Read Online Last Light by C. J. Lyons - Free Book Online Page B

Tommy and Wash back at Beacon Falls. “David Ruiz of the Justice Project, meet Wash, our resident white-hat hacker.”
    Wash did a flourish with his hand in acknowledgment.
    “And Dr. Tommy Worth, pediatrician, our medical and forensics expert.”
    “Nice to meet you,” Tommy said.
    Lucy glanced through the files David had organized. “So, David, you have no law enforcement background?”
    “Investigative reporter.”
    Wash chimed in. “Right. I knew you looked familiar. I remember seeing you on the news. Before...” He gestured to his face, sliding a palm over half of it.
    “Funny thing is, I actually get better stories now than I ever did before...” He mimicked Wash’s gesture. “After, I decided the truth shall set me free, so that’s all I care about. Not ratings or Q scores or any corporate BS. All I want is the truth.”
    “Can I ask what happened?” Lucy said. “I’m afraid I don’t watch the news, so I’m not familiar with your work.”
    “He was embedded in Afghanistan,” Wash answered. “Covering the troop drawdown and the dangers it posed. His Humvee blew up.”
    “Not mine. The squad I was working with. IED. Shrapnel.”
    “Like from the Humvee?” Wash sounded both excited and horrified.
    “Bones,” Tommy muttered as if by reflex.
    “Bones?”
    “Baby Doc’s right—best shrapnel any suicide bomber ever devised. Bits and pieces of the guys around me—the ones who didn’t make it. Which was everyone except me. Human bone splinters are sharp, jagged, and cause secondary infection, prolonging the healing process, and tying up more of the enemy’s resources.”
    It was an eerie disconnect, his voice so flat, reciting facts, while his face filled with anguish and his shoulders hunched with the memory.
    “I don’t like it,” TK said. “A reporter? What’s to keep him from posting or Tweeting or Snapchatting everything we do?” She seemed to realize her faux pas and turned to him. “No offense.”
    “None taken. I told you, I’m not here for a story. I want the truth. All of it. Nice thing about my screwed-up brain is just like you can’t hear any emotion in my voice, I can’t hear yours. Which frees me to focus on your body language. Words lie, but body language doesn’t. I can tell when someone’s hiding something.”
    “Tonal agnosia,” Tommy diagnosed. “The language center that processes verbal emotion was damaged.”
    The term was vaguely familiar. Lucy remembered watching a documentary with Nick—his turn to choose the entertainment, but she’d been just as fascinated by the strange permutations of certain brain injuries.
    “Right.” David beamed at TK. “See? Tell her, doc. I’m an open book—can’t help it.” He raised his right hand as if swearing on a stack of bibles. “Funny thing is...now that I can’t lie anymore, people actually open up to me more. I get far more truth than I ever did before. Just not the kind of truth that grabs ratings.”
    “Let me get this straight.” TK didn’t sound convinced. “Upside is you’re kind of a walking lie detector? But downside is you can’t actually lie?”
    “Not verbally. I can say the words but I can’t sell the lie, if you get my drift. Can’t communicate emotion with my voice anymore either. This,” he gestured to his lips and mouth, “stripped-down Tin Man robot voice is as good as I get. Shame too,” he grinned at TK, “because used to be I could sweet talk a pretty girl like you out of your panties before—”
    “I think we get the picture,” Tommy said through the computer.
    “Guess you weren’t lying about telling only the truth,” TK said, smiling at David.
    “Pretty much talked the same before, only it would cost you a few shots of tequila first. Just now, people don’t hear me the same—without emotional context coloring the words I use, unless I add dramatic body language to emphasize phrases, it all sounds flat. Spent months with a vocal coach to make it this far—should