“Oh, come on,” Falk said, waving a hand. He glared at Nick. “You brought alawyerin to a meeting with your boss?”
“I’mKing’s boss,” Tate said sharply. “And I don’t like your tone, Falk.”
“Gentlemen,” Rios said. “I agree, it’s not in our interest to make any guesses, not when we have the lives of everyone in this building on the line.”
Nick knew he should pay attention to the politics. It was his job, after all, but he found himself focusing on what Parker had said. If the circles weren’t the cause of the explosion, maybe they pointed to a clue.
“Nick,” Parker said, voice soft. “How could we check for circlesnow, pre-liquidation? Is there a way for you to look inside someone? Could you light them up, do a magical X-ray?”
Narrowing his eyes, Nick considered. “Yeah, that would work.” Swallowing the bitter taste of panic, Nick said, “What if we can check for the circles?”
That interrupted the argument that the captains were in the middle of and refocused all the attention on Nick. Under the table, Parker found his hand, squeezing once.
“If the circles are being formedbeforethe explosion, then we should be able to detect them.” Nick pulled out his alchemy pen, rubbing his thumb over the engraving on it. “There are spells that reveal what’s inside of someone. We could use one to determine if there are any circles already on the bones.”
“If there aren’t, that should mean we’re clear?” Rios asked.
“Yes,ifthe circles form before an explosion. But I don’t see how it could have been after. I didn’t see any evidence of magic after the fact.” Nick pulled at the tablet again, the circles niggling at him. One was identical between Buford and Durkavic, but the rest were different.
“So, we light everyone up like a Christmas tree.” Parker raised both eyebrows. “We find out if anyone else has been infected. Maybe then we can figure out how it spreads.”
“We should work quickly,” Nick said. “There was a little less than twenty-four hours between the initial explosion and Buford. If someone else was infected at that crime scene…”
Rios leapt to his feet, pressing a button on the intercom in the center of the table. “Anyone who was at the Durkavic crime scene yesterday, immediately report to Conference Room A. I repeat,anyoneat the Durkavic scene, report to Conference Room A.”
He pressed another button, and the phone rang for a moment before the desk sergeant answered. “Get me the CDC on the phone now. We need to track down everyone that was at the Durkavic scene. Lock down the morgue and anyone else that had contact with the remains.”
Raising an eyebrow, he said, “Go. Find out if any of them have the circles.”
Nick opened the door, heading into the adjoining conference room. It was slowly filling—officers, techs—and Nick recognized the cop at the door.
McArdle was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed. “We caught it, too?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Nick nodded his head at Zahide. “Mehmud Circle.”
“Lumens up to max,” she said. “Without blinding anyone.”
Nick had to hide his grin at how she said the last, as though it wouldn’t be a problem to leave every cop in the room without sight.
“What should I do?” Parker asked.
“I need to check you first,” Nick said.
“Test monkey, got it,” Parker said. He stood, arms out, as Nick drew a circle on his notepad. He tried to keep it small, but he knew that it was going to get harder the more he did it. The head count in the room was at least forty, meaning he’d have to do the spell more times than he was comfortable with to clear everyone. And that didn’t even touch the rest of the people in the building.
Nick raised the circle, carefully pressing it against Parker’s shirt. It sank in, lighting him up, making his shirt invisible, skin and flesh reduced to a pink haze until Nick could see down to his bones, which… he exhaled. Parker’s bones were clear of marks.
Nick came close, staring hard, but other than a few healed breaks, there wasn’t anything unexpected on any of Parker’s bones.
“You aren’t going to be able to do everyone here,” Parker said.
Nick tightened his lips. Turning to Zahide, he said, “We’re going to have to figure out the minimum viability threshold. How small can we make this and still have it be effective?”
“Can you recycle it?” Parker asked. “Like… peel it off me and give it to the next guy?”
Nick’s eyes widened.
“I mean, isn’t that what all the posters say? Reuse, recycle, re… you know, I can’t remember the third one. Reincarnate? No, that can’t be it.”
