Chapter 93: The Borrowed Pulse

Carrick set the covered dish down. "I don’t know."

Ruth lay on the examination table, her bandaged left forearm supported on the padded board.

"It got into Ruth’s hand in minutes," Severin said. "Jonah was down there a lot longer."

"I’ve been checking where it goes," Carrick said. "I need to find out what it’s doing."

"I’ll get Rafael to bring Jonah and Sarah," Leo said. He went into the corridor.

Elspeth set down the unused dressings and pulled a chair beside the narrow cot along the wall. Ruth pushed herself partway upright with her good hand. The anesthetic had not fully worn off.

"I can still pass instruments," Ruth said.

"You’re not working today," Carrick said.

Carrick and Elspeth helped Ruth onto the cot, keeping her injured forearm on its board. She winced as they settled it. Leo returned from the corridor, leaving Rafael to fetch Jonah and Sarah.

Severin helped Carrick clear the instruments used in Ruth’s operation. The recovered compact case stood open beside the basin; the main surgical chest remained on the boards inside the refuge. Carrick reached toward Ruth’s usual place at his side, then stopped at the empty tray.

Severin found the two blunt probes in the instrument roll and laid them out, keeping the knife covered. His burned right forearm ached as he moved the lamp closer.

By the time Rafael returned with Jonah and Sarah, Carrick had the table ready. Jonah stopped just inside the door. His gaze found Ruth’s bandaged arm, then Carrick’s face.

"What happened?"

Carrick explained how the broken mineral had driven fibres into Ruth’s palm and why he had left some of them inside. Sarah went to Ruth’s cot and took her good hand.

Jonah kept his left hand tucked under his right arm.

"She had her gloves on?" Jonah asked.

"Yes," Leo said. "The stone tore through one."

Jonah looked at the bandage again. "And it still got in."

"That’s why you wanted me here."

Carrick took out Jonah’s earlier examination sheet. "The strands in Ruth’s hand were caught around blood vessels and nerves. I need to see if yours have done the same."

Sarah came back to Jonah’s side. He looked down at the dressing on his left palm. "Are you going to open it again?"

"I’ll examine it first. If I need to reopen the old cut, I’ll ask you."

Jonah pulled his coat off with his good hand and gave it to Sarah. "All right. Tell me as you go."

He climbed onto the table without help, though Severin noticed how he protected his left hand against his chest. Carrick unwrapped the dressing. The earlier biopsy line was nearly closed, with a smooth pale margin where ordinary red healing tissue should have shown.

Carrick tested sensation along Jonah’s fingers and palm, then up the inside of the forearm. Jonah answered promptly until the probe reached the dull area. At two points he hesitated, then said he could feel pressure but could not tell which direction the probe moved.

Severin found Ruth’s previous map among the papers. The line she had drawn was clear, with small marks beside each place Jonah had answered.

"Here," Severin said, setting Ruth’s map beside Jonah’s hand. "He could feel this spot last time."

Carrick touched the marked place again.

Jonah looked away from the probe. "A little. Just pressure."

Carrick tried the next mark. Jonah shook his head. The numb area now reached two marks closer to his wrist than on Ruth’s old map. A thin pale branch was visible beneath the skin farther up his forearm, where Jonah could still feel ordinary touch.

"It’s spread a little," Carrick said, making a new mark.

Jonah glanced at the paper. "How many times are we going to draw that?"

"As long as it keeps spreading."

Carrick moved Jonah’s hand under the lamp and pressed gently beside the old cut. A pale line deep in the palm tightened, then settled. The old incision was too narrow and too well healed to show where the branch went.

"I can’t tell what it’s connected to without reopening the cut," Carrick said.

"Then stop," Sarah said.

Carrick turned to Jonah. "I could open a little of the old cut, just enough to look underneath. But I can’t promise it’ll be safe."

Jonah watched his hand. "Can we leave it closed?"

"We can. I can keep checking the numbness, but that won’t tell me whether it’s joined a blood vessel."

Sarah kept hold of Jonah’s right hand.

"Show me where," Jonah said.

Carrick indicated the short section of the old biopsy line. Jonah made him explain how deep he intended to go, then gave permission. Leo remained beside the table. Carrick cleaned the skin and used a small amount of local anesthetic before lifting the barely closed edge with a fine probe.

He opened only what he needed. Severin held the lamp steady while Carrick separated the thin layer of fresh healing tissue. Twice Carrick held the probe still and watched the pale material before continuing.

Beneath the margin lay a red vessel no thicker than sewing thread. It ran into a pale, almost translucent tube. A narrow red track continued inside that tube and disappeared toward the little finger.

Carrick wiped away the blood around the opening. The red line inside the pale tube was still visible.

Jonah twisted to look. "That’s blood in the white thing?"

"Yes. That little blood vessel goes right into it," Carrick said. "I can’t see where it comes out."

Severin remembered the blood vessel rising with the pale strand when Carrick tried to remove it from Ruth’s palm. He adjusted the lamp for Carrick.

"Can you tell if his finger needs it?" Severin asked.

Carrick pressed Jonah’s little fingernail until it paled, then watched the color return. He checked the index fingernail the same way, comparing the two.

"I’m going to press on it for a moment," Carrick told Jonah. "Tell me if it hurts."

Jonah agreed. Carrick placed the padded end of a blunt instrument against the exposed tube, enough to flatten it slightly. With his other hand he blanched the little fingernail and let it go.

Severin watched the little fingernail. The color returned more slowly than it had during the first check.

Carrick lifted the probe. Blood filled the pale tube again, and the little fingernail regained its color promptly when he repeated the check.

Jonah looked from his hand to Carrick. "So it’s carrying my blood."

"Yes. Some of the blood going to that finger."

"And if you take it out?"

"If I cut that piece out, the finger might not get enough blood." Carrick set the instrument aside. "And I don’t know what else the other branches have joined."

Jonah squeezed Sarah’s hand and looked back at Carrick.

"Is it just my hand?" he asked.

"I don’t know. This is the only place I’ve checked that closely," Carrick said.

Severin glanced at Leo. Jonah had survived the three conduit cuts. This discovery still told them nothing about what would happen if the refuge itself were destroyed.

Carrick examined a second pale branch near the same opening. It lay against the deeper moving tissue of Jonah’s palm, too close to ordinary structures for him to follow it without more cutting. He left it alone.

"Bend your little finger," Carrick said.

Jonah bent it. The pale branch tightened. Carrick had him straighten the finger and bend it once more. The branch pulled taut again, then slackened.

"I want to touch that strand now," Carrick said.

Jonah nodded and rested his wrist on the folded towel. Carrick touched the pale branch with the blunt probe, careful not to pull it sideways. Jonah’s little finger bent sharply at its middle joint.

Jonah drew in a breath. "I didn’t do that. I felt something pull."

Carrick touched the ordinary tissue beside the branch with the same pressure. Jonah felt the probe, but his finger stayed still. A final touch against the pale branch produced another, smaller bend.

"That’s enough," Leo said. Carrick set the probe aside.

Jonah held his hand open on the towel. "What did you touch?"

"That pale strand. It tightened when you bent your finger, then I touched it and your finger moved. I can’t tell exactly how it’s connected."

"Can it do that when you’re not touching it?"

"I don’t know. The spasms you’ve been having might be related."

Jonah pressed his little finger flat against the towel and kept it there.

Sarah pressed a hand against Jonah’s shoulder. He looked toward her instead of his fingers.

Carrick cleaned the opening and dressed it with as little handling as possible. Severin passed the cloth and held the lamp until the last strip was secured. Across the room Ruth had fallen asleep, her injured arm still resting on its board.

Elspeth rose from the chair beside Ruth’s cot. She looked from Jonah’s newly dressed hand to the covered dish of fibres removed from Ruth.

"We’re closing the refuge," she said.

Leo faced her. "It’s already closed to treatment."

"I mean for good. Even if someone comes in dying. We’re not taking them down there."

Carrick glanced toward Ruth’s cot. "There’ll be people we can’t save up here."

"I know."

Elspeth looked toward Ruth’s cot. "Look what happened to Ruth. She wasn’t even a patient."

Carrick looked back at Elspeth.

"I won’t take anyone down there again," he said.

Leo handed Jonah’s examination sheet to Rafael. "I’ll record this for the Order. The cuts stay in place, and no one goes back in."

Elspeth turned to Jonah. "I’m not blaming you."

"I know. But I’d be dead if they hadn’t taken me down there," Jonah said.

Sarah stood beside him, her hand resting against his back.

Elspeth looked at Sarah. "I’m glad he came home to you."

Carrick helped Jonah off the table and told him to keep the dressing dry. Jonah tried to pull his sleeve over the bandage, but the cloth caught.

Sarah pulled the sleeve free. Jonah held out his left hand while she worked the cloth past the bandage.

The little finger curled.

The next finger followed, slower.

Carrick turned. "Did you do that?"

"No."

Jonah’s hand closed.