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cena za schopnosť je nová časť seriálu Nultý signál, pripravená ako dvojjazyčný detský príbeh v slovenčine aj angličtine.
cena za schopnosť: začína sa príbeh
Po poslednom zvonení sa chodba školy vyvalila von ako voda z prasknutého potrubia. Dvere búchali, niekto sa smial až priveľmi nahlas a pred budovou už stáli rady ľudí pri autobusovej zastávke.
Lea si natiahla rukávy čiernej džínsovej bundy cez dlane. Medzi reklamnými panelmi a strechou zastávky videla slabé belasé vlákna elektriny. Svetlá nad cestou, telefóny v rukách žiakov, displej odchádzajúceho autobusu. Všetko bolo zapojené do všetkého.
„Mám pocit, že mesto dnes robí speedrun do migrény,“ povedala Tami a posunula si plátenné slúchadlá nižšie na krk.
„Ty máš migrénu aj z pondelka,“ odvetil Denis.
„Pondelok si ju zaslúži.“
Viktor stál trochu bokom. Staré káblové slúchadlá mu viseli z vreciek tmavomodrej košele a pohľadom prechádzal po ulici. Hustota signálov pri zastávke naňho tlačila ako vzduch pred búrkou. Wi-Fi z kaviarne, dáta z desiatok mobilov, spojenie autobusov s dispečingom. Všetko sa mu miešalo v nepríjemnom šume.
„Nemali by sme tu zostať dlho,“ povedal potichu. „Je to… preplnené.“
Práve vtedy Tami zastala.
Pri sklenenej stene zastávky stála Nina z druhej triedy. Drobná dievčina s modrým batohom zvierala popruh tak silno, až jej zbledli prsty. Pred ňou sa motali traja starší chalani. Nebili ju ani sa jej priamo nedotýkali, no stáli príliš blízko. Jeden jej napodobňoval trasľavý hlas, druhý niečo natáčal mobilom a tretí sa smial tak, že sa za nimi otočilo ďalších pár ľudí.
„No povedz to ešte raz,“ doberal si ju chalan s červenou čiapkou. „Že sa ti z hluku krúti hlava.“
Nina otvorila ústa, ale nevydala zo seba nič. Autobus prišiel do zákruty so škripotom bŕzd. Niekto pri automate na lístky zakričal na kamaráta. Zvuk sa natlačil zo všetkých strán a dievča sa prikrčilo.
Lea si všimla, ako Nina začala dýchať krátko a príliš rýchlo.
„Tami,“ povedala varovne. „Počkaj.“
No medenovlasé dievča už vykročilo dopredu.
„Hej,“ ozvala sa. „Ak chcete robiť obsah, skúste aspoň taký, pri ktorom nevyzeráte ako chybná reklama na nudu.“
Chalan s mobilom na ňu pozrel. „Čo sa staráš?“
„Dnes? Dosť.“
Dav pri zastávke sa zavlnil. Denis si vydýchol nosom, akoby presne toto čakal.
„Toto bude super nenápadné,“ zamrmlal.
Tami sa postavila medzi Ninu a chalanov. Najprv chcela iba prehlušiť ich hlasy. Malý priestor, pár krokov okolo seba. Tak to skúšala predtým: stlmiť triedu, keď niekto kričal, alebo poslať zvuk od učiteľských dverí opačným smerom.
Lenže Nina sa znovu zachvela. Hluk autobusu, ľudia, smiech, vlastný strach dievčaťa — všetko sa na Tami naraz nalepilo.
A ona zatlačila silnejšie.
Zvuk sa nezastavil výbuchom ani bleskom. Skôr sa zlomil.
Ešte pred okamihom bolo pri zastávke plno rachotu. Potom sa ruch zmenil na husté, neprirodzené ticho. Tami cítila, ako sa priestor okolo nej rozšíril. Nie dva metre. Nie päť.
Celá zastávka stíchla.
Chalanovi v červenej čiapke sa hýbali pery, ale nebolo ho počuť. Autobus prešiel popri obrubníku bez škrípania. Dvere sa otvorili, no ich syčanie zmizlo. Aj svetlá áut na ceste za sklenenou stenou vyzerali vzdialenejšie, akoby sa mesto ocitlo pod hrubou vrstvou vody.
Nina sa prudko nadýchla. Pozrela na Tami, ktorá teraz hovorila pomaly, tak aby jej rozumela aj bez normálneho zvuku.
„Pozeraj na mňa,“ povedala. Vlastný hlas počula iba slabo, ako cez vankúš. „Nádych. Dobre. Ešte raz. Nemusíš nič vysvetľovať.“
Dievča prikývlo. Po chvíli sa jej ramená prestali dvíhať v trhaných pohyboch.
Medzitým sa traja chalani tvárili oveľa menej odvážne. Bez smiechu a bez vlastných hlasov zrazu vyzerali dosť hlúpo. Jeden schoval mobil do vrecka. Druhý čosi povedal ostatným, no keď nepočul ani seba, iba sa zamračil. Napokon všetci cúvli a stratili sa medzi ľuďmi nastupujúcimi do autobusu.
Lea sledovala Tami s napätím v tvári. Belasé vlákna elektriny okolo zastávky boli stále tam, ale akoby sa od nich zvuk odpojil. Denis spravil krok vpred, pripravený preskočiť k nim, keby sa niečo pokazilo. Viktorovi sa tlak signálov náhle zmenil. Nebol slabší. Bol divne plochý, ako keď niekto vypne zvuk vo videu, ale obraz beží ďalej.
Keď sa veci začnú meniť
„Tami, stačí,“ povedala Lea.
Tami ju nepočula.
Až keď sa jej Lea dotkla ramena, dievča trhlo hlavou. Pokúsila sa pole stiahnuť späť. Predstavila si, že ticho zroluje ako koberec. Lenže namiesto toho sa jej v hlave rozlial hlboký tlak.
Zrazu sa ozval svet.
Najprv tlmene. Potom priveľmi ostro. Motor autobusu zaburácal, dvere cvakli, niekto sa nahlas smial. Tami sa chytila sklenenej steny zastávky, lebo zem sa jej na okamih naklonila.
Nina sa na ňu ešte raz pozrela. Už dýchala pokojnejšie.
„Ďakujem,“ povedala.
Tami videla pohyb jej pier. Slová však zachytila len napoly.
„Jasné,“ odpovedala automaticky.
Nina nastúpila do autobusu a zmizla medzi cestujúcimi. Až keď sa vozidlo pohlo, Tami si uvedomila, že stále nepočuje poriadne. Všetko znelo obité o hrany. Lea niečo hovorila, ale jej hlas prichádzal z nesprávnej strany.
„Čo?“ spýtala sa Tami.
Lea stála priamo pred ňou. „Pýtam sa, či ma počuješ.“
„Tak… trochu.“ Tami sa pokúsila o svoj obvyklý úškrn. „Možno sa mi konečne splnil sen. Svet má tlačidlo stlmiť.“
Vtip nedopadol. Denis sa prestal tváriť pobavene.
„To nie je dobré,“ povedal.
„Objav roka.“
Viktor pristúpil bližšie, no nezvyšoval hlas. „Tami, koľko ľudí vieš odhadnúť okolo seba bez toho, aby si sa otočila?“
Zamrkala. Za chrbtom cítila pohyb, ale nevedela určiť, či stojí niekto meter od nej, alebo päť. Nebolo to len o sluchu. Ticho jej vymazalo okraje priestoru.
„Neviem,“ priznala.
Tentoraz už nežartovala.
Lea sa rozhodla rýchlo. Odviedla ich cez bočnú bránu do malého dvora za telocvičňou. Medzi múrom školy, kontajnermi na papier a starou lavičkou bývalo po vyučovaní ticho. Nie prázdne Tamiino ticho. Obyčajné, bezpečné ticho, v ktorom bolo počuť vzdialené autá a vrabce pod strechou.
Tami si sadla na lavičku. Jednu ruku mala na kolene, druhou sa dotýkala slúchadiel na krku, akoby jej mohli pomôcť zorientovať sa.
Lea sa postavila oproti nej. „Čo si chcela spraviť?“
„Pomôcť Nine.“
„To viem. Koľko priestoru si chcela stíšiť?“
„Neviem. Len… okolie.“
„To nie je odpoveď.“
Denis sa oprel ramenom o múr. „Lea, fakt teraz robíme výsluch? Vyzerá, že jej hlava práve prehrala boss fight.“
„Práve preto sa pýtam.“ Lea zostala pokojná, ale v hlase mala tvrdú hranu. „Keď sa to stalo, nevedeli sme, čo máme robiť. A ona tiež nie.“
Tami zdvihla oči. „Nemusíš to hovoriť, akoby som bola pokazený vysávač.“
„Nehovorím.“
„Trochu hovoríš.“
Na chvíľu ostalo medzi nimi iba šumenie stromov za plotom. Viktor sa zahľadel na zem, potom si vytiahol jedno slúchadlo z vrecka a prehovoril opatrne.
„Myslím, že ticho sa nerozšírilo len von. Vtiahlo ťa do seba.“
Tami sa zamračila.
„Keď som silno v signáloch,“ pokračoval, „najprv sa snažím zachytiť všetko. Potom neviem, odkiaľ čo prichádza. Nie je to iba nepríjemné. Strácam mapu priestoru. Ty si možno stratila svoju mapu cez zvuk.“
Dievča sklopilo pohľad. Tá predstava sedela až príliš presne.
„Chcela som, aby prestali,“ povedala po chvíli. „Aby Nina nemusela počúvať ich blbé reči. Keď sa začala dusiť, bolo mi jasné, že ak budem čakať, bude to horšie.“
„Mohla si nám dať signál,“ povedala Lea miernejšie.
„A čo by ste spravili? Denis by skočil k nim a pristál niekomu na nohe? Ty by si vypla semafor?“
„Semafor nevypnem,“ odsekol Denis skôr, než stihla Lea odpovedať.
Napriek všetkému sa Viktor potichu usmial. Tami sa však neusmiala späť.
„Viem, že som to prepálila,“ dodala. „Len som si nemyslela, že sa v tom sama stratím.“
Lea si sadla vedľa nej. „Rýchlo neznamená bezpečne. Ale neznamená to ani to, že si nemala pomôcť.“
„Tak čo to znamená?“
„Že nabudúce nemusíš byť v tom sama.“
Denis sa odlepil od múra. „To znie ako začiatok pravidiel. A pravidlá znejú ako vec, ktorú všetci nenávidia, kým ju niekto neporuší.“
„Presne,“ povedala Lea.
Dôležitý okamih
„To nebola pochvala.“
„Aj tak ju beriem.“
Viktor si kľakol k praskline v betóne a koncom prsta nakreslil tri krátke čiary. „Nemusí ich byť veľa. Keď je miesto rizikové — ulica, dav, schody, čokoľvek — nikto nepoužije schopnosť sám.“
„Rizikové miesto je aj naša škola,“ poznamenal Denis.
„Tak potom škola,“ povedal Viktor.
K prvej čiare pridal druhú. „Keď sa objaví vedľajší účinok, povieme to hneď. Nie večer. Nie keď to prejde. Hneď.“
Tami si prešla prstami po uchu. „Aj keď je to trápne?“
„Najmä vtedy,“ odpovedal.
Lea doplnila tretiu vec. „A chyby sa nezakrývajú. Pred ostatnými ľuďmi musíme byť opatrní. Medzi sebou nie. Ak niečo pokazíme, povieme to.“
Denis pokrútil hlavou. „To je normálne klubový poriadok. Ešte chýba zákaz žuvania žuvačiek počas tajných porád.“
„Môžeme ho dopísať,“ povedala Tami.
Tentoraz sa zasmiali všetci, hoci krátko. Napätie sa nevytratilo, iba trochu povolilo.
„Takže?“ opýtala sa Lea. „Platí?“
Denis sa na chvíľu zahľadel k zastávke, ktorú bolo vidieť cez medzeru medzi budovami. „Platí. Ale ak raz budeme mať pravidlo číslo štyri, navrhujem: nevolať to klubový poriadok.“
„Výborný prínos,“ povedala Lea sucho.
Tami položila dlaň na nakreslené čiary. „Platí.“
Napokon prikývol aj Viktor. „Platí.“
Keď sa o pár minút vracali popri zastávke, doprava už vyzerala normálne. Ľudia nastupovali, vystupovali, pozerali do mobilov. Nikto neukazoval prstom na miesto, kde sa predtým rozlialo ticho.
Len pri novinovom stánku stál muž v sivej bunde. Držal papierový pohár s kávou a pozeral na sklenenú stenu zastávky o čosi dlhšie, než bolo prirodzené. Potom vytiahol telefón, párkrát sa dotkol obrazovky a pozrel smerom k štvorici.
Viktorovi stuhli ramená.
„Čo je?“ spýtal sa Denis.
Chlapec chvíľu mlčal. Vnímal sieť okolo seba. Zvyčajný tlak mobilov, autobusov a obchodov. Pod ním však prebehlo niečo ďalšie — úzky, pravidelný pulz. Nebol to hlas ani správa. Skôr pocit, že niekto položil prst na mapu a práve sleduje, kam sa pohne.
„Neviem,“ povedal napokon. „Ale pri zastávke sa na chvíľu zmenili signály. Akoby niečo zaznamenalo… nás.“
Tami sa obzrela. Muž už kráčal preč, pohltený davom.
„Možno iba niekto natočil divné ticho,“ povedala, ale v jej hlase nebol vtip.
Lea si ju všimla. „Nemusíme z toho robiť paniku.“
„To som nepovedal,“ ozval sa Viktor. „Len by sme nemali predstierať, že sa nič nestalo.“
Zastali na rohu, kde sa ich cesty rozchádzali. Večerné svetlá zapínali jedno po druhom a nad vozovkou sa rozsvietili slabé belasé línie, ktoré Lea vnímala lepšie než ostatní.
Tami sa nadýchla. „Mrzí ma to. Bez dodatkov a bez vtipov. Prepálila som to.“
Lea prikývla. „A ja sa pokúsim nepremeniť každú chybu na výsluch.“
„To by bol historický deň,“ utrúsil Denis, no potom zvážnel. „Pravidlá beriem. Nie ako brzdu. Skôr ako… poistku, aby sa nám niečo nerozsypalo pod nohami.“
Viktor sa pozrel na každého z nich. „Keď sa niečo začne diať, hovoríme. Hneď.“
„Hneď,“ zopakovala Tami.
Na okamih stáli tesne pri sebe, bez veľkých sľubov a bez predstierania, že majú všetko pod kontrolou. Stačilo, že tentoraz nikto neodišiel s tajomstvom, ktoré by musel niesť sám.
Potom sa rozišli.
Viktor spravil pár krokov, keď mu tlak v signáloch znova prešiel cez zátylok. Slabý, pravidelný pulz. Raz. Dvakrát.
Za ním sa ruch mesta na sekundu stlmil.
Nie úplne.
Len dosť na to, aby sa všetci štyria otočili.
Pokračovanie nabudúce…
The Zero Signal, part 6: The Price of Power
The Story Begins
After the final bell, the school hallway poured out like water from a burst pipe. Doors slammed, someone laughed far too loudly, and out by the building people were already lining up at the bus stop.
Lea pulled the sleeves of her black denim jacket down over her hands. Between the ad boards and the roof of the stop, she could see faint blue threads of electricity. The lights over the road, the phones in students’ hands, the display on the leaving bus. Everything was linked to everything else.
"I feel like the city is trying to speedrun a migraine today," Tami said, sliding her canvas headphones lower around her neck.
"You get migraines from Monday too," Denis said back.
"Monday deserves it."
Viktor stood a little apart. The old wired earbuds hung from the pocket of his dark blue shirt, and his eyes moved over the street. The heavy press of signals at the stop felt like air before a storm. Wi-Fi from the café, data from dozens of phones, the buses talking to the dispatcher. It all mixed into one bad, buzzing noise.
"We shouldn’t stay here long," he said quietly. "It’s… crowded."
That was when Tami stopped.
By the glass wall of the stop stood Nina from the other class. The small girl with the blue backpack was gripping the strap so hard that her fingers had gone pale. In front of her, three older boys were circling. They were not hitting her or touching her directly, but they were standing too close. One was copying her shaking voice, another was filming with his phone, and the third was laughing so hard that a few other people turned to look.
"Go on, say it again," said the boy in the red cap, teasing her. "That the noise makes your head spin."
Nina opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The bus came around the bend with a screech of brakes. Someone by the ticket machine shouted to a friend. The noise pushed in from every side, and the girl folded in on herself.
Lea noticed that Nina had started breathing fast and shallow.
"Tami," she warned. "Wait."
But the copper-haired girl was already stepping forward.
"Hey," she called out. "If you want to make content, at least try to make something that doesn’t look like a broken ad for boredom."
The boy with the phone looked at her. "What’s it to you?"
"Today? Quite a lot."
The crowd at the stop shifted. Denis let out a breath through his nose, like he had expected exactly this.
"This is going to be super subtle," he muttered.
Tami moved in between Nina and the boys. At first, she only wanted to cover their voices. A small area, just a few steps around her. That was how she had used it before: to soften a class when someone was yelling, or send sound away from the teacher’s door.
Then Nina trembled again. The bus noise, the people, the laughter, the girl’s own fear — all of it stuck to Tami at once.
So she pushed harder.
The sound did not stop with a bang or a flash. It more like broke.
One moment the stop was full of noise. The next, the whole place dropped into a thick, unnatural silence. Tami felt the space around her stretch wider. Not two meters. Not five.
The entire bus stop had gone quiet.
The boy in the red cap was still moving his lips, but nothing came out. The bus rolled past the curb without a squeal. Its doors opened, but even the hiss was gone. The streetlights and car lights beyond the glass looked farther away, as if the city had been placed under a heavy layer of water.
When Things Start to Change
Nina gasped. She looked at Tami, who was now speaking slowly so the girl could follow without normal sound.
"Look at me," Tami said. Her own voice reached her only weakly, like through a pillow. "Breathe in. Good. Again. You do not have to explain anything."
The girl nodded. After a moment, her shoulders stopped jerking.
Meanwhile, the three boys looked much less brave. Without laughter and without their own voices, they suddenly seemed pretty stupid. One shoved his phone into his pocket. Another said something to the others, then frowned because he could not hear even himself. Finally, all three backed away and disappeared into the people getting on the bus.
Lea watched Tami with a tense face. The blue threads of electricity around the stop were still there, but the sound seemed cut away from them. Denis took a step forward, ready to jump toward them if anything went wrong. Viktor felt the pressure of the signals change all at once. It was not weaker. It was strangely flat, like someone had turned off the sound in a video while the picture kept moving.
"Tami, enough," Lea said.
Tami did not hear her.
Only when Lea touched her shoulder did the girl jerk her head around. She tried to pull the field back. She imagined folding the silence up like a carpet. Instead, a deep pressure spread through her head.
Then the world came back.
First it was muffled. Then it was far too sharp. The bus engine roared, the doors clicked, someone laughed loudly. Tami grabbed the glass wall of the stop because the ground seemed to tilt under her for a second.
Nina looked at her one more time. She was breathing more calmly now.
"Thank you," she said.
Tami could see her lips move, but she only caught half the words.
"Sure," she answered automatically.
Nina got on the bus and disappeared among the passengers. Only when the vehicle pulled away did Tami realize she still could not hear properly. Everything sounded rough around the edges. Lea was saying something, but her voice seemed to come from the wrong side.
"What?" Tami asked.
Lea was right in front of her. "I asked if you can hear me."
"Sort of." Tami tried her usual grin. "Maybe my dream finally came true. The world has a mute button."
The joke did not land. Denis stopped looking amused.
"That is not good," he said.
"Best news of the day."
Viktor came closer, but he did not raise his voice. "Tami, how many people can you guess are around you without turning your head?"
She blinked. She could feel movement behind her, but she could not tell if someone was one meter away or five. It was not only hearing. The silence had erased the edges of space.
"I don’t know," she admitted.
This time she was not joking.
Lea made a quick decision. She led them through a side gate into the small yard behind the gym. Between the school wall, the paper bins and an old bench, it was usually quiet after lessons. Not Tami’s empty kind of quiet. Just ordinary, safe quiet, where you could hear distant cars and sparrows under the roof.
Tami sat down on the bench. One hand rested on her knee, and with the other she touched the headphones at her neck as if they might help her get her bearings.
Lea stood in front of her. "What were you trying to do?"
"Help Nina."
"I know. How much space were you trying to silence?"
"I don’t know. Just… around us."
An Important Moment
"That is not an answer."
Denis leaned his shoulder against the wall. "Lea, are we really doing an interrogation right now? She looks like her brain just lost a boss fight."
"That is exactly why I’m asking." Lea stayed calm, but her voice had a hard edge. "When it happened, none of us knew what to do. And neither did she."
Tami looked up. "You don’t have to say it like I’m a broken vacuum cleaner."
"I’m not."
"You kind of are."
For a moment, there was only the rustle of trees beyond the fence. Viktor looked down at the ground, then pulled one earbud from his pocket and spoke carefully.
"I think the silence did not just spread outward. It pulled you into it."
Tami frowned.
"When I’m in strong signals," he went on, "first I try to catch everything. Then I can’t tell where anything is coming from. It is not just annoying. I lose the map of space. Maybe you lost your map through sound."
The girl lowered her eyes. That idea fit far too well.
"I wanted them to stop," she said after a while. "I wanted Nina not to hear their stupid talk. When she started choking up, I knew if I waited, it would get worse."
"You could have signaled us," Lea said more gently.
"And what would you have done? Denis would have jumped at them and landed on someone’s foot? You would have switched off a traffic light?"
"I would not switch off a traffic light," Denis cut in before Lea could answer.
Despite everything, Viktor gave a small smile. Tami did not smile back.
"I know I pushed too hard," she added. "I just did not think I would get lost in it too."
Lea sat down beside her. "Fast does not mean safe. But it also does not mean you should not have helped."
"So what does it mean?"
"That next time you do not have to be in it alone."
Denis pushed away from the wall. "That sounds like the start of rules. And rules sound like the thing everyone hates until someone breaks them."
"Exactly," Lea said.
"That was not a compliment."
"I’m taking it anyway."
Viktor crouched by a crack in the concrete and drew three short lines with the tip of his finger. "They do not have to be many. If a place is risky — a street, a crowd, stairs, anything — no one uses a power alone."
"A risky place is also our school," Denis said.
"Then the school too," Viktor replied.
He added a second line to the first. "If there is a side effect, we say it right away. Not in the evening. Not after it goes away. Right away."
Tami ran her fingers over her ear. "Even if it is embarrassing?"
"Especially then," he said.
Lea added the third thing. "And mistakes are not hidden. We have to be careful in front of other people. Not with each other. If we mess up, we say it."
Denis shook his head. "That is just normal club rules. We only need a ban on chewing gum during secret meetings."
"We can add that," Tami said.
This time, all of them laughed, though only for a moment. The tension did not disappear. It just loosened a little.
"So?" Lea asked. "Agreed?"
Denis looked toward the stop, which they could see through the gap between buildings. "Agreed. But if we ever get rule number four, I suggest: do not call it club rules."
"Excellent contribution," Lea said dryly.
Tami placed her palm over the drawn lines. "Agreed."
What Comes Next
In the end, Viktor nodded too. "Agreed."
A few minutes later, when they walked back past the bus stop, traffic looked normal again. People were getting on and off buses, checking phones, minding their own business. No one was pointing at the place where the silence had spread before.
Only by the newsstand stood a man in a grey jacket. He held a paper cup of coffee and stared at the glass wall of the stop a little longer than normal. Then he took out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and looked in the direction of the four of them.
Viktor’s shoulders went tight.
"What is it?" Denis asked.
The boy stayed quiet for a moment. He felt the network around him. The usual pressure from phones, buses and shops. Under it, though, something else moved — a narrow, regular pulse. It was not a voice or a message. It was more like the feeling that someone had put a finger on a map and was now watching where it would move.
"I don’t know," he said at last. "But the signals near the stop changed for a moment. As if something recorded… us."
Tami looked back. The man was already walking away, swallowed by the crowd.
"Maybe someone just filmed the weird silence," she said, but there was no joke in her voice.
Lea noticed that. "We do not need to panic."
"I did not say we should," Viktor replied. "I just think we should not pretend nothing happened."
They stopped at the corner where their paths split. Evening lights were turning on one by one, and above the road the faint blue lines shone again, clearer to Lea than to anyone else.
Tami took a breath. "I’m sorry. No extras, no jokes. I pushed too hard."
Lea nodded. "And I’ll try not to turn every mistake into an interrogation."
"That would be a historic day," Denis said, then grew serious. "I accept the rules. Not as a brake. More like… a safety lock, so nothing falls apart under our feet."
Viktor looked at each of them. "If anything starts happening, we say it. Right away."
"Right away," Tami repeated.
For a moment, they stood close together, without big promises and without pretending they had everything under control. It was enough that this time no one walked away carrying a secret alone.
Then they split up.
Viktor had taken a few steps when the pressure in the signals passed over the back of his neck again. A weak, regular pulse. Once. Twice.
Behind him, the noise of the city faded for a second.
Not completely.
Only enough to make all four of them turn around.
To be continued…