Page 113 - TruthAboutLyingFinal
P. 113
Nicholas Boothman
Her face changed. “What is that?”
“I don’t know.” “Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
She took the phone, tapped twice, and frowned. “No routing trail. No carrier metadata. No sender.” “That’s impossible.”
“Yes,” she said. “It is.”
The phone buzzed again.
CONTINUE CURRENT OPERATIONS. Henry’s mouth went dry.
Claire called.
He answered without thinking.
“Henry,” she said, “people are freezing.”
“I know. The markets...”
“No,” she said. “Not markets. People.”
He turned away from Jinji.
“What do you mean?”
“At the hospital. A doctor was telling a family their father was stable. The patch flashed red and he just stopped. Mid- sentence. He stood there for maybe twenty seconds. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. Then he said, ‘He’s dying and I didn’t know how to tell you.’”
Henry closed his eyes.
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