Chapter Thirty-Five

"Leah, are you all right? What's happened?" Trapper stood in front of her anxiously awaiting an answer. He wanted to scoop her up and carry her to the bed where he could immediately assess her condition. But casting his eyes to the side, he saw the guard in the room watching them closely. Instead, he took her by the arm and led her there, pulled his stethoscope out of his coat pocket and began listening to her heartbeat. It was fast. "What's happened?" he asked quietly.

"Gaddafi's technician saw something as he watched over my shoulder. I had sent a transmission to Frazier, but I also sent fake telemetry for a satellite to Mark, so that's where I directed the technician. Mark confirmed it, but they sent us here anyway. The technician was angry, so I'm sure he suspects something."

"Will they find anything?" asked Trapper as he stood and moved the bell of the stethoscope over her back.

"No. I was able to delete the connection before I left."

After connecting two leads to her chest, Trapper stood and directed his attention to a string of paper coming out of one of the machines. "Does this mean you actually found a connection to a satellite?" he whispered.

"No, but I've made it look like I've found a packet that might get into the DOD."

"Leah!" he barked a little too loudly.

The guard walked over and looked at the paper coming out of the machine.

Giving the guard a hostile look, he asked a little louder than he'd been speaking, "Have you taken your next dose of cyclosporine?"

Leah closed her eyes and folded her lips into a tight line, hoping the guard would see aggravation. "I haven't. I had not yet been allowed…until now."

Spinning around on his heels, Trapper faced the guard. "Inform your colonel that if he continues to ignore her medication schedule, he could end his chances of finding whatever it is he's looking for. Going without her medication could lead to her death." Next, he turned to Aggie. "Prepare her medications."

When the guard moved away, he continued the conversation prior to the guard's interest. "You can't lead them into the DOD. You'll be charged with treason."

She sighed tiredly. "That's not a problem, Trapper. It can't be done. But if I don't continue to look like I'm making progress, he'll know that I'm either stalling or that I have no idea what I'm doing. Either way, he'll have no use for me…or you and Aggie, and I think you know where that will lead." She glanced at the guard and lowered her voice. "I've created something that looks like a path into a classified area. I don't think the Libyans will know it's not real, but they'll find telemetry that looks real when they look at the data on the tape, and that's all they'll find."

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"Something's wrong," said Frazier. "She deactivated the modem for our connection without warning. She said that one of Gaddafi's technicians was sharp. Maybe he saw something."

Delgado rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn't good news. "Let's just hope that whatever's going on, she's covered her tracks."

Frazier bowed his head in thought. He didn't want to tell what he had seen until he knew she was able to get through with it, but he had a responsibility to report it to his superior. "She may have found a way in," he said remorsefully.

His lower jaw dropping, Delgado said "What? She knows she can't do that."

"Well, she may have," said Frazier. "It's possible she cut the connection because she didn't want me to see it."

Taking a deep breath, Delgado said, "Let's not jump to conclusions. Let's give her time to reconnect and see where she is. If she's actually made a connection, you'll have to cut her off. We can't let her in."

"If we don't let her in somewhere, Gaddafi is eventually going to blow a gasket."

"We'll just have to figure out how to get them out before that happens," said Delgado, nodding. "Pop and Pauley are working on a way to get in and get them out as we speak."

Frazier chuckled sarcastically. "We both know that compound has guards on top of guards. I'm not confident they'll find a way in without waging an all out war."

"Well," said Delgado shrugging. "If waging war is the only way, that's what we have to do. We have enough men to make the Libyans believe it is a war. They'll lock down the area of the compound where they're keeping Leah, Trapper and Aggie, so we have to be prepared to go their first, and if necessary start our defenses there."

"Gaddafi will execute them at the first sign of trouble," said Frazier.

Delgado closed his eyes, going over the almost hopeless odds in his head. "That's why we have to get to them first, before the fighting starts."

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Ernie paced back and forth in the small dining room on the boat. It had been two days since Delgado had come back to the boat, and what he'd left them with wasn't necessarily good news. Trapper had been taken to Gaddafi's compound and hadn't returned to the clinic.

"Ernie?" said Gonzo softly.

She looked at him, then continued her pacing.

"Ernie, it doesn't have to be bad news. It could be that he was needed for his specific set of skills. Maybe for Leah."

"Something is going on, Gonzo. Delgado hasn't been back. He comes back every day to rest, but he's been gone two days now. That has to mean something has happened."

Pauley rushed into the room wanting to deliver some encouraging news considering they hadn't heard anything for awhile. He knew Trapper's friends would be concerned. "We've just gotten a transmission from the van. "Leah had connected Frazier to her network, but suddenly cut him off."

Ernie and Gonzo looked guardedly at each other.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. We also got a message from Aggie. Trapper and Leah are both in Leah's quarters…waiting to go back. It seems one of Gaddafi's technicians saw something. They sent Leah back to her quarters so they could check it out. But Leah says she didn't leave them anything to find. That's the reason she cut the connection."

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Leah sat calmly on the side of the bed, her hands folded on her lap and her head bowed.

Trapper watched her from a chair on the other side of the room. She's giving up. He stood, glanced over at the guard, then walked to the bed and sat down. "You're very calm," he whispered. "What's going on in that lovely, bald head of yours?"

Without raising her head or looking at him, she said, "Trapper, I'm tired. I'm tired of being someone's pawn. First it was Doug." She snorted. "I have no idea where Doug even is now. He was here, but I haven't seen him for over a week. And now I've put you in danger." She looked up at him. "I wish you had never come for me. You'd all be better off if you'd just accepted I was dead."

"I could never do that. I knew you weren't dead, Leah. I could still feel you…here," Trapper said, covering his heart with his hand.

"You need to tell them I'm all right and go back to the clinic." She glanced at Aggie who was pushing buttons on the monitoring machines. "And take Florence Nightingale with you."

Trapper chuckled. "Not on your life."

"That's right, Trapper. Not on my life. On yours."

"Miss Haverty." Both Leah and Trapper looked toward the voice to find Colonel Gaddafi standing in the doorway. "Dr. Boudreau, I thought you were a cardiologist."

"No, I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon. But all doctors are required to take courses in psychology because the other half of our work is dealing with our patient's feelings."

"And how is your patient?" asked Gaddafi. "Mentally, of course."

Trapper stood and faced Gaddafi. "She's not feeling anything she shouldn't normally feel under the circumstances."

"And how are you feeling, Dr. Boudreau?"

"Hamstrung."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" he looked back at Leah. "The stress of whatever she's doing for you…is going to kill her. She knows that. She doesn't expect to leave here alive." Clasping his hands in front of him, Trapper continued, "You see, living with a heart you aren't born with…it's a fine balance…a dance of sorts, one move balancing out another. There's nothing here to balance her stress. It's constant."

"Are you saying she's dying?"

"In a way, yes."

"And how long would you say she has before she…leaves us?"

"I have no idea. It could be tonight…tomorrow…the next day." Trapper shrugged. "It will happen when her heart has reached its limit."

"Then we should get her back to work before it goes," said Gaddafi. He turned to leave, but stopped. "It is your job to keep her heart going. Your life will end when hers ends, Doctor."