The career-ending injury he suffered also caused some rare side effects. The crunching blow induced both hyperthymesia and synesthesia, meaning Decker remembers everything he sees. And it also changed the way he sees colours.
While walking down the sidewalk towards the FBI headquarters, Decker decides against stopping for a breakfast burrito and happens to return his gaze forward just in time to see a man pull a compact Beretta from his pocket and shoot a woman in the back of her head. Pulling his own firearm, Decker runs forward but is unable to do anything other than watch helplessly as the gunman turns his weapon on himself and pulls the trigger.
Working on an early theory that Dabney, who they confirmed was scheduled for a meeting inside the Hoover Building that morning, went off the deep end and decided to take a random person down with him.
Just as the investigation heats up, Harper Brown, a DIA agent, requests a meeting with Decker and his boss, where she informs them that the murder is part of an ongoing investigation by the Defense Intelligence Agency and that they no longer need to spend any resources trying to solve the case themselves.
Forgetting about a case and moving on isn’t what Decker does. In fact, it’s impossible for him. So, ignoring Brown’s orders, Decker and his team keep working the case and eventually uncover a massive conspiracy that quickly becomes much bigger than anything Decker has tackled before.
The book unravels the mystery of why Dabney killed Berkshire with a progressive intrigue, slowly developing one angle into an elaborate story with an interesting political angle.
Overall, The Fix is a story about repercussions. And as a whole, it plays out well and makes for a difficult-to-put-down read.