The researcher stepped away from the puddle. The blue markings along his arms had already become dimmer.
Professor Halden addressed the laboratory. "Clear anything people can trip over."
Several researchers began moving. Nobody touched the puddle.
The researcher with the golden Mark across his chest bent toward the metal tray that had fallen earlier. He had said very little since the pattern spread across his upper chest. He placed one hand around the side of the tray and lifted.
Part of the metal remained caught beneath the leg of a nearby table.
The tray bent in his hand.
The researcher immediately released it. "I did not pull that hard."
One side had folded inward. Several shallow impressions remained where his fingers had held the metal.
Professor Halden approached him. "Do your hands hurt?"
"No."
"Your wrists?"
"No."
"Chest?"
The researcher touched the golden Mark. "No."
Professor Halden pointed toward the other side of the tray. "Lift that side."
"I just damaged this one."
"That is why I said the other side."
The researcher crouched again and placed only two fingers beneath the metal.
He lifted.
The tray rose easily. Part of its frame remained caught beneath the table leg, but the researcher continued without noticing. The table tilted with it, sending several containers toward the opposite edge.
"Stop," Marek said.
The researcher stopped. "I did not feel that."
"Lower your hand."
He did. The tray returned to the floor, followed by the table. Professor Halden caught one of the containers before it fell.
The researcher examined his fingers. "It was like folding a piece of paper."
He was not breathing harder. Earlier that afternoon, he had complained several times about his back while helping move the experimental toilet into the laboratory.
"Does your back still hurt?" Marek asked.
The researcher twisted slightly at the waist.
"No."
"Tired?"
"No."
"You were before midnight."
"I was."
Professor Halden stepped away. "Do not lift anything until we know how much force you are actually using."
The researcher nodded and moved toward a chair.
"Do not move the chair either," Marek said.
"I was going to sit."
"Sit without moving it."
The chair was too close to the workstation. He remained standing.
A loud impact came from the corridor.
The laboratory door shook.
Someone outside shouted, "Get him away from the stairs!"
Another voice answered, "Do not push him!"
Something struck the wall, followed by several people running.
Professor Halden moved toward the entrance but stopped several steps away.
"Do not open it yet."
"Someone may be injured," one of the researchers said.
"Someone inside this room almost died several minutes ago."
The researcher said nothing.
Professor Halden continued. "We do not know what is happening outside. We also do not know what half of you will do if someone panics and touches you."
Nobody argued.
Static came from the emergency speakers.
"An emergency condition has been detected inside the Medical Sciences Building. Please remain within your current rooms while university security evaluates the situation."
The recording ended.
Then it started again.
A man shouted from the corridor. "Security is not answering!"
The announcement continued over him.
Professor Halden went to one of the laboratory computers. The internal university network still worked, but security, the clinic, and administration did not answer.
The emergency message repeated.
Marek checked the uncovered section of the windows.
Smoke was rising beyond one of the university buildings.
There was no way to know whether it had anything to do with the Marks. With vehicles crashing, equipment breaking, and electrical systems failing, an ordinary fire was enough of a problem.
A campus security vehicle stopped near the courtyard. Three officers stepped out. People immediately surrounded them.
One officer raised both hands, apparently telling everyone to move back.
Nobody did.
Two men began fighting near the road. One shoved the other. The second man traveled several meters before striking the side of a parked car.
Marek had already seen that happen twice.
First Motion.
Or something close enough that the difference did not matter yet. The crowd scattered while the man who had pushed him ran.
Marek stopped watching. There were too many things happening outside that he could not do anything with it since he was currently stationed in the sixth floor.
He took out his phone.
His message to Mara remained pending. No signal. He called her. The call failed. The second attempt did too.
Mara was fourteen. Marek did not know whether she had awakened a Mark, whether she was alone, or whether the roads between the university and their apartment still connected to the same places. He only knew that she had tried to reach him seven times before the network disappeared.
Marek put the phone back inside his pocket. He needed to leave. But Elia could not.
That meant he could not leave yet.
Pale markings surrounded both of Professor Halden’s wrists. The lines resembled the arms of a balance, with smaller marks hanging beneath them.
Until now, they had done nothing obvious. The professor examined the damaged tray, the puddle, and the woman standing with her eyes closed. Then his attention settled on Elia.
The pale markings brightened.
"What?" Marek asked.
Professor Halden crouched beside Elia and checked her pulse again. "The bleeding has stopped."
"That is what I told you."
"No." He remained beside her. "Something does not match."
Marek frowned. "Her pulse is weak. She lost blood. Her body is reacting to significant internal damage."
"She did suffer significant internal damage."
"I know."
"The result is still there," Professor Halden said. "The thing responsible for it is not."
Marek examined the markings around his wrists. "You can tell?"
"I can tell that something is wrong with the difference."
"That is different."
"I am aware."
The markings brightened again as Professor Halden shifted his attention between Elia and Marek. "There is too much damage for what remains inside her."
"Because I removed the cause."
"At the same time..." His attention settled on Marek’s right shoulder. "There is something inside you that does not belong there."
The force struck its boundary.
Marek’s right arm tightened.
Professor Halden noticed. "That."
The dark-red scale remained occupied.
Professor Halden reached toward it.
Marek moved away before his hand arrived. "Do not touch it."
"I was not going to press it."
"That is still touching."
"I need to examine it."
"I do not know what happens if someone else touches it."
Professor Halden lowered his hand. "That is a reasonable objection."
The woman with the twin Marks repeated him from across the laboratory. "That is a reasonable objection."
Her eyes remained closed. She pressed her hands harder against her ears.
Professor Halden continued. "What do you feel inside the Mark?"
"Movement."
"The same thing you removed?"
"Yes."
"Is it hurting you?"
"It tried."
Professor Halden paused. "What does that mean?"
"When it entered me, it struck beneath my ribs."
"Did something rupture?"
"Yes."
Professor Halden stood. "Sit down."
"It is gone."
"What is gone?"
"The rupture."
The professor became quiet. "You suffered an internal rupture."
"Yes."
"And now you do not have one."
"Yes."
"Where did it go?"
Marek touched the occupied scale. Pain passed through his shoulder. "Inside this."
The scale was smaller than his thumbnail, but the force inside it had been large enough to damage Elia repeatedly. There should not have been enough space, and Marek could still feel it moving.
Professor Halden examined the markings around his own wrists. The pale lines shifted slightly.
"Every time that thing moves, the difference between you and Elia changes."
Marek considered that. "That sounded slightly more useful."
Professor Halden ignored him.
Another impact came from outside. Someone ran past the laboratory while several voices overlapped in the corridor.
The markings around Professor Halden’s wrists brightened again.
He waited.
"What?" Marek asked.
"There is something wrong outside."
"That narrows it down very little."
"I cannot identify it, but whatever I am sensing from Elia is more immediate."
Marek understood what he meant.
Professor Halden was not identifying injuries. He seemed to notice how far something had moved from where it should have been.
Elia still carried the damage. Marek carried the cause. Something between them did not match.
Professor Halden stood. "Everyone, listen."
The researchers stopped what they were doing. The woman with the twin Marks opened her eyes.
Professor Halden pointed toward her. "Close them."
She immediately did.
"We stop experimenting."
The researcher with the blue markings scratched the back of his head. "I touched one drop."
"That was an experiment."
"It was useful."
"It was also water. The next thing you test may not be."
The researcher’s attention drifted toward the electrical cables along the floor.
Professor Halden noticed. "Especially not that."
The man faced somewhere else.
Professor Halden pointed toward the researcher with the golden Mark. "You do not move equipment."
"I understand."
"You also do not open anything."
"I was not going to."
"Good."
He addressed the rest of the laboratory. "Anyone who has not manifested an ability will prepare the emergency supplies. We still have an injured patient. Whatever happened outside does not change that."
Several researchers moved.
One opened the emergency cabinet. Another prepared the portable oxygen equipment while someone else checked the available medical supplies.
The emergency announcement continued. People were still shouting in the corridor.
At least everyone inside the laboratory had something specific to do.
Marek returned to Elia. The active condition was no longer inside her. The damage remained.
She had already lost blood. The tissue beneath her ribs had been injured before Marek removed the First Motion, and reduced circulation might already have affected other organs.
They needed imaging and blood. Depending on the damage, she might need surgery. The laboratory possessed equipment capable of identifying contaminants ordinary hospitals could not detect.
But it was still not an operating room.
Marek crouched beside her.
Professor Halden noticed. "What are you doing?"
"Checking again."
"How?"
Marek placed one hand against Elia’s abdomen.
The empty black circle beneath his right collarbone became warm.
At first, nothing happened.
The emergency announcement continued above them. Someone shouted outside the door. The fire alarm remained loud enough to carry through the floor.
Then the sounds weakened.
They did not stop. To Marek, it felt like they moved farther away.
Professor Halden remained beside him. The researchers continued preparing supplies around them. Marek simply stopped focusing on any of it.
Elia became clearer.
Her pulse and breathing remained weak. Blood had collected inside her abdomen, and the damaged tissue beneath her ribs remained visible.
Everything else became less important.
Several words then appeared inside Marek’s sight.
[SUBJECT IDENTIFIED]
[ELIA VOSS]
[CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT ESTABLISHED]