Enough Time, Part 2
Chapter One
They'd found her. McCall stood transfixed, phone against his ear, but hearing nothing. Kostmayer took the receiver from his hand, got the details from Alice, grabbed the keys, and pushed his friend out the door. McCall was in no state to get behind the wheel, so Kostmayer drove to the hospital, dropped McCall in front of the ER and left to park.
Before stepping through the entrance, McCall ran a hand over his face, straightened his tie and his shoulders, and prepared to be Robert McCall again, for Barbara.
Once inside, he was told that she was in cubicle three, through the doors to the left. Standing outside her cubicle were two people McCall knew. One was a young ER doctor, Geneva Farber, who had treated Barbara the last time they had visited here. The other was Larry Winters, the surgeon who had removed the bullet from Barbara's back a year ago. A long-time acquaintance of McCall's, Winters had spent years working for the Company before joining the hospital staff.
"Hello, Robert," Winters said, shaking McCall's hand. "I saw on TV that they had brought Barbara in, and I came down from my office right away." Turning to the other doctor he said: "I think you know Dr. Farber?"
Farber nodded and extended her hand to McCall, but he was already moving toward Barbara's bed, staring at the woman he had feared he would never see again. As always, his heart jumped upon seeing Barbara, and he was grateful beyond expression that she had been returned to him. But there was something…a shadow…something on her face…. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. She simply looked different. My dear Barbara, he groaned to himself, what did Michael do to you?
Keeping his eyes glued on Barbara, he half turned back to Winters and Farber, a question written clearly on his face.
"Mr. McCall, she's fine physically," Farber began. "She's got some deep lacerations on her wrists and ankles from the ropes, and she was extremely cold when they found her, but otherwise she's fine."
"Physically fine? And?" McCall thought he might not want to know the answer, but he had to ask. He focused again on Barbara.
Winters came closer, stood next to McCall, and took his elbow. McCall reluctantly turned his gaze from Barbara's face to look at Winters. "Robert, she was injected with a powerful drug, twice at least. We haven't been able to identify it yet."
"How bad is it?" McCall forced himself to ask.
"It's hard to tell," Farber continued with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "When they found her, she was disoriented and highly agitated. The paramedics sedated her, and now she's calmer, but she hasn't been responsive yet. We don't know how she'll be when she comes out of it."
"Has she spoken at all?" McCall asked.
"No. The paramedics reported that she was conscious when they found her, but she didn't respond to any of their questions," Farber told him.
"What's next?" He was trying to read Barbara's face. He wanted her to open her eyes and, what, he wondered? Be the real Barbara?
"We have to identify the drug before we can deal with it," Farber responded.
After fearing for so long what Michael might have done to Barbara, McCall now knew the answer. If he'd been thinking straight, he would have known it before. Michael Rosa had a reputation for using despicable drugs on his victims. Damn that man, how could he have done it to Barbara? What had Barbara ever done to him?
"I'll talk to her. She might respond if she hears my voice. Maybe she can tell us something about the drug," McCall said.
The doctors stepped away. McCall searched Barbara's face for signs, trying to understand what she had lived through and how he could fix it for her. Her eyes were tightly closed, her brow furrowed, and a muscle was twitching in her cheek. She certainly was not resting calmly. My dear, he thought, what is going on your mind?
He took her hand and bent down until he was close to her. "Barbara, it's Robert. Will you talk to me, my love?"
At first, nothing. Then he could see that her brow smoothed a bit, and her eyes fluttered slightly. She had heard him. It seemed that she was trying to answer, trying to break through some barrier and return to him.
"Barbara, you're safe," he said in his most gentle, soothing voice. "You're with me, in the hospital, the one where you had your surgery. Larry Winters is here, too. And Dr. Farber, the ER doctor who helped us…."
Her eyes fluttered open. At first she looked up at the ceiling, eyes unfocused. She closed them, but opened them immediately again. This time she glanced around, orienting herself. Finally her gaze landed on McCall's face, and he could see them light up. She had recognized him. She tried to squeeze his hand.
"Yes, my love, I'm here. You're safe. It's going to be all right."
Once she had discovered Robert's hand around hers, Barbara thought she would never let it go again. For a time she could not calculate, she had been ripped back and forth between two realities. When she WAS coherent, she was so afraid that she wished more than once that she could die.
Now she had Robert to hold on to. Could he really keep her safe, keep her from going back to the other place? Maybe she didn't have to be afraid anymore, she hoped from the depth of her soul.
"Robert?" She hadn't known if she could get any words out.
"Yes, Barbara?" he answered, grateful for this first step.
"I was…afraid, so afraid. Please, don't let it take me again, please…," she begged him, squeezing his hand very hard.
This was so unlike the Barbara he knew that he could not answer until he composed himself. He didn't want her to notice his shock, so he took a few calm breaths. When he was ready to answer, he thought she must be talking about Michael. He reassured her: "Michael's dead, Barbara. He won't hurt you again."
"No…no, not Michael. Don't let it take me…back there…. I can't do it again." She had raised her voice until it was almost a scream.
He knew she hated to cry, but tears were running down her face. It alarmed him even more. Still holding her hand firmly, McCall stroked her cheek with his other hand. He was trying to understand what she meant. "It" took her, she had said. The drug, he asked himself?
"Barbara, can you tell me what happened?" They had to find out as quickly as possible. But could she do it, in this state?
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She told herself she had to try. She raised her face to him.
"I thought you were hurt. I opened the door. He had a gun. When I woke up I was somewhere else…tied up…. He was gone. He came back and…." She didn't want to remember. "He gave me a drug. He got it from the Agency." McCall flinched. How did Rosa get anything from the Agency, he asked himself? He had gone rogue long ago.
Barbara continued: "I was so afraid. It was…. It took me…. I was here, and then I was there. I can't explain…." She stopped, frustrated and fearful.
The monitor attached to her arm showed that her blood pressure was rising rapidly, and her breathing was becoming increasingly labored. The two doctors, who had been listening to the conversation a short distance away, eyed each other, silently questioning how long they should let this go on. McCall was asking himself the same question.
"It's all right, Barbara. You're all right," he said gently, stroking her hand.
But Barbara wasn't listening to him anymore; she was trying to make sense of what had happened to her. "It took me there…,and I didn't…. It was real…. I was back there, in my cell and…."
With dread, McCall realized what she was talking about. He knew about her experiences in the East German prison.
"They came for me…. It was…." She had closed her eyes and seemed to be drifting away again.
McCall had to stop her. "Barbara, open your eyes and look at me!" he said sharply.
He got through to her. She did as he ordered.
"Barbara, you are not there. You are with me, here in New York. You must believe me. You know I always tell you the truth," he said firmly, determined to make her believe.
She fixed her eyes on him again. She felt him stroking her hand. Could she believe her eyes, believe the feeling in her hand, believe what he said? Was she really here, she asked herself? She grasped his hand even tighter.
To her colleague and McCall, Farber said: "We know enough for the moment." To Barbara she said: "Dr. Williams, we're going to give you another sedative to help you rest. We'll move you to a room upstairs in a bit. Just relax. You'll be fine."
Farber left to give instructions to the staff. McCall had to talk to Winters, his former colleague at the Agency, and he didn't want Barbara or Farber to hear, so he hurried to take advantage of the other doctor's absence.
"Barbara, I have to talk to Larry. I'll be right over there."
Barbara panicked when he said he was leaving, even if it was only to the other side of the room. McCall could see it in her face. Once more, he was astonished at the change in her. She was not normally one to panic like this.
"No, Robert, don't go, please," she pleaded.
"I'll only go where you can see me, over there." He nodded toward the entrance to the cubicle. By this time Farber had returned with a nurse, who set about preparing Barbara's medications. McCall touched his lips to his wife's hand, gently extricated it from his and moved a few feet away to talk to Winters, never taking his eyes off Barbara.
"Larry, can I speak to you in private for a moment?" he said quietly.
Farber heard and said: "Whatever you have to say to Dr. Winters you can say to me, Mr. McCall. She is my patient, remember."
The two men traded glances, and Winters shrugged slightly. Why not, McCall asked himself? McCall indicated that they should move farther away from the bed. He still kept his eyes on Barbara, who was following his every move.
"Michael Rosa was the man who took her." Winters looked at him in distress. He knew Rosa by reputation. Farber could not know the name, so McCall explained: "Dr. Farber, Rosa was an assassin. He died this afternoon." He continued: "Larry, I don't know how familiar you are with Rosa's methods, but he often used psychological torture drugs." McCall left the rest unsaid.
Farber blurted out: "What are you talking about? Why would this man want to torture your wife?" Immediately she thought better of her words. She had met the McCalls once before, and after that run-in, she had concluded that they were not an average, middle-aged couple. Maybe this story was true, she told herself, as fantastic as it seemed.
McCall sighed. "Dr. Farber, please, can we just leave it? What's important is that the drug will be very difficult to identify. It's not as though the FDA had approved it." Addressing Winters, he went on: "Larry, there are two things you and I can do. Barbara said Rosa got the drug from the Agency."
"What? Robert, how…?" Winters broke in.
"I know, Larry, I know. But that's what he told her. He could have lied to her, or it could be true. Just because the Agency is American doesn't mean they're above these tactics, as you well know." Winters acknowledged McCall's words with a slight nod. Farber stared, open mouthed.
"I will look into the Agency angle. You have to find a drug expert. It seems to be a psychotropic or hallucinogenic, doesn't it?"
This was Farber's cue. "Sounds logical. When she was talking to you, she appeared to be trying to describe some kind of shifting reality. But what hallucinations are you talking about?"
"Doctor, she believed she had returned to a place in her past, a prison where she was held about ten years ago," McCall filled her in.
Once again the story seemed unbelievable to the young doctor, but McCall was absolutely convincing.
Winters had been considering McCall's plan. "I know someone who could help."
"Good, Larry," McCall said gratefully. "If you can get in touch with him…,"
"Her. She's a woman," Winters corrected McCall.
"If you can get in touch with HER and get her help, I'll shake some trees at the Agency…," McCall focused his eyes back on Barbara, who was still watching him intently. "Believe me, if they had anything to do with this, I'll…." McCall didn't finish. Some things were better left unsaid. "Kostmayer's outside. She trusts him. He'll stay with her while I'm gone." McCall hadn't asked him yet, but he knew Kostmayer would agree.
Farber nodded and said: "I'll oversee her treatment tonight. As I told her, we'll get her sedated and moved upstairs."
Before they separated, McCall asked Winters to send Kostmayer in from the waiting room. The three exchanged a brief look and set off to save Barbara Williams' sanity.
