by Marc James
Chapter 8
Faraday couldn’t sit still, he paced back and forth outside treatment room four at Cape Cod hospital. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he should have foreseen what had happened to David. He had been there and done it. He should have seen the signs. But what the hell had gotten into him? How could he just give up when he still had a chance of saving his wife and unborn child? He watched as Will and Jane sat on the seats beside each other, he noticed that look in Will’s eyes again.
Jane was staring dead ahead. The more she thought about everything, the more she thought that this wasn’t home. It’s just so much quieter in Scotland, ever since we arrived here there has been danger and problems around every corner. Why couldn’t Faraday see that? She planned on having a long talk with him after this was over. Out of the whole group, the only person that seemed like he could handle everything that had been thrown at them was Bobby. But then he had had a lot of practice, she reasoned. But this country was changing her husband and she didn’t like it. Ever since he had shot those men on the way to Washington, he seemed almost stronger. Not that it was a bad thing, she just didn’t want him to change. She loved him the way he had always been. She knew he still couldn’t win a fight but he was braver, he didn’t turn his back on danger anymore. Will had certainly affected them all with his stories of Auschwitz, but Faraday seemed to see it as his duty to hunt down Nazis. Yes they were evil, she wasn’t disputing that, it was just that this isn’t the way their lives were supposed to be. They hadn’t been born yet and here they were solving political problems in another country, thirty years previously. It wasn’t just that but the idea of helping a man like Will was not something she was particularly fond of.
The doctor emerged from the treatment room, almost knocking into Faraday.
“It is good news, don’t worry. We managed to stop the bleeding and he is currently receiving a blood transfusion.”
“That’s great, can we see him?” Faraday asked.
“Not yet, as I say he is currently receiving a blood transfusion and a Psychiatrist will be along as soon as he becomes available. He won’t be getting out tonight anyway, so you may be best heading home.”
“We can’t see him before a Psychiatrist does?” Faraday asked again.
The doctor sighed. “To be honest I don’t think you would want to see him the way he is, it can be quite upsetting.”
“I don’t care how upsetting it is, I want to see him.” Faraday barked.
Jane averted her eyes, it was this kind of thing that the Faraday she had met would never have done.
“Faraday we can come back in the morning.” Will tried.
“You can come back in the morning if you want, but I need to see him now!” There was something about the Scottish accent that made people seem even more aggressive, Will thought.
“Faraday! Leave it!” Jane yelled.
“No I won’t fucking leave it! I need to see him now!”
The doctor sighed. “I can let you see him for five minutes, only you.”
“Thank you.” Faraday replied.
“Unbelievable.” Jane muttered under her breath.
The doctor opened the door to the treatment room and led Faraday inside.
Jane sat back down in her seat, as did Will. “You alright?” Will asked.
“Fine, I just wish he wouldn’t get like that. It’s Bobby’s influence.”
“It’s good to stand up for what you believe in. If people had stood up against Hitler sooner, look how many lives that would have saved.”
“This isn’t like Hitler! He was yelling at a doctor for saying we couldn’t see David until morning.”
“He’s a good man Jane.” Will replied, reassuringly.
“Fuck yourself!” Jane barked.
Inside the treatment room Faraday was horrified by how ill David looked. He had no colour in his face whatsoever. He walked to the right of David, up to his head, his eyes were open but his expression vacant.
“David, it’s me pal, are you alright?”
David’s eyes gave a sign of life, but they looked drained. He looked as if he would never be happy again. In short, he looked exactly how Faraday had once felt. His voice was soft when he spoke, almost as if every passing syllable was breaking his heart.
“Why are you here?”
“What do you mean? Of course I’m here!”
“Go home James.”
“James? Since when do you call me James?”
“Leave.”
“It might be better if you go home Mr Faraday, he has lost a lot of blood, he doesn’t know what he’s saying.” The doctor interjected.
“I’m not leaving you here David, you need to come home.”
“Mr Faraday I’ve told you, he will not be released until a Psychiatric Evaluation has been performed.”
“I don’t give a shit what you told me, he’s not staying here!”
“You need to leave Mr Faraday.” The doctor replied calmly.
“Or what? You’re not performing any bloody experiments on him. I know what these places are like, he’s coming with me.”
“Mr Faraday if you do not leave I will call security and they in turn will call the police.”
“Go!” David demanded.
Faraday could tell when he was beaten. He turned to David to offer some advice.
“Just tell them you made a mistake. Say you regret it and you won’t do anything like this again, or they’ll keep you in here. Trust me you don’t want that, even if it seems like the best option just now. Please David I don’t want you to go through this.”
David did not reply. Faraday turned and went back into the corridor.
“How was he?” Jane asked.
“Shite.” Faraday barked.
“So what do we do now?” Will asked.
“I’m going back to bed.” Faraday announced.
“What about Mengele?”
“He can wait.”
“He can’t wait! He could be out of the country by tomorrow, we have to go now! Jane will you come with me?”
“She’s not going anywhere!”
“Faraday what has gotten in to you?” She replied, mortified by her husband’s behaviour.
“Nothing! I just don’t want this snake anywhere near you!”
“What did you call me?”
Faraday stepped towards Will, they were nose to nose. “I called you a snake!”
“Faraday calm down.”
“This guy thinks I don’t know what he’s up to?”
“What am I up to? Is me trying to catch war criminals a problem for you?”
“Always with the fucking Nazis, change the record!”
Will had punched Faraday as soon as the last letter had left his mouth. Faraday crumbled to the ground, holding his cheek as he landed.
“You’re sacked!” Faraday yelled, as he spat blood onto the floor.
“You can’t sack me you complete moron. Only Bobby can. And just so we’re clear, if you ever undermine what I’m doing or what I’ve been through again, I will kill you.”
The doctor had come out of the treatment room and was perplexed at the image that confronted him.
“What is going on out here? You all need to leave.”
“Sorry doctor, we are just about to.” Jane was utterly humiliated by both men’s actions. She followed Will along the corridor as Faraday stayed crumpled on the ground.
“Are you okay Will?”
Am I okay, he thought, what kind of question was that? He bit his lip. “I’m fine.”
“He’s been through this kind of thing before, it just brings up bad memories.”
“It’s seriously fine, I know he was upset. He just needs to watch what he says.”
“I know, he will apologise to you.”
“Let’s just forget about it.” They reached the car park and saw that Will’s car was now covered in snow. “What are we doing about Mengele?”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, David is
like family and Faraday needs me.”
“Do you realise this is your job?”
“Yes Will, I do. But it is also your job and we are your superiors. We almost lost a very dear friend tonight and I’m not travelling to New York until I’ve seen him. Especially not with you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what it means! I’m not going until we’ve seen David.”
“By then he’ll be gone!”
“I don’t care! You go!”
“Alone? I don’t know who he’s with.”
“Take Chase?”
“Chase? He’s a fucking kid.”
“He’s quite capable.”
“You’re serious?”
“Quite.”
“Fine! You can make your own way home!” Will hurried over to his car and got in. As soon as the headlights were on, the car screeched out of the car park.
Jane turned and saw that Faraday had caught up to her. “I’m sorry about that, I was just upset.”
“It’s okay I understand. Just don’t let it happen again.”
“I won’t. Why did Will leave?”
Jane laughed. “Are you serious?”
Faraday blushed. “Because of me?”
“Well I think that had something to do with it and then he said he wanted to go for Mengele, so I told him to take Chase.”
“Chase? He’s only been with us a month.”
“He’s good.”
“He’s okay but its Josef Mengele, those two can’t go after him alone.”
“Faraday, he just decked you.”
“Who hasn’t? I’m just saying he needs proper backup.”
“Who else is there? David’s in the hospital, we need to stay here and Bobby’s away. Should I have sent Nancy?”
Faraday managed a laugh at that. “No but we could have talked to Hoover.”
“True, we can call him and let him know.”
Chapter 9
The room seemed to be a little more in focus now, the blood transfusion had certainly helped. He was left alone in the treatment room. He didn’t feel like he had just slit his wrist, he felt full of energy. He was aware that this could happen following a blood transfusion but he had never experienced it before.
As he thought back to what he could remember of Faraday’s visit he felt guilty, guilt is the bloody last thing I need, he thought. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the suicide attempt failing. Was he happy or sad? A bit of both perhaps.
The door swung open and a doctor he didn’t recognise entered with a nurse he also didn’t recognise.
“Hello David, I’m Dr Gottleib. I hear you’ve had a rough night?”
“Yes, I suppose I have.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Fine.”
The nurse gave a bemused look, the doctor pressed on. “You feel fine?”
“Yeah I guess.”
“You don’t seem to be particularly concerned?”
“I’m not.”
“Well would you like to talk me through what happened?”
“It’s personal.”
“I wasn’t asking David. I need to assess you to see if we need to keep you in hospital.”
“I’m a doctor, I’ll leave if I feel up to it.”
Dr Gottleib seemed slightly infuriated by David’s responses. “I read in your file that you are a forensic pathologist?”
“That’s right.”
“Not exactly a study of the human mind.”
“Well I’ve dissected brains.”
“Yes I’ll bet you have.” He chuckled. “But it’s not quite the same thing. Which hospital do you work at?”
“I don’t. I used to work at Parkland in Dallas but I work for the government.”
“Very impressive. So how do you enjoy your work David?”
“It’s okay I suppose.”
“Just okay?”
“Well yeah, who enjoys working?”
“No problems at work at all?”
“No.”
“How about outside of work, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?”
David was stumped. “Um, nothing really.”
“No hobbies?”
“Not anymore, no.”
“What did you used to enjoy doing?”
“Well I used to spend all of my spare time with my wife. Whenever we both managed to get a day off work we would take trips.”
“Are you separated?”
“No, she passed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that David, truly I am. How long has it been?”
“It’s been eight years, going on nine. It’s strange, I hadn’t really thought it had been that long.”
“The memory will be fresh to you David, it’s quite natural. You must miss her?”
“Of course, I’ll never stop missing her.”
“Do you have any children?”
Another sore spot. “No we didn’t.”
“Do you feel lonely?”
“Well I have friends.”
“Yes I don’t mean are you alone. When we’re feeling down we can feel lonely even if we have dozens of friends around us. Would it be fair to say that you may be feeling lonely, even though you have a good support network around you?”
“I suppose it would.”
“Do you find that even when you are in company you are in your head a lot of the time?”
“How do you mean?”
“Well say for example when you are having a meal with your friends, how easy do you find it to remain concentrated on what is happening around you?”
“Quite difficult.”
“Why?”
“I have thoughts that won’t go away.”
“Thoughts about your wife?”
“Sometimes.”
“What else do you think about?”
“Mistakes I’ve made. People I’ve hurt.”
“So you find yourself obsessing over the past?”
“Yes.”
“And how long would you say this has been going on?”
“Years.”
“Since your wife’s death?”
“Well I suppose it started then, but it’s gotten worse over time.”
“These things often do. So when you were planning your suicide, what would you say you were thinking about?”
“Well I wouldn’t say I planned it.”
“So it was more of an impulse?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve never done this before?”
“No.”
“No self harming?”
“No.”
“How do you sleep?”
“I don’t really.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Years.”
“Since you wife’s death?”
“Exactly.”
“And if I was to send you home, what do you think you would do?”
“How do you mean?”
“What I’m trying to establish is whether or not you are a risk to yourself David.”
“I don’t know, I have no plans to do anything.”
“But you didn’t plan tonight?”
“No.”
“Okay, so listen here’s what I think. I think that you are suffering from depression. I think it began with the death of your wife. I think you have held in your feelings for such long time, that they have snowballed into something that you are now finding very difficult to deal with.” David felt tears forming in his eyes, this man was right. “I know it is difficult for you to hear. To be honest with you David, I don’t think I can send you home. You said you have no plans to try and end your life and I believe you, but I’m afraid that you may act impulsively once again. I think we need to keep you here. For the time being I will commit you to the Psychiatric Ward for one week. We shall see how you get on and review it if necessary.”
“Okay.” David wasn’t sure how he felt, he liked the doctor, he seemed like a kind man.
&nbs
p; Chapter 10
Bobby was sat in his office, in the White House opposite Wernher Von Braun, Howard Hughes had flown back to Las Vegas, Kennedy and Abaddon were preparing for a press conference at 11:00. It was Boxing Day and Bobby was in the last place he wanted to be. He had been looking forward to the break and spending Christmas with those nearest and dearest to him. It didn’t help that he had no idea what he should be looking for.
“Wernher why don’t you just tell me what you think happened?”
“I already have, there were no technical problems with the rocket. There were absolutely no problems whatsoever, the only way in which it could have exploded would be by an act of sabotage.”
“So you think it was a deliberate act?”
“There is no other solution.”
“Okay. Then who did it?”
“I think that is your remit.”
“Who could have done it?”
“Well the only people that have access to the rocket would be NASA employees.”
“So could anyone working at NASA potentially have planted explosives?”
“No one at NASA would do that.”
“But could they?”
“No, only people with direct access. I can get you a list of the people working on the Apollo Program.”
“What about the crew?”
“What about them?”
“Could they have potentially blown up the shuttle?”
Wernher looked disgusted at the thought. “Why would they?”
“I don’t know, why would anyone?”
“The only people with any motive would be the Russians.”
Bobby considered this for a moment. “What about the Nazis?”
Wernher looked on the verge of imploding. “Excuse me?”
“You were a Nazi, were you not?”
“I am a German scientist. I came to this country to get away from the Nazis.”
“But am I right in thinking you never defected until 1945?”
“That is correct.”
“So you were in Germany for almost the entire Nazi regime?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a little convenient that you then defected to the US whilst the Nazis were about to lose the war. You can’t really claim to have been trying to escape from the Nazis.”
“Just what is it you are accusing me of?”