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All these people on foot. Walking miles, presumably. If this was the work of some "benevolent" psychic who was trying to safely evacuate them or something... then what about the exception cases? What about all the people who couldn't walk? The disabled or incapacitated. Hospitals must've been full of people like that, right? So where were they?

Hmm. If he could locate a hospital, then it might either prove or disprove his theory about who was responsible for all this. If some truly malevolent force was manipulating everyone, then the hospitals would probably be ignored.

Or already attacked, perhaps. Hector didn't want to dwell on that possibility too much.

But on the other hand, if it really was someone who meant well, then they would have been trying to take care of all the vulnerable people, too. So the hospitals would be empty or evacuating.

Either way, it felt like a safe assumption that such places would be more difficult for psychics to manipulate like this, regardless of whether the psychics were good guys or evil pricks. For one thing, the assumption already had supporting evidence in the way that the manipulators were having everyone abandon all these vehicles in the middle of the road. That seemed pretty inefficient, didn't it? Why not just have them drive to the desired location, instead?

Because it was too hard, probably. Hector could practically hear Hanton complaining about it in his imagination. Making everyone walk was bound to be much easier by comparison. The manipulators weren't even making the people turn off the engines before leaving, either. That was a sign of either carelessness or inability, Hector thought.

So that should be their next stop then, he decided. Sure, it wouldn't necessarily prove everything definitively, but it would at least be helpful information moving forward.

Valuable intel about the kind of people he was soon to deal with.

"...Does anyone know where the nearest hospital is?" said Hector, having mostly finished his internal debating. He was already looking for the answer on his phone as well, in the likely event that no one could answer him.

Nadim had him covered, though he did sound a bit uncertain. "I believe there is one only a few streets over," he said, pointing. "But why do you...?"

'I'm down with helping the helpless, too,' said Voreese, 'but we've kinda got a whole thing to deal with here first, don't we?'

"I haven't forgotten," said Hector. "This'll help with that, too."

Voreese looked like she wanted to inquire further, but surprisingly, she elected not to and simply said, 'Alright, lead the way.'

Page 4085

Hector's attention lingered on Roman for a moment. The man had just been joking, of course, as had Voreese, but there was something else there, too. Something in the aura. Hector could sense it.

Now wasn't the time to delve into it, though. Now was the time to focus on the task at hand.

He considered asking Roman if he'd seen anything during his scouting just now, but he decided against it, figuring the man would bring it up on his own, if so.

Instead, Hector concentrated on what the Scarf was telling him about the southwesterly direction, where this Cathedral District was supposed to be. It hadn't escaped his notice that the crowd of walking people were all headed that way, as well.

And now his mind was working through the scenario again. If the Cathedral District was where all these senators were, then that probably also meant that it was one of the safer places to be in the city, right now. So if all these manipulated or 'hypnotized' people were being made to head there, too, then...

Yeah.

This was looking more and more like the work of some Vanguardian psychic. Or an entire team of psychics, probably. This seemed like a bit much for just one person to be managing.

Or if not the Vanguard, then perhaps someone working for the Intarian government directly. Someone that--at least theoretically--was trying to keep all these hapless people safe.

It did seem a little strange that this psychic influence wasn't affecting anyone in his own group, though. Like, not even a little bit? Hector might've expected to at least be able to feel some sort of pressure on one of his thought processes, like he'd felt during that first encounter with Hanton.

Was his aura just protecting them all too well, now? Hmm. But if that were the case, then why weren't any of the Intarian civilians snapping out of it when Hector got close to them?

Maybe it was because he'd never actually tried? He was still learning about how auras worked, after all. Perhaps he had to consciously extend his protective instincts toward someone in order for them to gain that kind of benefit from it.

In which case... this might be a good opportunity to test that out.

Agh. He felt a little bad, though. All these people weren't supposed to be test subjects. But they also weren't supposed to be abandoning their vehicles and walking down the middle of the road, either.

Which brought up other questions to Hector's mind, actually.