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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.'