From the bestselling author of Lost in Time and Quantum Radio comes a new mind-bending thriller: a group of strangers with tinnitus begins seeing numbers—numbers they soon realize are a code that will change the world.
Alan Norris has lost everything. Except for his daughter. And he's willing to do anything to protect her.
The day of his wife's funeral, as he's walking to give the eulogy, the ringing in his ears starts. His tinnitus began when he was in the Marines, the day a roadside bomb went off. Usually, it's a low whine - a tea kettle that never quite boils. But as his prosthetic and his good leg sink into the soggy grass, the ringing changes. That afternoon, the ringing only he can hear sounds like three jagged rocks dropped in a tin can and shaken.
When the rattling hits a crescendo, he sees a series of numbers: 12122518914208.
He assumes it's a stress reaction. A hallucination. He's wrong about that. And several other things.
The ringing and the numbers are a mystery, but the worst part is that when that unseen hand shakes the can, Alan begins to lose time.
A few minutes at first.
Then longer.
Until one night, he wakes up next to a dead body.
He could call the police. Or run. He doesn't do either. Because he doesn't know what happened to his daughter during the time he lost, leaving him no choice but to dig deeper.
Alan soon discovers he's not the only one seeing the numbers. And that the sequence is key to a conspiracy with far-reaching consequences. For him and the entire world.
