THE PRICE OF FOCUS

CHAPTER 5: THE DOMINO EFFECT

Library – 3:02 AM

The library’s ancient air conditioning hummed like a failing respirator.

Daniel barely noticed the sound—nor the way his fourth cup of coffee had gone cold, nor the pale dawn light creeping through the high windows. His world had narrowed to the equations before him, each variable a stepping stone across the chasm of his ambition.

Then Sarah’s hands slammed onto the table.

*"Look at this."*

Her phone screen glowed with a hospital report, the clinical typeface too bright in the dimness:

**ONUORAH, EMEKA**

**ADMISSION DIAGNOSIS:** Acute flaccid paralysis

**LAST UPDATE:** Ventilator-dependent, 06:00

Daniel’s pen froze. The ink bled into the paper, a dark star expanding.

*"His sister found him seizing in the dorm,"* Sarah whispered. *"They’re calling it Guillain-Barré, but—"*

Her fingers swiped to another image. The ranking board after hours, illuminated by emergency lighting. Where Evelyn’s name had been, a clean incision marred the glass—precise enough to have been made with one of the lab’s scalpels.

A drop of condensation fell from his neglected coffee. It splashed onto the phone, distorting Emeka’s name into something unrecognizable.

Outside, rain sheeted against the windows. For the briefest moment, Daniel thought he saw a figure standing motionless in the downpour—a silhouette too straight, too still, its lab coat untouched by the wind.

Then the library’s fluorescents flickered on with a buzz, and the shape was gone.

Sarah’s hand closed over his wrist. Her fingers were icy.

*"She’s not finished,"* she said.

Somewhere in the building, a pipe groaned. The sound echoed through the vents like a stifled scream.