The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers #1)(24)

Coffee in hand, she walked toward Eddie’s room. Passing Fenton’s office, she noticed a silhouette sitting in a chair next to Eddie’s door. It was Nurse Gloria, who was reading the latest issue of People magazine. Skylar quickened her step. Hoping not to disturb Eddie, she whispered, “Is everything okay?”

Gloria whispered reassuringly, “Everything’s fine.”

“Why are you here?”

“To make sure it stays that way.” She turned back to her magazine article about some reality-show contestant’s recent weight loss after pregnancy. “Dr. Fenton hasn’t told you about Eddie’s sessions, has he?”

He hadn’t. “I’m still getting up to speed.” Skylar began to doubt whether starting at the beginning was the right way to study Eddie’s history. She wondered if she should have started with the most recent reports and worked her way backward, so that she would be better prepared for something like this.

“He gets a certain kind of idea in his head, and wild elephants can’t stop him from seeing it through. Sometimes it only lasts a few minutes, but sometimes hours, or even days. We used to try to force him to rest, or eat, or use the bathroom when it happened, but that only worked against us. He once snapped at a nurse trying to make him eat and smashed a plate over her head, knocking the poor thing unconscious. Another time he went catatonic on us for a week. So now, we just let him go until his engine runs out.”

“How does it end?”

“Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.”

“Like yesterday?”

“Exactly like yesterday. Only worse.”

Skylar glanced at the door, desperately curious to know what was going on behind it.

“You can go in if you want.”

Skylar looked surprised. “You sure?”

“Knock first. If he doesn’t want you to come in, he’ll tell you. But more than likely, he won’t respond at all, because the boy is just gone. Trust me.”

Skylar approached the door to room 237 with caution. She looked down at her feet, surprised that Eddie wasn’t already talking to her as he had done the other times she approached his door. She knocked ever so quietly, certain there would be a response.

But there was none.

“Told you.” Nurse Gloria returned to her magazine.

Skylar spoke softly to the door. “Eddie, I would like to come in. Would that be all right?” Again, there was no answer, so she let herself in. She entered the room cautiously.

Sitting at his desk, Eddie had his back to her. He was typing on his laptop and didn’t look up or acknowledge her in any way. His hands were moving so quickly around the computer’s keyboard that they were a blur. She sat down on the bed next to him, watching him with wonder. “You sure can type fast.”

He gave no response.

“Eddie, can you hear me?”

He nodded almost imperceptibly, but it was hard to tell if he was responding to her or to something else. His lips moved ever so slightly.

She leaned in closer, trying to hear what he was saying.

“Dr. Fenton!” He screamed the doctor’s name so loudly it hurt Skylar’s ears. She winced as he snapped the laptop closed. He picked it up, along with the echo box, and raced out the door.

Skylar went after him. Nurse Gloria followed close behind. “What the hell did you do to him?”

“Nothing. All I did was sit down next to him. You said I could go in.”

“I didn’t say to upset him, now did I?” They both followed him down the hallway, where he made a beeline toward Dr. Fenton’s office.

“Dr. Fenton, I did it! Dr. Fenton!”

The first time Dr. Fenton’s secretary, Stephen Millard, had experienced Eddie bursting into the foyer of Dr. Fenton’s office was seven years ago. Stephen was, naturally, alarmed, and proceeded to physically block Eddie’s path while tersely explaining that patients were not allowed to enter the office without an appointment. Eddie had started screaming the moment Stephen touched him. When Eddie started slapping himself, he dropped the echo box, which crashed to the floor. The resulting damage cost upward of $67,000 to repair.

From that point on, Stephen was instructed not to intervene when Eddie rushed into the foyer, like he did now. Stephen managed to remain pleasant and nonconfrontational. “Hello, Eddie.”

“Dr. Fenton, I did it! Dr. Fenton!” Eddie didn’t even acknowledge Stephen as he continued into Fenton’s office, where the doctor was on the phone.

“I’ll have to call you back.” Fenton hung up the phone and acted pleased to see Eddie. “Well, this is certainly wonderful news.”

“I know it’s going to work! I know it!” He closed the door behind him because it would facilitate acoustic mapping. At least, it was supposed to. He placed the echo box on Fenton’s coffee table and connected the laptop to it.

“My boy, I never had any doubt.”

Eddie made his BUZZER sound without looking up as he continued typing instructions into his computer. “Not true. Definitely not.”

Fenton smiled. “Well, almost never.”

Eddie held his index finger above the “Return” key on the keyboard as he counted down like he’d heard mission-control officers on TV do before launching a space shuttle. “Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one.” He pressed the key, activating the device. The sides of the echo box sprang open, revealing the eight spherical microphones. The microsatellites began to move in coordinated fashion, mapping the room.