Page 46 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
slapped a wall and made no sound. A dog stood on
a balcony with its mouth open, barking into a
vacuum.
Carolina lifted the analyzer toward the sky. The
needle pinned hard right, then dipped, then pinned
again. “It’s not steady,” she said. “It’s pulsing. A
metronome you can’t hear.”
Henry swept his flashlight into the loading yard.
Mirrors. Not full panes—shards—wired into a
crooked frame around a steel door. The glass
breathed blue for a heartbeat, then deadened.
He whispered, because whispering felt like
rebellion. “What is this?”
Carolina already had the door panel open,
fingers flying, teeth clenched. “Ad-hoc node,” she
said. “Whatever they are, they’re testing the field
with scrap. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be lethal.”
Henry felt the pressure arrive before he saw it—
like a plane descending inside his skull. His
balance slipped sideways; he grabbed a bollard to
stay upright. Beside him, the rain slowed in mid-
air, each drop smoothing into a round lens.
Carolina’s nose began to bleed. She wiped it
with the back of her hand without looking, kept
working. “Give me thirty seconds,” she mouthed.
He couldn’t hear, but he understood.
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