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niekto nás sleduje je nová časť seriálu Nultý signál, pripravená ako dvojjazyčný detský príbeh v slovenčine aj angličtine.
niekto nás sleduje: začína sa príbeh
Ranný chlad sa držal pri zadnom vchode školy, hoci už bolo po ôsmej. Lea stála pri múre s rukami vo vreckách čiernej džínsovej bundy a sledovala, ako sa na Denisovom mobile načítava video.
Trvalo sedem sekúnd.
Roztrasený záber ukazoval starý sklad za športovým areálom. V rohu obrazovky sa mihli Tamiine medené kučery. Potom sa obraz na okamih zachvel. Kovová plechovka na zemi sa sama posunula o pár centimetrov, akoby ju niekto potiahol neviditeľnou rukou. Denis sa v ďalšom zábere zrazu ocitol bližšie pri dverách, hoci pred chvíľou stál pri stene.
Video sa skončilo skôr, než sa dalo čokoľvek pochopiť.
„To je celé?“ spýtala sa Tami a naklonila sa ponad jeho rameno.
„Celé,“ povedal Denis. „A už to videlo asi sto ľudí. Možno viac. Niekto to poslal do druhákov, oni to preposlali ďalej a teraz sa všetci tvária, že objavili mimozemšťanov v sklade na metly.“
„Je to rozmazané,“ povedal Viktor ticho.
„To nie je dobrá správa,“ odvetila Lea.
Chlapec si posunul staré káblové slúchadlá z krku na rameno. „Viem. Len hovorím, že na prvý pohľad to môže vyzerať ako divný filter.“
„Na prvý pohľad,“ zopakovala Lea. Zastavila video presne v okamihu, keď sa na kovových dverách objavila tenká modrastá čiara. Taká slabá, že by ju väčšina ľudí považovala za chybu obrazu. Ona však vedela, čo vidí. Prúd. Jej prúd.
V žalúdku ju stiahlo.
Tami si prekrížila ruky na hrudi. „Výborne. Doteraz sme boli divná partia. Teraz sme divná partia s trailerom.“
Nikto sa neusmial.
Včera večer si do Leinho mobilu spísali pár jednoduchých pravidiel: žiadne skúšanie schopností pri ľuďoch, žiadne zbytočné riskovanie a žiadne sólo akcie. V tej chvíli zneli rozumne. Teraz pôsobili ako papierový dáždnik v búrke.
„Kde presne si to našiel?“ spýtala sa Lea.
„Poslal mi to Marek. Vraj mu to pristálo v skupine.“ Denis sa zamračil. „A nie, nepýtal som sa ho. Ešte.“
„Ešte je dôležité slovo,“ upozornila ho.
Pri zadnom vchode sa otvorili dvere a von vyšli dve prváčky. Štvorica okamžite stíchla. Dievčatá sa na nich ani nepozreli, len sa smiali na niečom v mobile. Aj tak Lea počkala, kým zmiznú za rohom.
„Nie je to obyčajná klebeta,“ povedala potom. „Niekto vedel, čo má natočiť.“
Viktor sa opäť zadíval na zastavený záber. „A odkiaľ.“
Na veľkej prestávke sa ukryli pri skrinkách na konci prázdnej chodby. Z jednej triedy sa ozýval hlas učiteľky dejepisu, odniekiaľ voňala instantná polievka a mokré bundy.
Viktor pustil video na svojom starom telefóne. Obraz zväčšil, až sa z neho stali farebné štvorčeky.
„Kamera nebola v ruke,“ povedal. „Záber sa hýbe, ale nie ako pri chôdzi. Skôr ako keby niečo stálo opreté o stenu a vibrácie to občas posunuli.“
„Mobil na lavičke?“ navrhla Tami.
„Možno. Alebo lacný tablet. Alebo staršia kamera.“ Viktor poklepal prstom na roh obrazovky. „Pozrite. Uhol je nízko. Od dverí skladu. Presne tam, kde sme si mysleli, že nikto nevidí.“
Denis sa odlepil od skrinky. „Takže niekto bol pri nás a my sme ho ani nezbadali. Super výkon, tím.“
„Nehraj sa na komentátora,“ povedala Tami ostrejšie, než chcela. Hneď nato sklopila oči. „Prepáč. Len… nechcem si predstavovať, že sa niekto pozeral.“
Lea to pochopila. Vtedy neboli silní ani pripravení. Len skúšali, čo ich telá dokážu, a báli sa toho. Tami vytvorila kruh ticha tak silný, až jej potom pol hodinu pískalo v ušiach. Denis sa pri opakovaných preskokoch skoro potkol o kovový regál. Viktor sedel na zemi s rukami na spánkoch, lebo príliš veľa signálov naraz mu tlačilo do hlavy.
Bola to ich najslabšia chvíľa.
„Najprv zistíme zdroj,“ rozhodla Lea. „Bez výsluchov na chodbe. Bez naháňania ľudí. Denis, žiadne hrdinské skratky.“
„Ja nerobím hrdinské skratky.“
Tami zdvihla obočie. „Ty si doslova človek, čo robí skratky.“
Keď sa veci začnú meniť
Tentoraz sa Denisovi kútik úst pohol, ale úsmev mu nevydržal. Napokon len prikývol.
Po vyučovaní vyšli spolu pred školu. Obloha bola sivá a mokrý asfalt odrážal svetlá áut. Pri zastávke stálo viac ľudí než zvyčajne. Niekto nadával na meškajúci autobus, malé dieťa kopalo do tašky a z neďalekého stánku sa šírila vôňa pečiva.
Lea ho zbadala prvá.
Muž stál na druhej strane cesty pri výklade zatvoreného kaderníctva. Mal tmavý kabát, obyčajný sivý šál a ruky vo vreckách. Nebol starý. Možno tridsiatnik, možno mladší, ťažko povedať. Nevyzeral ako niekto, kto by sa snažil schovať. Práve to bolo zlé.
„Nepozerajte sa naraz,“ povedala tak potichu, že ju počuli len oni.
Denis sa okamžite pozrel.
„Výborné,“ zamrmlala.
„Čo?“ spýtal sa, no už ho tiež uvidel.
Tami si upravila kapucňu tmavozelenej mikiny. „Ten pán s výrazom človeka, čo čaká na zubára?“
Viktor stuhol. Zreničky sa mu na chvíľu rozšírili. V okolí zastávky bolo priveľa mobilov, Wi-Fi z kaviarne, signály áut a semaforov. Zvyčajne to vnímal ako tlak zo všetkých strán. Teraz medzi nimi cítil niečo pravidelné. Jemný pulz, ktorý sa opakoval vždy, keď muž pohol rukou pri kabáte.
„Má pri sebe zariadenie,“ zašepkal. „Neviem aké. Nie je to len telefón. Niečo vysiela… alebo počúva.“
„Tak idem za ním,“ povedal Denis.
Lea mu chytila rukáv. „Nie.“
„Sleduje nás.“
„Možno. Ale ak za ním vyštartuješ, budeme mať istotu len v tom, že sme štyria a vyzeráme podozrivo.“
Tami sa pomaly nadýchla. „Môžem skúsiť niečo malé.“
Lea prikývla.
Dievča zavrelo oči. Ruch zastávky sa okolo nich stiahol, akoby niekto prikryl svet hrubou dekou. Nezmizol úplne. Len sa sústredil do úzkeho smeru, ku ktorému Tami natočila hlavu.
Muž si práve pritisol prst k slúchadlu v uchu.
„Stále,“ povedal.
Potom Tami schopnosť pustila. Zvuky sa vrátili naraz: brzdy autobusu, kašeľ, buchnutie dverí. Dievča žmurklo a dotklo sa ucha.
„Len toľko,“ povedala. „A teraz mi v ľavom uchu znie elektrická včela.“
Muž nastúpil do autobusu, ktorý práve prišiel. Neobzrel sa za nimi. Vozidlo sa pohlo a o chvíľu zmizlo za križovatkou.
Cestou domov sa Denisovi nepodarilo zostať ticho.
„Povedal stále. To nie je náhoda. Niekto mu dáva hlásenia a on im hovorí, že sme stále tu.“
„Alebo hovoril o autobuse,“ namietol Viktor opatrne.
„Jasné. Autobusový agent. Špeciálna jednotka proti štyrom ľuďom, čo mali smolu pri výpadku.“
„Nemusíš sa tváriť, že ťa to nebaví,“ odsekla Lea. „Vidím, že si vystrašený.“
Denis zastal tak prudko, až sa Tami skoro zrazila s jeho ramenom.
„Nie som vystrašený.“
„Dobre. Tak si nahnevaný. Výsledok je rovnaký, ak začneš konať bez plánu.“
Na chvíľu bolo počuť iba ich kroky po chodníku. Medzi panelákmi sa rozsvietili prvé okná.
Napokon Denis vydýchol. „Tak aký je plán?“
Tá otázka prekvapila všetkých, možno aj jeho.
Lea odpovedala hneď. „Viktor sa ešte raz pozrie na záznam. Každý si prejde, čo si pamätá zo skladu. Potom sa stretneme pri starom chodníku za areálom. Ak sa ten človek ukáže, nebudeme ho naháňať. Budeme sledovať, čo urobí.“
„To znie ako pasca,“ povedala Tami.
„Je to pozorovanie,“ opravila ju Lea.
„Pasca s lepším marketingom.“
Viktorova izba bola plná káblov, zošitov a dvoch rozobratých reproduktorov. Na stole svietil notebook. Štyria sa tiesnili okolo neho, zatiaľ čo vonku sa pomaly stmievalo.
Viktor prehrával video snímku po snímke. Zastavil pri čiernom páse na ľavom okraji obrazu.
„Počkajte.“
Priblížil záber. Šum sa rozpadol, no pod ním sa ukázal obrys malého predmetu opretého o betónový blok. Nebola to taška. Ani plechovka.
„Telefón?“ spýtala sa Tami.
„Starý model kamery,“ povedal Viktor. „Alebo telefón v pevnom držiaku. Vidíte ten kovový klip?“
Lea cítila, ako jej po chrbte prešiel chlad. Počas testu bol predmet takmer za dverami. Museli okolo neho prejsť. Museli ho vidieť, len mu nepripísali význam.
Dôležitý okamih
„Niekto to tam nechal vopred,“ povedala.
„A potom sa po to vrátil,“ doplnil Denis.
Viktor sa naraz chytil okraja stola. „Ticho.“
„Čo je?"
„Nie zvuk.“ Zavrel oči. „Signál. Na chvíľu… ako keby sa niečo ozvalo. Nie odtiaľto. Skôr smerom na sever.“
Severne od mesta stál opustený pozemok, zarastený burinou a kríkmi. Kedysi tam bývala vysielacia veža. Tá istá, pri ktorej sa počas výpadku začalo všetko meniť.
Nikto nevyslovil jej meno. Nemuseli.
O hodinu neskôr stáli pri starom chodníku za školským areálom. Múr bol popraskaný, za ním sa začínal opustený pozemok. Vietor šuchotal suchými listami a z diaľky sem doliehalo dunenie mesta.
Lea mala ruky vo vreckách, aby nebolo vidieť jemné chvenie prstov. Denis prešľapoval pri lampách, ktoré na chodník vrhali slabé žlté kruhy. Tami si stiahla kapucňu hlbšie do čela. Viktor držal mobil, no nesledoval displej. Vnímal tlak v priestore okolo seba.
„Žiadne preskoky,“ pripomenula Lea Denisovi.
„Viem.“
„A žiadne ticho, kým nebude treba,“ dodala Tami.
„Viem.“
„A žiadne—“
„Lea.“ Denis sa na ňu pozrel. „Viem.“
Tentoraz prikývla.
Čakali päť minút. Potom desať. Medzitým sa Viktorovi v hlave začal zbierať nepríjemný tlak z okolitých sietí. Zhlboka dýchal a sústredil sa len na jeden slabý pulz, ktorý prichádzal od cesty.
„Ide sem,“ povedal.
Muž v tmavom kabáte sa objavil pri rohu areálu. Kráčal pokojne, ani rýchlo, ani pomaly. Nezamieril k nim. Prešiel popri chodníku, akoby ich vôbec nevidel.
Denis napol ramená.
Lea mu bez pohľadu položila dlaň na predlaktie.
Práve vtedy muž zastal pri múriku. Z vrecka vytiahol niečo malé, položil to na vrch popraskaného betónu a pokračoval ďalej. Keď sa Denis pohol, neznámy už bol pri parkovisku, kde by ho museli prenasledovať cez cestu a medzi autami.
„Nie,“ povedala Lea.
Bolo jasné, že sa rozhodla správne. Aj keď Denis zaťal zuby, zostal stáť.
O chvíľu prišli k múriku. Ležal na ňom tenký kovový štítok, trochu väčší než minca. Na jednej strane mal vyrytý znak troch sústredných kruhov. Na druhej strane boli drobné písmená.
Viktor posvietil mobilom.
NULTÝ SIGNÁL STÁLE DÝCHA.
VEŽA. SEVERNÝ VSTUP. 21:10.
Tami sa už nesnažila žartovať. „To je fakt zlé, však?“
„Nie úplne,“ povedal Viktor a hlas sa mu mierne triasol. „Zlé by bolo, keby to poslali všetkým. Toto je pre nás.“
„A to má byť lepšie?“ spýtal sa Denis.
Lea otočila štítok medzi prstami. Kov bol studený. „Znamená to, že nás nechcú hneď odhaliť. Chcú, aby sme niekam išli. Ale nevieme prečo.“
„Ten človek vedel o veži,“ povedala Tami. „A o signále. O veci, ktorú by nemal vedieť nikto.“
Viktor zdvihol hlavu k tmavému severnému okraju mesta. V tej chvíli zacítil taký slabý tlak, že by ho inokedy považoval za únavu. Krátky pulz. Pravidelný. Živý.
„Nie sme jediní, kto ho sleduje,“ povedal.
Domov sa vracali pomalšie. Už sa nehádali. Denis kráčal s rukami vo vreckách a občas sa obzrel cez plece, no nič nehovoril. Tami držala štítok zabalený v papierovej vreckovke, akoby sa bála dotknúť sa ho priamo. Lea si v hlave skladala plán, ktorý nebude ani rýchly, ani bezpečný na sto percent, ale aspoň nebude hlúpy.
Pri poslednej križovatke sa Viktor zastavil.
Na streche domu oproti bliklo malé modré svetlo. Len raz. Potom zhaslo.
Z diaľky, príliš potichu na to, aby to počul ktokoľvek iný, cítil v mobilných sieťach krátke potvrdenie. Ako keby niekto odklikol správu.
Štítok dorazil.
A niekto vedel, že ho našli.
Pokračovanie nabudúce…
The Zero Signal, part 7: Someone Is Watching Us
The Story Begins
The morning cold still clung to the back entrance of the school, even though it was already after eight. Lea stood by the wall with her hands in the pockets of her black denim jacket and watched a video load on Denis’s phone.
It took seven seconds.
The shaky clip showed an old storage building behind the sports ground. In the corner of the screen, Tami’s copper curls flashed into view. Then the image shook for a moment. A metal can on the floor moved by itself a few centimetres, as if an invisible hand had pulled it. In the next shot, Denis was suddenly closer to the door, even though a moment before he had been standing by the wall.
The video ended before anyone could understand what had happened.
“Is that it?” Tami asked, leaning over his shoulder.
“That’s it,” Denis said. “And about a hundred people have seen it already. Maybe more. Someone sent it to the second-years, they sent it on, and now everyone is acting like they found aliens in the broom closet.”
“It’s blurry,” Viktor said quietly.
“That’s not good news,” Lea replied.
The boy moved his old wired earbuds from his neck to his shoulder. “I know. I just mean it can look like a weird filter at first.”
“At first,” Lea repeated. She stopped the video at the exact moment a thin blue line appeared on the metal door. It was so faint that most people would think it was just a picture error. But she knew what she was seeing. Current. Her current.
Her stomach tightened.
Tami folded her arms across her chest. “Great. Until now we were the weird group. Now we’re the weird group with a trailer.”
No one laughed.
Last night, they had written a few simple rules into Lea’s phone: no testing powers around other people, no needless risks, and no solo moves. At the time, they had sounded sensible. Now they felt like a paper umbrella in a storm.
“Where exactly did you find this?” Lea asked.
“Mark sent it to me. He said it landed in a group chat.” Denis frowned. “And no, I didn’t ask him. Yet.”
“Yet is an important word,” she warned.
The back door opened and two first-year students came out. The four of them fell silent at once. The girls did not even look at them. They just laughed at something on a phone. Still, Lea waited until they disappeared around the corner.
“This isn’t just some normal gossip,” she said after that. “Someone knew what to film.”
Viktor looked at the paused frame again. “And where.”
At big break, they hid by the lockers at the end of an empty corridor. A history teacher’s voice came from one classroom, and somewhere nearby there was the smell of instant soup and wet jackets.
Viktor played the video on his old phone. He zoomed in until the image broke into coloured squares.
“The camera wasn’t in someone’s hand,” he said. “The shot moves, but not like walking. More like something was standing against the wall and vibrations shifted it now and then.”
“A phone on a bench?” Tami suggested.
“Maybe. Or a cheap tablet. Or an older camera.” Viktor tapped the corner of the screen. “Look. The angle is low. From the storage door. Exactly where we thought no one could see.”
Denis pushed himself away from the locker. “So someone was near us and we didn’t even notice. Brilliant work, team.”
“Don’t act like a commentator,” Tami said more sharply than she meant to. Then she looked down. “Sorry. I just… don’t want to think someone was watching.”
When Things Start to Change
Lea understood that. Back then, they were not strong or ready. They were only trying to figure out what their bodies could do, and they were scared of it. Tami had made a silence circle so strong that her ears had rung for half an hour after. Denis had nearly tripped into a metal shelf when he used his skip too many times. Viktor had sat on the floor with his hands at his temples because too many signals at once were pressing into his head.
It had been their weakest moment.
“First we find the source,” Lea decided. “No questioning people in the corridor. No chasing after anyone. Denis, no heroic shortcuts.”
“I don’t do heroic shortcuts.”
Tami raised an eyebrow. “You are literally the kind of person who does shortcuts.”
This time Denis’s mouth moved, but the smile did not last. In the end, he just nodded.
After lessons, they walked together out in front of the school. The sky was grey, and wet asphalt reflected the lights from cars. More people than usual were standing by the bus stop. Someone was complaining about a late bus, a small child was kicking a bag, and the smell of fresh pastries drifted from a nearby stand.
Lea saw him first.
The man stood across the road by the window of a closed hair salon. He wore a dark coat, a plain grey scarf, and his hands were in his pockets. He was not old. Maybe in his thirties, maybe younger. He did not look like someone trying to hide. That was exactly the problem.
“Don’t all look at once,” she said so quietly that only they could hear her.
Denis looked immediately.
“Great,” Lea muttered.
“What?” he asked, but then he saw him too.
Tami adjusted the hood of her dark green hoodie. “That guy with the face of someone waiting for the dentist?”
Viktor went still. His pupils widened for a second. There were too many phones near the bus stop, Wi-Fi from the café, signals from cars and traffic lights. Usually, he felt all of that like pressure from every side. Now, in the middle of it, he felt something regular. A soft pulse that repeated every time the man moved his hand near his coat.
“He has a device with him,” he whispered. “I don’t know what kind. It’s not just a phone. Something is sending… or listening.”
“Then I’m following him,” Denis said.
Lea grabbed his sleeve. “No.”
“He’s watching us.”
“Maybe. But if you run after him, the only thing we’ll know for sure is that there are four of us and we look suspicious.”
Tami took a slow breath. “I can try something small.”
Lea nodded.
The girl closed her eyes. The noise at the bus stop seemed to fold around them, as if someone had placed a thick blanket over the world. It did not disappear completely. It just gathered into a narrow direction, the one Tami turned her head toward.
The man was pressing a finger to the earbud in his ear.
“Still,” he said.
Then Tami let go of the power. Sound came back all at once: the brakes of the bus, coughing, the slam of doors. She blinked and touched her ear.
“Just that much,” she said. “And now there’s an electric bee in my left ear.”
The man got on the bus that had just arrived. He did not look back at them. The vehicle pulled away and soon disappeared behind the crossing.
On the way home, Denis could not stay quiet.
An Important Moment
“He said still. That’s not a coincidence. Someone is feeding him updates, and he’s telling them we’re still here.”
“Or he was talking about the bus,” Viktor said carefully.
“Sure. Bus agent. Special unit against four people who had bad luck during a blackout.”
“You don’t have to act like you’re not scared,” Lea said flatly. “I can see that you are.”
Denis stopped so suddenly that Tami almost hit his shoulder.
“I’m not scared.”
“Fine. Then you’re angry. Same result, if you start acting without a plan.”
For a moment, the only sound was their footsteps on the pavement. Between the apartment blocks, the first windows began to light up.
In the end, Denis let out a breath. “So what’s the plan?”
The question surprised everyone, maybe even him.
Lea answered right away. “Viktor looks at the recording again. Everyone goes through what they remember from the storage building. Then we meet by the old path behind the sports area. If that man shows up, we won’t chase him. We’ll watch what he does.”
“That sounds like a trap,” Tami said.
“It’s observation,” Lea corrected.
“A trap with better marketing.”
Viktor’s room was full of cables, notebooks, and two broken-apart speakers. The laptop on the desk gave off a pale light. The four of them crowded around it as it slowly grew dark outside.
Viktor played the video frame by frame. He stopped at a black strip on the left edge of the image.
“Wait.”
He zoomed in. The noise broke apart, but beneath it there was the shape of a small object leaning against a concrete block. It was not a bag. Not a can either.
“A phone?” Tami asked.
“An old camera model,” Viktor said. “Or a phone in a fixed mount. Do you see that metal clip?”
A chill ran down Lea’s back. During the test, the object had been almost behind the door. They must have walked past it. They must have seen it, but they had not given it meaning.
“Someone left it there on purpose,” she said.
“And then came back for it,” Denis added.
Suddenly Viktor grabbed the edge of the table. “Quiet.”
“What is it?”
“Not sound.” He closed his eyes. “Signal. For a moment… it was like something answered. Not from here. More to the north.”
North of the city was an abandoned lot, overgrown with weeds and bushes. A transmission tower used to stand there. The same one near which everything had started to change during the blackout.
No one said its name. They did not need to.
An hour later, they stood by the old path behind the school grounds. The wall was cracked, and beyond it the abandoned lot began. The wind rustled dry leaves, and the low rumble of the city reached them from far away.
Lea kept her hands in her pockets so nobody could see the slight tremor in her fingers. Denis paced near the lamps that threw weak yellow circles onto the path. Tami pulled her hood lower over her forehead. Viktor held his phone, but he was not looking at the screen. He was sensing the pressure in the space around him.
“No skipping,” Lea reminded Denis.
“I know.”
“And no silence until we need it,” Tami added.
“I know.”
“And no—”
“Lea.” Denis looked at her. “I know.”
This time she nodded.
They waited five minutes. Then ten. Meanwhile, the pressure from the nearby networks began to build in Viktor’s head. He breathed deeply and focused on one weak pulse coming from the road.
What Comes Next
“He’s coming,” he said.
The man in the dark coat appeared by the corner of the school grounds. He walked calmly, not fast and not slow. He did not head toward them. He passed by the path as if he could not see them at all.
Denis tensed his shoulders.
Without looking up, Lea put her palm on his forearm.
Right then the man stopped by the low wall. He took something small from his pocket, placed it on top of the cracked concrete, and kept walking. When Denis moved, the stranger was already near the parking lot, where they would have had to chase him across the road and between cars.
“No,” Lea said.
It was clear she had made the right choice. Even though Denis clenched his jaw, he stayed where he was.
A moment later, they went to the wall. There was a thin metal tag on top of it, slightly bigger than a coin. On one side, a symbol of three concentric circles was engraved into it. On the other side there were tiny letters.
Viktor lit it with his phone.
THE ZERO SIGNAL IS STILL BREATHING.
THE TOWER. NORTH ENTRANCE. 21:10.
Tami did not try to joke anymore. “That’s really bad, right?”
“Not completely,” Viktor said, and his voice shook a little. “It would be bad if they sent this to everyone. This is for us.”
“And that’s supposed to be better?” Denis asked.
Lea turned the tag between her fingers. The metal was cold. “It means they don’t want to expose us right away. They want us to go somewhere. We just don’t know why.”
“That man knew about the tower,” Tami said. “And about the signal. About something no one should know.”
Viktor lifted his head toward the dark northern edge of the city. At that moment, he felt such a weak pressure that he might have called it tiredness on any other day. A short pulse. Regular. Alive.
“We’re not the only ones following it,” he said.
They went home more slowly. They did not argue anymore. Denis walked with his hands in his pockets and kept looking over his shoulder, but he said nothing. Tami held the tag wrapped in a paper tissue, as if she was afraid to touch it directly. Lea was already putting together a plan in her head, one that would not be fast and would not be perfectly safe, but at least would not be stupid.
At the last crossing, Viktor stopped.
A small blue light blinked on the roof of the house across from them. Just once. Then it went out.
From far away, too softly for anyone else to hear, he felt a brief confirmation in the mobile networks. As if someone had clicked send on a message.
The tag had arrived.
And someone knew they had found it.
To be continued…