft curl of her lashes dark against her cheeks. A ventilator whirred steadily beside her—a clear, clinical reminder that none of this was a fairy tale. Oxygen pumped steadily through the CPAP mask Jesse had fitted over her face.
Stuffed into the crowded transept, Thomas began to sweat. A thought had occurred to him, much too late to do anything about it.
“Everyone in this room is going to die,” he murmured.
“Excuse me?” Colton hooked an elbow over the back of his pew and skewed a dubious glance in Thomas’s direction. At his side, Delaney peered between the mask-clad faces.
“What is it?” she asked. “What’s happening?”
Colton tugged his mask down to his chin and turned to face her. “Walsh has just made a less-than-reassuring announcement.” Turning back to Thomas, he said, “You feel like explaining?”
But there was no time.
“He needs to bring her out of it.” Thomas rose to his feet. “Grayson! Call it off!”
Jesse didn’t look up from his tray. Thomas wasn’t even sure if he could hear him through the barrier. He got his answer seconds later, when Jesse’s voice crackled over the speaker.
“Easy, Walsh. You’re causing a scene.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” He cupped his hands to his mouth in a desperate effort to amplify his shout. “I said call it off!”
“Sit down, asshole,” said someone from several rows back. “I can’t see.”
Eric tugged Thomas back into his seat, hooking an arm around his shoulder. “Remember what I said about you being levelheaded? I take it back.”
“You don’t understand,” said Thomas. “Vivienne’s altered state manifests in reflective surfaces. But when I spoke to Grayson earlier, he said her reflection is missing.”
Delaney frowned. “Missing?”
“What if it knew what was coming? What if it’s hiding?”
