“I’ll be the sender,” I tell him. “Jennie’s better at deciphering my thoughts than I am at deciphering hers.”
Charlene gives me a playful jab. “What? You can’t read my mind?”
I shrug. “What can I say? I’m a guy.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“See what I mean?” But then, suddenly, the doctor’s words sink in.
He’d said first sender. First receiver.
“But,” I explain, “Jennie will be the only receiver. I’m not going to be in the chamber.”
Dr. Tanbyrn taps a finger against his chin. “We like to repeat the procedure, reversing the roles so that we can test the receptivity of both participants.”
“I think we’ll just keep it to Jennie. The truth is… I don’t do so well in small places.”
“Aha, well. Yes, of course.” There’s no judgment in his voice, and I get the impression that he’s dealt with claustrophobic participants before.
He rises unsteadily, leaning on his cane for support. “Well, come along then. It’s not far. Just two buildings over.”
But as he takes his first step, the cane slips on the pinewood floor. He flails his hands out to regain his balance and ends up grabbing Charlene’s wounded arm. Despite herself, she cries out and pulls back, causing him to plummet toward the floor, and I’m barely able to drop down fast enough to catch him.
For a moment the air in the room seems to hold its breath.
Then eases.
Gently, I help him to his feet. “Are you alright, Doctor?”
“Yes, yes, quite.” I’m still holding his shoulders, steadying him. “Oh my.” He’s shaken, breathing hard, gazing at Charlene. “But are you alright, my dear?”
She’s grimacing, and I can’t imagine how much it must’ve hurt to have him squeeze her arm like that. “Yes, I’m okay.”
“I am so sorry.” He sounds deeply distressed. “I just lost my balance. I — that’s never happened to me before.”
Once he’s standing on his own, I hand him back his cane.
He gestures toward Charlene’s arm. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
Only then do I notice the blood that’s seeping through her sleeve.
He has a curious, perceptive look in his eyes, and I wonder if perhaps earlier this morning he might’ve seen the blood on the third floor of the Lawson building and is now somehow piecing things together.
Charlene presses her hand tenderly over the wound to quell the bleeding, and when she replies to Tanbyrn, she avoids explaining how the blood got there. “I better go get this cleaned up.”
I offer to go with her but she declines.
“No. I’ll meet you two there.” Then she excuses herself to return to the cabin, leaving Dr. Tanbyrn and me alone.
He waits for me to speak, as if it’s my responsibility to absolve him of the guilt of harming her. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t you. She hurt her arm last night. The scab must’ve just broken open. It’s not serious.” The only thing I’m not really sure about is that last part. Because the cut might be serious. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Brent. I am. Thank you for arresting my fall.”
“Glad I was close enough to help.” I gesture toward his cane. “Do you need a hand?”
“I believe I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
After a slight pause, he leads me to the lobby. I slow my pace to remain next to him just in case he loses his balance again. His cane taps heavily on the floor beside me as we walk past the reception desk, out the door, and into the gray morning mist.
Kindling
Glenn Banner was able to connect the dots.
On his hacking attempts, even though he hadn’t uncovered the incriminating information he’d been searching for last night, he had found his way into the Lawson Research Center’s video surveillance archives and had been able to pull up the footage of the two people he’d seen in the chamber as they registered at the front desk late yesterday afternoon.
He paused the video.
Zoomed in on the screen of the computer on the registration desk.
Saw the names: Brent Berlin and Jennie Reynolds.
And the name of the cabin they’d reserved.
Hmm.
So, whether it was RixoTray who’d sent them or another firm altogether, by staying on campus the pair would be close enough to poke around in the evenings. Perhaps trying to dig up information on the military’s involvement — that is, if they were aware of it.
Of course, it was always possible they were looking for something else.
Additionally, if they were participating in the study rather than attending the yoga retreat, they would have the chance to speak with the doctor, perhaps squeeze information from him.
Glenn googled their names, but they were both so common it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He couldn’t help but think they were quite possibly aliases anyway.
It was possible that the couple would’ve left the center last night after the altercation, but the cut on the woman’s arm hadn’t been life-threatening, and if the secrets buried in the computer files at the center were as important as Glenn thought they might be, he wasn’t convinced that the two intruders would’ve left the center yet.
He really needed to talk to the man who’d hired him.
Glenn tried the phone number once again.
And this time, at last, the guy picked up. “What is it?” The voice was as blunt and impatient as always.
Glenn filled him in on what’d happened last night at the research facility, leaving out the part about being too slow to stop the guy from swinging the knife down and plunging it into his thigh. And of course, leaving out the fact that he himself had been there trying to find information that he could use in his blackmail attempts.
“What were you looking for?”
“I was doing research on Tanbyrn.”
“I provided you with all the information you need. I even gave you the passcode for—”
“Listen to me, there are things you’re not telling me, and I don’t like being kept in the dark.”
Rather than respond directly to that, his employer returned to the topic of what had happened in the chamber. “You say there were two of them there? A man and a woman?”
“Yes.” Glenn gave him a description of the couple. “Who are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“The guy said you sent them.”
“I did not send them.”
Glenn considered that, didn’t reply.
Only two possibilities: either this guy was lying or the man in the chamber had been.
Glenn had the sense that a man whose life was being threatened would be a bit more likely to tell the truth than someone who’d hired an assassin to kill an old man.
“I want some answers here,” Glenn said. “This whole thing is—”
“The way it is.” A tense, hard tone. “I tell you what you need to know. Don’t get demanding with me. You wouldn’t want me to start considering you a liability.”
Glenn felt his grip on the phone tightening. “I’m not the only one in this conversation who’s at risk of becoming a liability.”
For a moment neither man spoke. Both held their ground, both retained their status, until Glenn decided he was ready to move past his threat and get on with business. “I’m set to take care of Tanbyrn at three.”
“I’ll have your money waiting.”
“What about the couple from the research facility?”
“Forget ’em. I didn’t send them. Just take care of your job, the one you were hired to do.”