The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers #1)(62)

“That’s your choice, sir.” Barnes shook his own head, still perfectly calm.

The senior doctor felt like he’d been stabbed in the back. The physical pain was very real. “You’re sure?”

“When have I ever told you anything I wasn’t sure about?” He let the question linger for a moment, then asked, “It’s curious, don’t you think?”

“What?” Fenton snapped back.

“We have a mole, and Homeland is the one who capitalizes on the information.”

Fenton thought the notion was preposterous. “You think Homeland has been spying on us?”

“I think Homeland may have been compromised. Whoever was spying on us is using Homeland to acquire the device for themselves.”

“I don’t follow.”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“With all due respect, you sound paranoid, Mr. Barnes.”

“Within every intelligence agency, there are internal factions with specific agendas. One of them has obviously been made aware of Eddie and his echo box.”

The doctor suddenly didn’t think his security director sounded so off base. “If you knew about these factions, why would you have issued federal arrest warrants?”

“Because if local law enforcement became aware of the echo box, it would only be a matter of time before federal agencies were notified. It was our best move.”

Fenton sighed as he slumped in his office chair. “What the hell are we going to do?”

Barnes remained perfectly calm. “We actually have a number of options, Doctor.”

“Like what?”



Senator Corbin Davis approached the seventeenth tee with the confidence and swagger of a dragon slayer. Any lingering doubts he had held about his involvement with the American Heritage Foundation had been swept away. At the end of the day, no one succeeded in politics without getting into bed with at least one eight-hundred-pound gorilla. The trick was picking the right one.

The senator from Indiana had picked very well.





CHAPTER 51

Sixth Precinct, New York City, May 27, 4:23 p.m.

NYPD Detective Lieutenant Victoria Daniels struggled to digest what she had just heard, as Eddie stopped playing back the reconstructed conversation between Dr. Fenton and Michael Barnes at Harmony House. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. Daniels reached into her coat pocket and turned off Deputy Inspector Nataro’s microrecorder, gazing around the walls of Interrogation Room Five, which somehow now looked different. She realized the walls of every room she ever entered would never look the same. Because now she knew what was bouncing around every one of them: the history of each space. Every action. Every word. Every crime. Every lie. Every room was now its own historical document. Its own recording. All that had to be done was to have the record re-created, and the evidence was there for anyone to hear.

There would never again be any more “He said, she said.” There would only be “Here is what was said.”

That was, if the device ever saw the light of day.

Victoria was now a believer, which was what scared her. It was evident in her face.

“Now do you blame me for helping them?” asked Butler.

“I would have done the same thing.” There wasn’t a doubt in her mind. Not about her answer to the question. Nor how this was going to play out.

“Now what?”

She knew Butler wasn’t leading her. He really didn’t know the next move—that was why he had come in.

“Step out with me for a second.” She exited with Butler into the hallway, closing the door behind them. They spoke very quietly, just above a whisper.

Inside Interrogation Room Five, Skylar moved to Eddie, motioning toward the door. She also spoke quietly. “Can you tell me what they’re saying?”

Eddie nodded, turning his head toward the door. He closed his eyes, which helped him focus exclusively on what he could hear. He cupped his hands behind his ears to amplify whatever sound waves were audible. He repeated the conversation occurring in the hallway, doing rather decent imitations of Butler’s and Victoria’s voices: “You’ve got no choice. You know that, right? . . . I want to make sure nothing’s going to happen to them . . . you can’t. Accept it . . .”

Eddie was confused by the conversation, and turned to Skylar. “What are they talking about?”

“Us.” Skylar crossed her arms tightly across her chest and turned away from Eddie. All she could think was, What had she done? Detective McHenry was going to be forced to turn them over to Fenton’s security team, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

“Why doesn’t Detective McHenry have a choice?”

“Because the government isn’t going to give him one.”

Eddie resumed listening to Butler and Victoria’s conversation, repeating every word. “They killed her boyfriend . . . I appreciate that, Detective. But what exactly do you think you can do for them? This is way above either of our pay grades.”

Eddie turned to Skylar as she started to cry. “Is he talking about your boyfriend, Skylar?” She nodded. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. I’m sure he must have been nice. What was his name?”

Skylar was barely able to answer. “Jacob.”