Blind Faith - Sharon Sala Page 0,91

one of his candy bars and started eating it.

Wyrick stared. He was sitting on her bed like he had a right to be there, eating candy he’d just given to her.

She frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Getting prepared,” he said. “If you started a war, you don’t get all the chocolate.”

* * *

When Special Agent Hank Raines saw the email from Wyrick with a subject heading of Fourth Dimension, he immediately opened it.

It took a few moments for shock to set in, and then he began opening file after file, reading in disbelief. But then he opened the file on her personal story and nearly fell out of his chair.

“Holy shit!” he muttered, and grabbed his cell phone.

He didn’t know what had happened to prompt this or even how to take it, but he knew someone who would. He called Charlie Dodge.

* * *

While Wyrick was resting, Charlie was upstairs exploring. He found the empty bedroom downstairs, and when he saw the wheelchair, he guessed it must have been Merlin’s room. He didn’t know how she would feel about sleeping there, but it was a logical choice.

Then he found the elevator and rode it up to the second floor, and found the seven other bedroom suites, each one elegant in its own way. It reminded him somewhat of the Dunleavy castle in Denver, but on a smaller scale.

The elevator was the turning point. If she wanted to be upstairs, then there was a safe way for her to get up and down from the second floor while she healed.

Then he went through the kitchen, checking to see what was in the refrigerator, but it had been completely cleaned out. It was cold, but sitting empty. The butler’s pantry was huge, and the food pantry a separate thing altogether. This way of living was so out of his comfort zone that he was almost intimidated by the opulence.

It wasn’t something he would have ever aspired to, and the Wyrick he knew didn’t really fit in here, either, but then he reminded himself—he’d only seen one tiny part of the amazing creature she was, and had no idea of how she’d lived before she went into hiding.

He was about to head back downstairs when his cell phone rang, and when he saw it was Hank Raines, he paused to answer.

“Hey, Hank. What’s up?”

“I have no freaking idea. That’s why I called you. What the hell is going on with Wyrick?”

Charlie frowned. “Uh...she’s home and healing.”

“Healing from what?” Hank asked.

“She was in her chopper last week, flying back from Galveston, when a sniper in another chopper intercepted her and shot her down. She crashed in Sam Houston National Forest with a bullet wound in her shoulder and another in her leg. I was with the search party that found her. She’s been recovering in a hospital in Houston up until today, when I brought her home.”

“Jesus...why would anyone do that?”

“To shut her up,” Charlie said.

“Might that someone be a consortium called Universal Theorem, headed by a man named Cyrus Parks?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“She sent me some information that I didn’t quite know what to do with, but now it’s beginning to make sense. I need to contact the director and—”

“Uh... I don’t think you’ll have to,” Charlie said.

Hank frowned. “Why not?”

“Unless she changed her mind, that same information is already in his hands, and a multitude of other nationwide agencies, maybe worldwide. I don’t understand all of what it entails, but this wasn’t the first attempt on her life, and I guess she sees this as her only recourse to staying alive. Tell the truth of how she came to be, and take down the people who are still trying to play God. They’ve been trying to silence her to protect themselves, but doing what she’s doing is a huge sacrifice to her personal privacy. She’s giving up her sovereignty to save herself.”

Hank’s voice was beginning to shake. “By nationwide, do you mean local authorities? State level? National level? Don’t you think that’s overkill?”

Charlie frowned. “First of all, overkill is a poor choice of word considering what I just told you. And we’re talking Wyrick here...who trusts no one. Why would she trust people who could help bury her and hide the crime?”

“Okay, I should have chosen a better word, but dammit, there are good cops, too,” Hank said.

“Not in her world,” Charlie said. “She sent the same thing to the media, too. There’s not going to be any secret whistleblower. She gave herself