The distant ding and hum of a tram passing by didn’t alert anyone. The Vojanovy Gardens were one of the most secluded yet beloved places for citizens and tourists equally. They weren’t something exceptional if looking from the park point of view — yes, quite a lot of different trees and bushes, some preserved carefully to bring joy to people during the blooming season (which also was hell season for people with pollen allergies); yes, one of the oldest gardens with rich history (which very little people paid attention to). Young and old came here on the good days to sit on the benches near a small, serene pond, photo enthusiasts came for flowerbeds and magnolias in the middle of spring. Most people passed by the chapel situated in that same place and barely paid it any attention.

  Situated within a walking distance from Charles bridge, it was one of the spots every hotel advised to visit during warm days, but the main reason for that wasn’t, in fact, history nor flowers.

  Peacocks.

  They weren’t ornamental, no. They lived here, wandering freely and dragging their iridescent tails through the flowerbeds like they owned the place. Technically, they did, and sometimes it felt like they were thoroughly enjoying the attention, spreading the fan of their feathers for the spectators and not even moving away when another tourist would sneak up close to take a good picture.

  He sat on the bench with his legs pulled up and crossed at the ankles, worn notebook opened on his lap as he scribbled in it with a distant expression. It was yet another map he was drawing, but a smaller one — just a layout of this exact park. An assignment from the university which he found nice, and thought was actually a valid reason to get out of the room.

  These days people tended to rely on analog and handcraft things more, but he was a little bit skeptical about it. Sure, it was a known fact by now that the digital stuff like drones, AIs and all that stuff went suddenly blind when in close proximity to the Pits or a person with a Hallwalker of any stage inside, but then again — how could you rely on a person to do a good job of mapping if there was always a risk that they were already halfway into being overridden by the Hallwalker which hooked up on them somewhere along the way?

  Sometimes people noticed it too late: usually when their close or loved once started doing perfect arcs during walks or stopping dead in their tracks at the sight of a threshold; or repeating people’s habits and phrases with 1-2 days delay.

  In his mind, that made trusting a fully human way too risky. On the other hand — they still had train operators and pilots. Checked through and through almost every day, with trains being able to be forced into the manual when the AI would stop responding to the touch of the skin under which the Hallwalker was already humming in a spiral tone.

  He still was very much wary of taking taxis around the city. Not only because it was expensive for a student and held a risk of getting into the traffic jam, which Prague could give you when it really wanted to in the most serious moments when you needed to be quick; but also cause at least public transport like trams and metro had two-drivers — two-systems situation. If one started humming or getting a delayed reflection, the other would take over.

  Sure, cars had semi-AI driving now. But no. Still, he didn’t trust them.

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  He tapped the pen against the paper covered in gentle lines and scribbles of the park’s map. Looking down at it, he noticed little wiggly lines where the willow grew by the little chapel.

  A peacock screeched somewhere up the stairs leading to a П-shaped building on the south side. A bunch of them gathered there now instead of being scattered all over the park as usual, and only the hens were residing quietly under the magnolia, ignored by everyone due to their lack of color. The male ones always gladly ate the seeds people brought them and pranced around for everyone’s amusement.

  He saw one of them flying down the stairs and landing to proceed with lazy grace through the trail among the grass patches. A sudden thought crossed his mind at this moment — animals were never affected. Cats and dogs sensed Hallwalkers inside their owners and would always start getting further away from their human if the Stage 0 was progressing already. Public-created (though he suspected Spiralá did whisper about it to someone first) self-check included watching your pet. If it was sleeping as far away from you as possible for three days, it meant problems. Meant Hallwalker was already inside, working on brute-forcing your body’s systems into cooperating even if you didn’t feel it.

  He didn’t have a cat or a dog — too expensive in this economy — but heard that some people whispered about IHCD considering Hallwalkers to be natural predators in the mind of those pets. He personally was sure the things were as harmless to cats and dogs as some mentally handicapped person would be. They wouldn’t hurt animals on purpose, but they might do it because they had no concept of “empathy for pets”. Or maybe it was another thing completely, since in its core, a Hallwalker was taking over and using things from the person’s mind bank to appear normal. So, if a human was okay with pets, the Hallwalker would probably be too after taking over.

  Probably.

  Sighing, he looked at the notepad again. Map looked relatively okay, except some loose lines here and there which he decided to not pay attention to. His hand was unsteady sometimes.

  Night shifts now only “helped” that.

  It’s been a week since the first shift in ‘U Tichého Kli?e’. Surprisingly, during the second one he managed to even get sleep better than when he was at home, and after that Emil gave him the keys to one of the rooms which was too bad for guests but perfect for the staff to live in. He moved in without giving it a second thought.

  Despite the humming on the third floors, despite the sixth floor being one hell of a questionable bunch of rooms, the place was quiet. It had settled into the routine of modern days, and, while it worked to not let the Pits twist it and the guests into spiral, it didn’t do it as hysterically as the neighboring ‘Sědy Pruh’.

  The girl at the reception, Mila, told him about the latter during the breakfast today.

  ‘Pruh’ was located just across the street from ‘U Tichého Kli?e’, and it really was very heavy settled onto using the protection rituals of all sorts: cat charms, living cats in some rooms, concave walls and non-symmetrical doors.

  ‘They tell the tourists doors are like that “for the airflow”,’ Mila huffed as they drank stale coffee in the canteen.

  With all that, you’d expect it to not work, but when he walked out of the hotel later, he saw a woman standing by the entrance. Not entering, not blocking the way for other tourists. Just standing there, watching the lobby behind the glass, her gaze unsteady.

  He paused aside for a moment, just to see the end of it (and because, when close enough, he heard her making a soft, almost thoughtful, yet looping hum). She lingered for a couple more moments, raised her foot to enter... and suddenly made a 90 turn, finishing that step on her move away from the doors.

  An obvious Hallwalker. Probably Stage 2 on the way to 3. It was when they were moments from becoming untraceable, because the pattern inside was broken enough for them to wear human's skin and act on their own without fighting the host's geometry. And she just left.

  He, at the very least, was surprised. Did he rush back to the hotel lobby to talk to Mila about it? Of course not.

  But he made a note in his notebook which was now resting on his lap.