“I wish I could have studied it more,” Nick said. He immediately looked up at McArdle. “Not that I’m not happy you aren’t dead, but what Parker’s talking about and what I assumed from the other bodies is that there would be more circles involved. What was on you was small, and…”
Nick remembered what Parker had said. He looked at Parker in surprise. “Incomplete. Maybe you weren’t fully infected. Or maybe you didn’t get infected as badly as the other two victims.”
“The CDC is going to check everyone in the building,” Zahide said, coming back.
“We’re trying to figure out how it spreads,” Nick said. “But I can’t get past how it works.”
He described what Parker had suggested and his own inability to accept that something so complicated could also have a transport feature.
“King is right,” Zahide said. “Anything with a feature like that would need someone to direct it, and most alchemy spells aren’t designed to be directed. Not from afar. There’s a reason King and I need to touch our spells before moving them.”
“Zahide! How often have we let impossible stop something from being real?” Parker grinned, but Nick could see the desperation in it.
He got it. Parker wanted to know how it worked, how it spread, because the not knowing meant that it was out of Parker’s control, that he was a bystander. If there was one thing Parker hated, it was being a bystander.
“Parker,” Nick said. “Zahide and I will figure it out. If there’s another victim or another person infected here at the station, we’ll find out how it spreads.”
Parker’s shoulders slumped, but when he looked at Nick, it was as though he was reflecting back all the faith that Nick had in Parker. It was still shocking, still incredible to Nick, that Parker, who’d saved the city too many times, believed with absolute confidence that Nick could do the same.
Parker looked at Nick like he was the sun, and Parker just revolved around him. It was too much to take, especially when Nick knew who Parker was, knew the goodness that lived in him, the kindness and the profound empathy that made him do stupidly suicidal things.
“Elaine,” Nick said. He found McArdle staring down at her phone, her breathing still carefully controlled. In. Out. When he approached her, she looked up.
Her eyes were clear, and she had all the professionalism he would expect from a senior detective.
“How did I get it? Yeah.” McArdle frowned, then described in detail how she’d been called to and arrived at the scene. She wasn’t first, she wasn’t last on the scene. She’d interacted with the senior tech who’d exploded, but nothing of interest had happened.
There wasn’t anything unusual in her description.
“What about today?” Nick asked. “Did anything happen today?”
“Not really. I got in early to prep for the interview with Ferro. I went into the break room, got my coffee, interviewed Ferro until we found out that something was going on, and then he ran out. We sheltered in place, got called in here.” She shrugged. “Let me write down everything I remember just in case it shakes anything loose.”
“Good idea,” Nick said. “Did you see anything unusual with the tech?”
“Yesterday? No. Other than that he was kind of a creep. But that’s a lot of people, you know? Major Crimes, we see a lot of creeps.” McArdle exhaled, puffing her cheeks up for a second. “I bet it’s the same in Paranormal Crimes.”
“Yeah,” Nick twisted his lips. “Same in?—”
Someone pounded on the door. “Zahide! King! They found another one!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Nick and Parkerrushed down the empty hallway. He could hear footsteps behind them, and when they got to the elevator, Zahide and Avila slid in with them.
Avila pressed a button for the second floor. “It was one of the cops working the crime scene.”
“Where is everyone?” Parker asked, although he frowned like he might know. “They didn’t let everyone go, did they? Like, this isn’t the end of an Agatha Christie movie. There isn’tonekiller, oh hey, everyone else can go home. Although wasn’t there one where it was everyone? So, wow, I hope we aren’t inthatone.”
“Everyone is sheltering in place. We wanted hallways free, and CDC agreed that if it is airborne, we needed fewer people congregating together.” Avila looked at her phone. “Captain said they’re talking to the CDC, and now that they found someone who’s got the circles, they might start letting people go if theyareclear of circles.”
Nick’s face twitched. “We don’t know how long it takes to spread or how long someone is contagious before they show symptoms.”
Avila held up her hands. “I’m just the messenger.”
Nick couldn’t help the frown he knew settled between his brows. He was overly cautious—it had been a complaint multiple teachers had expressed about his alchemy for years—but there was overly cautious, and there was foolishness. This definitely veered toward the latter.
The door finally opened, and they stepped out into a station that was entirely unfamiliar. Doorways were covered in plastic, taped to prevent more airflow. People in yellow hazmat suits walked up and down the hall.
