State Of The Union

When he was finished writing, Gary once again made a circle on the pad. Harvath looked down and saw the nameHelmut with another question mark next to it. He had to have been referring to Helmut Draegar, but why? Why after all these years would he be thinking about him? Harvath stopped for a moment and realized that there probably wasn’t a day that went by that Gary didn’t think of him. He’d killed the man’s wife after all.

“Helmut’s long gone,” said Scot. “You killed him yourself.” He waited for some response, but all he saw was exhaustion. He decided to press on. “Stay with me Gary. I need your help. Frank Leighton is testing me and I need-”

Once again, he was interrupted by Lawlor’s tortured writing. This was getting him nowhere. Lawlor just wasn’t with it. Harvath watched as he began drawing a larger circle around Helmut’s name and decided to give it one last shot.

Placing his hand atop Gary’s, he stopped him from the incessant circle he was drawing, which was almost tearing through the paper, and looked directly into his friend’s eyes. “Gary, this is very important. You have to listen to me. Pay attention to what I’m saying.”

Exhausted from trying to get his message across, Lawlor’s body slumped. His eyelids appeared to grow heavier and it seemed he was on the verge of falling back asleep.

“Gary,” said Scot. “C’mon now. I need to make contact with Frank Leighton via theemergency contact point. I need to know how I do that.”

Lawlor struggled against his drooping lids and gripping the pen tighter, drew a box and then drew an upside downU on top of it. Harvath looked at it for a second and then guessed at what he was seeing.

“Is that a suitcase?”

Lawlor said nothing.

“Gary, I want you to tap the pen once for yes, twice for no.”

He tapped his pen once.

“It’s a suitcase, good. Is it Frank Leighton’s suitcase?”

Two taps-no.

“Is ityour suitcase?”

Yes.

“What about it? Is there something in your suitcase?”

Yes.

Harvath lowered his voice. “Is it the burst transmitter?”

Lawlor was silent for a moment; the only noise between them was the metallic click of the ventilator. Then he tapped his pen once foryes.

“Okay. I’ve got your transmitter,” said Harvath.

Lawlor drew a question mark on the pad.

“You and Frank Leighton both had mugs in your houses from the Leydicke pub. I got lucky.”

One tap-yes.

Harvath smiled at Gary’s response. Maybe he was inside there after all. “Do I make contact with Leighton, or will he make contact with me? And what about the encryption code?”

Lawlor was frustrated and slowly tapped his pen over and over again.

“I’m sorry,” said Harvath. “One question at a time.”

One tap-yes.

“Do I call Leighton?”

Two taps-no.

“He calls me then?”

One tap-yes.

“Okay, where?”

Lawlor motioned to Harvath to flip to a clean page and when he did, Gary began trying to write something then gave up and drew a crown with the letterG in the center and beneath it the letters “Mme.”

Great, thought Harvath,more gibberish.

“Is this a place?” asked Harvath, watching the pen for Gary to tap out his response. Several moments passed. Harvath looked up and saw that Gary’s eyes were closed. “C’mon, Gary. I only have a few more questions. Are you with me?”

Harvath heard the pen touch the pad in what he thought was ayes response, but as he looked down and saw it fall from Gary’s hand, a shrill whistle began to pierce the air of the recovery room.

Trawick ran over, took one look at Gary and then checked the monitors above his bed. “Shit!” he exclaimed. “He’s going into ventricular fibrillation. Nurse! Code Blue. Get me the defibrillator.” Turning to Harvath he said, “Outside. Now!”

Harvath reluctantly gathered up the pad Gary had been writing on and backed out of the room. The last thing he saw was a team of nurses gathered around the bed helping Skip prep Gary as the defibrillator was wheeled over and powered up.

Outside the recovery room, Hollenbeck and Longo were still standing guard. Harvath filled them in on what had happened, and they all stood around in silence until Skip emerged ten minutes later with word that Gary had been taken back into surgery. It didn’t look good, and Skip suggested that Harvath make himself comfortable as it was probably going to be a while.

Hollenbeck and Longo followed Trawick up to the operating room while Harvath set off in search of Herman and DeWolfe. He found them watching TV in a small waiting room just off the Intensive Care Unit.

“How is he?” asked Herman, as Harvath walked in.

“Not good,” replied Scot. “He was only awake in recovery for a few minutes and then he crashed. They just took him back into surgery.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said DeWolfe as he got up and turned down the volume on the TV set. “Were you able to talk with him at all?”

“Not really. He was still intubated, and Skip said he might have suffered some cranial trauma during his ordeal. The best I could do was ask questions while he scribbled on this pad,” said Harvath holding it up. “None of it, though, makes much sense.”