The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers #1)(101)

Kendricks took out his handcuff keys and removed the restraints from Skylar’s wrists. She nodded to the shorter agent with appreciation. “Thank you.”

Ziggler felt three inches taller. “Would you like to see your patient?”

She momentarily forgot to breathe. “Eddie’s here?”

He nodded. “Other side of this door.” She immediately moved toward it, when the agent stepped in front of her. “There’s something you should know before you see him.”



Skylar entered room 423 with great excitement and even greater trepidation. CHOP’s head of emergency medicine had been correct: there was no telling how long traumatized patients could remain “locked in.” Or what would reconnect them with the world again. The only thing Skylar knew was that she wanted to see Eddie. And touch him. And reassure him that everything was going to be okay, even if he couldn’t hear her.

She broke into tears upon seeing him. He was staring at the ceiling. “Eddie.” She placed her hand on his cheek, and kissed his forehead. He did not respond.

The shorter agent had followed her into the room. “Would you like a moment alone with him?”

She nodded gratefully. “Please.”

“Take as much time as you need.” The agent looked to the replacement nurse and motioned for her to leave the room as well. She made a note on her time chart, and exited into the hallway with her materials. Ziggler followed her, pausing in the doorway. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

Skylar waited for the door to close, then pulled a chair up next to Eddie and continued to cry. All she could think was how helpless he looked. So docile. So innocent. He reminded Skylar of her brother, Christopher, who never did anything in his life to hurt anyone. Neither had Eddie. They weren’t capable of it. All Eddie had ever wanted was to hear his mother’s voice. Was that too much to ask? He had devoted his entire life to the pursuit of it. And now his only hope for that dream coming true had been taken away from him. The world cared nothing for him or his wishes. It only cared about his device, and what it could do. The mysteries it could solve. The answers it would reveal. And it was all her fault. Because she was just as guilty as everybody else. Right along with the rest of the world, Skylar had placed her needs above Eddie’s. She should have never taken him off Harmony House grounds. She would never forgive herself, just like she would blame herself for her brother’s suicide for the rest of her life. Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. “Eddie, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, even as he whispered in a barely audible voice, “Why are you so, so sorry, Skylar?”

She stared at him in disbelief, certain that she must have just hallucinated. Until he slowly turned his head toward her and looked at her briefly. “Eddie, you spoke.”

“Yes, I did.” He sounded terribly sad and distant, and then he looked away.

She trembled with a mixture of excitement and confusion. “How . . . how is this possible?”

“In human beings, voicing occurs when air is expelled from the lungs through the glottis, creating a drop in pressure across the larynx.”

“They said you’d been traumatized,” she interrupted. “That . . . you were unable to communicate.”

Eddie nodded. “I became very frightened when the agents pointed their guns at me. I did not like when they did that.”

“I didn’t like when they did that, either. I was very scared, too.”

“I heard the doctor say I was unconsciously trying to protect myself. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. But everyone was leaving me alone and I liked that so I decided to keep doing it.” His voice remained emotionally depleted. It reminded Skylar of how she must have sounded right after learning of Jacob’s death.

“Do you know what time it was when you first started being able to hear the doctor?”

“It was 3:17 in the morning. I know because there’s a clock on the wall.” He pointed weakly to the clock.

Skylar still couldn’t process what she was hearing. “So what have you been doing since then?”

“I have been lying here, thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Birds. Lots and lots of birds. I thought about belted kingfishers. And green-winged teals. And common terns. And hermit thrushes. And swallow-tailed kites. And blue-winged warblers. I remembered how beautiful they sound. And how much better they make me feel. Birds don’t use expressions. They never expect me to interpret what they mean, so I never feel confused or embarrassed around them. I could hear them so clearly in my mind it was like I was actually hearing them. Do you ever do that, imagine something so clearly that it almost seems like it’s real?”

“Yes, I do.” She thought of Jacob. Then tried very hard not to. Skylar took a moment to consider that for the last seventeen hours, Eddie had managed to remain perfectly still while imagining birdcalls and nothing else. Zen Buddhists spent a lifetime in pursuit of such focus. “Incredible.”

Eddie smiled ever so slightly. “You were right, you know.”

Skylar didn’t follow. “About what?”

“That if I spent enough time outside Harmony House, I would lie, because everyone lies sometimes. Even you.”

She was astonished. “What did you lie about?”