Page 69 of Critical Doubt

"What do you think is really going on with your ears?"

"I don't know. I feel like my brain is trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what it is."

He opened the restroom door for Mason and then followed him back into his office. Savannah was standing by the window, but he had a feeling she'd been snooping while they were gone.

"Everything okay?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," he said.

"It was nice to meet you," Mason told Savannah. "I have to get on with some work, so I'll show you out."

"Of course."

They followed Mason out to the lobby. He shook his friend's hand, and said, "Try to make it tonight."

"I will," Mason promised. "Until then, be careful, Ryker. If you're right about all this, then you're at risk, too."

"I'm very aware of that."

"Good-bye, Mason," Savannah said. "It sounds like I'll see you later."

"I hope so," he replied.

As Mason headed back into the elevator, they walked out to the car. He slid behind the wheel. The bells were gone, and hopefully they'd stay that way.

"What happened in the restroom?" Savannah asked. "Did you get more information from Mason?"

"Not really. He said Hank has trouble looking at his missing leg. I got the feeling they're not really friends anymore, either. He wanted to beg off from meeting us tonight, but I think I convinced him to come. However, he has another surgery tomorrow, and I guess he has a lot of work to do before then. He said he can't afford to jeopardize his job."

"Well, I hope he can make it. I feel like the three of you need to talk about the past. Maybe you each remember something from that last mission that the other does not."

"It's certainly possible." He started the car, but he wasn't sure where they should go. "What now? It's one twenty. We have hours before we meet Hank at seven."

"I don't know. What are you thinking?"

He didn't want to just drive around the city or go to a coffeehouse where there would be people and noise. "Why don't we go to my boat? It's about an hour's drive from here. We can be there by two thirty and spend a few hours on the bay before we have to head back."

"It's a lot of driving, but I'd like to see where you live."

Her words made him wish he'd made any other suggestion but that one. Taking Savannah to his boat was probably a really bad idea. He would only be bringing her deeper into his life.But wasn't she already there?

"Ryker?"

He met her questioning gaze. "Are you going to ask me if I'm all right?"

"I wouldn't dare. But I did want to ask you what triggered you today. What made the bells ring?"

"They started chiming when I first saw Mason, but they were soft and bearable. When he told me that we were only alive because I told them to abort the mission, the bells went crazy."

"Why?"

"I think it was because I don't remember telling them to abort the mission." He paused, giving her a troubled look. "If I don't remember that, what the hell else don't I remember?"

Chapter Sixteen

Savannah thoughtabout Ryker's question as he drove out of the lot. "Maybe that's it," she said. "The bells are your brain's way of trying to get you to remember something. Let's think about the recent triggers."

"They happen all the time. There's no pattern."