“Yes, it’s possible. But the bigger question is would it work internally? There’s combat alchemy that can hide you from heat sensors, even heart monitors. But would that work against something already inside you? Something that can feel your blood still pumping?” Nick raised his eyebrows. “Also, I don’t know the exact alchemy.”
Parker’s eyes widened. “Nick. We’ve met some combat alchemists.”
Nick nodded. After they had met Derek McCallum’s hired alchemists, Nick had asked his father about them. It had been relatively easy to track them down, and he kept his eye on them because he didn’t like having alchemists with that much power in his city.
Part of Parker’s possessive nature regarding San Amaro was bleeding over into him.
“I’ll contact them.” He made a face. “Let’s hope they answer.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The two combatalchemistswereavailable, and Nick had spent an hour going over the spellwork necessary with them.
“Sure, youcando it on a moving target,” Corey had hedged. Nick remembered him as the taller of the two, the one more capable with his bridges between alchemy circles. “You can even do it at a slight distance.”
“Averyslight distance,” his partner, Paul, said. “And only if you don’t have a choice.”
“But would it mask the life signs from even an internal scan?” Nick said. “Or at least confuse an internal scan.”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
“What exactly are you doing here, King?” Corey asked.
“I’m trying to hide someone’s life signs without actually doing anything to nullify them.” Nick looked over his notes.
“You said that. But why?” Paul asked. “Who are you hiding themfromthat has internal access to the client?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out myself.” Nick hoped the joke distracted them, and from the mirthless laughter on the other end, the two men were familiar with situations where important things like who the client was wasn’t immediately known.
“It’ll fool most scanners, that’s all I know,” Corey said. “But everything internal would be working, so I guess it depends on what kind of sensors are inside.”
Which was a… very good question. After thanking them and hanging up, Nick stared at the phone on the counter.
“What is it?” Parker asked from his elbow. He’d managed to stay quiet for most of the call, and Nick was grateful because he had enough to think about.
“We know that the virus—the parasite—the alchemy.” Nick struggled with how to name the creature that had taken over Gile and the escape room employee.
Parker waved a hand. “The sentient circle, yeah.”
“Wethoughtit spread when someone is about to die or just died. But I think we’re wrong. What if Gile and Durkavic spread it before today, but the reason we haven’t seen it spread to more than those initial infections has to do with power?” Nick raised his eyebrows, and Parker didn’t let him down.
“Alchemy needs power to run,” Parker said slowly, working it out. “It needs lots of power, which is why most alchemists can’t light a candle. It’s why you and Zahide are unique. If this creatureisalchemy, or alchemy derived, how is it powering itself?”
“Exactly,” Nick said. “And also, it’s custom, so that takes even more time and power. The reason we haven’t seen more of it is that it started as one powerful alchemy circle, and it’s less and less powerful as it divides.”
“Okay, that explains why the spellwork takes so long to spread, but it’s stillspreading. That’s where the ‘ten and ten more’ people are coming from. The parasite seemed to think itwould be ableto spread further.” Parker pointed at the map. “So, once it’s on someone, it needs to power up again? To have enough power to spread to the next person.”
“I think that power is comingfromthe people. It’s draining them somehow, like batteries to power itself.” Nick’s lips went tight. “So it can spread to the next people.”
“What does that mean for us?” Parker asked. “Is it worse or better?”
“I think it’s better,” Nick said. “Because that means that the magic isn’t monitoring blood flow or any external signs of life—breathing, heart rate, things like that. It’s monitoring something else. Something about the life force or the energy.”
“And that’s what these spells mask?” Parker asked, eyes wide.
Nick nodded. “The spell masks all that. It wouldn’t fool someone who actually has a hand on your chest and can feel you breathe. But it would fool a spell that was just looking for living things.”
“Great.” Parker grinned. “Let’s go.”
