We creep forward. Directly ahead of us is an operating theater, visible through a large viewing window, with perhaps a dozen doctors and nurses, all in surgical gowns, operating on a patient. The room is abnormally bright, even for a theater; all of the surgeons’ faces are lit up by an incandescent glow.
The patient is completely covered with sterile drapes, so I can’t see what part they’re operating on. But then I’m hit with that feeling again, the same one I had on the top floor of Magecorp: something sirenlike calling to me. It slithers beneath my skin, at once both invasive and strangely pleasurable.
The Source.The rock that Conall found in his research. I understand now why the room is so bright, why the lights are so dazzlingly intense. Whatever these doctors are doing in the theater, it has something to do with the Source. Is this what Professor Kaur wanted us to see?
The sound of voices sends Heloise and me scurrying behind an enormous bin on wheels that is piled high with discarded drapes. We crouch behind it, watching as two men in suits stroll to the viewing window.
My chest tightens. My heart thumps. I feel like I can’t breathe.
I recognize the taller of the two men. I recognize his shock of gray hair, his pointy nose, his slightly undershot chin.
The man is my familiar’s ex-owner, Mr.Nathaniel Price. But what is the Magecorp CEO doinghere?
Inside the theater, the surgeons have finished closing the patient’s wound, and nurses are moving around the surgical table, removing the sterile drapes. As the person beneath is exposed, I see that the incision is on the back of their neck, right at the base of their skull. I swallow, feeling sick.
If I’m interpreting the scene correctly, it seems the surgeons have just finished implanting a fragment of Source into a human. One look at Heloise’s horrified expression tells me that she’s come to the same conclusion.
Does it mean what I think it means? That we’ve been looking in the wrong place: It isn’t the MLO that have started using humans instead of objects to tether portals. That it’s actuallyMagecorpdoing it?
I don’t have time to mull this over, because already the patient is being transferred to a gurney and wheeled into the recovery room next door. The head doctor pulls down his mask, shucks off his surgical gown and mask, and tosses them into the basket.
“That’s the last of them for today, then?” the doctor asks Nathaniel Price.
“Yes,” Mr.Price says. “We have more tethers, but since the explosion—not enough Source.”
The doctor gives a tired sigh. “You’d better figure out a way to keep this one alive, then. Or else there’s going to be a worldwide magic shortage.”
“You think I don’t know that?” snaps Mr.Price.
Heloise and I shoot each other a glance. There’s been nothing—nothing—in the news about a global shortage.
The shorter suited man—who I assume is Nathaniel’s assistant—pulls out a tablet and starts tapping at it. “Have you thought about using one of the reserve tethers, sir?” He talks very fast, all the while pulling up file after file, which I can’t see clearly at a distance. “Patient 39 might be a good candidate. Their Source was implanted so long ago, it will have built up a significant capacity. They might be the only individual capable of holding a long-term tether.” He tilts the tablet toward Nathaniel, showing him something. “If we station 39 as the tetherinsidethe Void, then our models suggest that they could hold the portal open for quite some time. We can just swap out the tethers on the outside as they burn out. This, at least, would reduce our need for new tethers and Source by something approaching fifty percent.”
There’s a pause. Mr.Price clasps his hands behind his back and rocks slightly on his feet. “Patient 39 is proving somewhat…difficult at this stage.”
The short man frowns at his boss. “Will you reveal their identity to us, sir? I can have my team pay them…avisit. See if we can apply some pressure in adifferentsort of way.”
“No.” Mr.Price’s voice is decisive. “Not yet, Jarvis. I know your thugs are champing at the bit to get their hands on this one, but I’ve got it covered.”
“But, sir—”
“I have it covered.” His tone brooks no argument.
I shiver. So the tethers are humans implanted with the Source, who help to keep the Void tears open. And not only that, they needtwoper portal: one inside, one out.
How long has Magecorp been doing this? It sounds like a while.Perhaps it’s always been the case: Magecorp exploiting human beings as tethers in order to plunder the Void. Sweat has sprung out across my forehead and along my upper lip. I swipe at it, keeping my eyes trained on the men, not wanting to miss anything.
“Perhaps you can look into magic-rationing spells,” says the doctor. “They’re a little unconventional, but they work. You’ll need blood, though, and lots of it, if you want to amplify your stores of magic enough to meet current demand.”
Mr.Price unclasps his hands from behind his back and scratches at his chin. “Good thought. This place has a well-stocked blood bank, doesn’t it? Perhaps we can come to some sort of…arrangement.” It’s obvious he means a monetary arrangement. “Jarvis!”
Jarvis starts, almost dropping his tablet. “Yes, sir?”
“Schedule a meeting between myself and the hospital director.”
“Yes, of course, very good, sir,” Jarvis says, swiping his finger across his screen.
The doctor tugs off his surgical cap and goes to put it in the bin. But for the first time, he’s looking right at us. At the angle he’s now at, the bin’s not quite large enough to obscure both Heli and me.
