ESU Squad Leader Donaldson had left Henry and Abe earlier, promising that Lt. Reece and Detectives Martinez and Hanson would soon visit them. As they approached their temporary quarters from a lunch that had most definitely hit the spot, they were greeted by a white-haired man in his 60s wearing the Army uniform of a four-star general. He held the at-ease position of a soldier trained to spring into action in the blink of an eye, if necessary. As they drew near, he offered them a polite but professional smile and an outstretched hand.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," he greeted them. "I'm General Wilfred Austin. Welcome to the Green. I'm here to personally escort you to more suitable quarters."
They shook hands with him, thanked him, and went inside the room to gather up their few belongings before realizing that they had none. They then followed the General down the corridor in the opposite direction past the eatery they had just patronized.
"My apologies for not having been here to meet you when you first arrived, gentlemen. I was in a meeting being briefed on your situation and how best to handle it." He paused in front of a closed doorway and opened it.
Henry and Abe entered the room that looked more like a regular but upscale hotel room with two kingsize beds and a loveseat across from a flatscreen TV. In one corner of the room were two upholstered chairs and a small, round table with a bowl of real fruit on it.
"Your friends - Lt. Reece and Detectives Martinez and Hanson - had planned to arrive this evening for all of us to meet early tomorrow morning in my office," he informed them. "But there's been a change in plans because of the fluidity of their investigation into the man who tried to drown your assistant. Lt. Reece does want you know that he is in custody, though."
"Well. That's good news," Henry replied, fighting to hide his disappointment over the cancelled meeting tomorrow. He had been looking forward to seeing Jo.
Austin produced a business card from his inside pocket and handed it to Abe. "This is how I can be reached. Please do not hesitate to call me if you need anything. The three men bid each other goodbye and the General left their room.
"Small patio," Abe observed, frowning.
"At least there is one," Henry pointed out as he slid the sliding glass door open and stepped outside onto the small area.
"Yeah, real House Beautiful," Abe remarked sarcastically but joined his father on there anyway.
"I know you were looking forward to the visit tomorrow," Abe told his father.
"Yes," Henry replied. "Always good to see my colleagues."
"I'm talking about Jo, Dad," Abe said tiredly. "Stop pushing her away. You don't need to do that anymore, she knows!"
"Abe. I'm not ... " Henry paused, sighing. "This is not the time for me to consider pursuing a relationship with Jo."
"And why not?" a scowling Abe demanded, his hands on his hips.
"There are too many things going on right now," Henry replied, feeling cornered and wearied by yet another conversation like this with his son. Walking quickly back into the room, his tone pitched higher. "And just because she knows doesn't mean that she and I can go skipping down the lollipop lane hand in hand and live happily ever after!"
"She didn't run out on you, did she?" Abe asked.
"Not yet," Henry tersely pointed out.
"You used her weapon to blow your brains out," Abe reminded him. "Do you know how much paperwork is involved when a police officer's weapon is fired? Not to mention IA possibly getting involved."
"Yes, I do, but how do you know that?" Henry returned.
"From watching crime shows," Abe replied. Henry released a mirthless laugh. "Oh, you laugh, but I'm willing to bet that she's gonna fudge that report in order to protect you. She's done it a few times before she knew about your condition," Abe reminded him. "The girl has feelings for you and you shouldn't keep denying yours for her!"
Henry recalled with silent gratitude the time that she had willingly omitted Abe's presence during a warehouse break-in from her police report during the Rick Rasmussen murder case. And before that, when she'd overlooked Abe having 'borrowed' a sales ledger from a fellow antiques dealer that had led them to copycat serial killer, Scott Bentley. Not to mention the times she'd failed to disclose to her boss, Lt. Reece, that Henry had stepped in front of a bullet or a car for fear that it would result in him being forbidden to participate in any subsequent investigations.
"Even if what you say is true, Abraham, how do you think she'll feel about me once everything sinks in? Once she really finds out how it was for Abigail as she'd aged and I had not. Once she realizes what her life would be like with an unaging enigma such as me!"
"Henry!" Abe exclaimed in frustration to stop his father from uttering another self-pitying word. He grabbed his father's upper arms and looked him in the eyes. "Every couple endures good and bad times. What makes it bearable is that they endure them together. So your baggage has a little more weight and durability than that of others. Believe me, that doesn't matter to Jo. Don't keep her away from you this time, Dad. Let her in."
vvvv
General Austin's office, the next morning ...
Henry and Abe walked into Austin's office where they were greeted by one of his aides, Captain Ness. She directed them toward an open door that led to a conference room. They seated themselves at the conference table across from Austin.
"That'll be all, Captain," Austin told her. "Let me know as soon as the call comes in." She left, closing the door behind her.
Austin reiterated what he'd said to them the night before, that Lt. Reece and their two detective friends would not be present that morning. "The Lieutenant will be participating in a conference call with us, though."
The multi-line phone on the conference table rang and he answered it.
"Put her through," he instructed his aide before punching the speakerphone button. "Go ahead, Lieutenant. You're on speaker."
Lt. Reece, on the other end, thanked him, greeted Henry and Abe, and told them that Lucas' doctor was releasing him from the hospital that same day.
"Ohhh, great," Abe said and Henry echoed his sentiments.
("As you should know by now, the man who kidnapped and tried to drown him has been taken into custody," Reece said.)
Adam in custody and Lucas well enough to leave the hospital. It was welcome news to Henry and Abe.
"From what I hear, Doctor," the General began, "the young man owes his life to you. How fortunate for him that you were able to recover him from the river in the same spot where you were ... recreating."
Neither Henry nor Abe could believe their ears. The General knew nothing about Henry's self-demise in the 11th Precinct's bullpen meaning he knew nothing about his condition? That like Donaldson and his men, the General merely thought him to be a hero besieged by mobs? Both he and Abe managed to remain calm from years of practice.
Henry cleared his throat, leaning toward the phone's speaker. "Might I ask, Lieutenant, where is Dr. Farber now?"
("Bellevue," she replied. "Harbor Patrol took him there after they'd recovered him from the Hudson. I will personally oversee Farber's transfer of custody from Bellevue to a cell at Ryker's. He's on a 24-hour Suicide Watch.")
Henry and Abe eyed each other uncertainly, knowing full well that if they blinked, Adam would use that miniscule lapse in security to free himself by death. The thought had crossed Henry's mind from time to time to look into an arrest record for Adam under Farber's name. He wished now that he had. Perhaps it would have helped him to get a step ahead of the troubling Immortal and avoid any injury to Lucas or even their confrontation in the subway.
"I'm assuming, Lieutenant, that you're aware that the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover's direction, had begun keeping track of him in the 1930s," Austin said. "According to reports from that time, he'd traveled to Poland in 1937 and dropped out of sight two years later. It was speculated at the time, that he was caught up in the Nazi invasion of 1939 winding up in one of the camps."
"When the camps were liberated," Austin continued, "he wasn't found in any of 'em, so he was presumed dead. A few years after the war, though, he popped up in a small town outside of New York. Guess he'd managed to escape - which is a miracle - because the Nazis didn't release people from those camps. Alive, anyway," Austin solemnly added.
"You said that he popped up in a small town outside of New York," Henry cautiously asked. "Do you recall the name of the town?"
"Tarrytown. He's been known to visit there quite a bit," Austin replied. "No permanent address found for him there; just one in New York City that's probably bogus."
"Why do you say that?" Abe asked.
("It's a tarot card reading store on East 33rd," Reece replied for Austin, causing him to set his mouth and raise his eyebrows as if impressed by her knowledge. "Mike and Jo are going to check that place out.")
"We sent people there to get readings, you know, undercover, but he was never there," Austin continued. "He definitely knows how to stay under the radar," the General tiredly admitted. "But as long as he hadn't posed any threat to anyone, he was just ... an interesting anomaly that provided a much-needed distraction to new recruits or those wishing to hone their people tracking skills."
"An interesting anomaly? A distraction?" Henry repeated, unable to contain his incredulity at the off-handed manner in which the General and government authorities apparently regarded Adam. "He's a murderer!"
Austin was silent for a few moments as he studied Henry. "That's your opinion," he finally said.
"My - ?" Henry couldn't believe his ears. "To the best of my firsthand knowledge, he is a murderer. And while we're discussing him, you and I both know that Farber is not his real name. He's not a normal human being!" Neither was he but that was beside the point.
"Didn't say he was," Austin told him. "He is a pretty remarkable being, though, but no threat to national security. That's why after decades of monitoring him, the Secret Service handed responsibility for that over to the FBI in the 1930s."
"You mean ... the federal government has known about him since the 1860s?" Henry asked, frowning in amazement. He knew the service had its origins in the mid 1860s.
"Not exactly," Austin replied. "Unconfirmed reports of a man fitting his description who seemed to meet his end from time to time but apparently not his maker, surfaced in the 1880s around the time of the Ripper murders in London. In an effort to try to help Scotland Yard nab the culprit, our government began taking those unconfirmed reports a little more seriously. We had to find out not only if they were true but who this individual actually was and ... what he actually was."
("Were they able to uncover that information on him?" Reece asked. "We at the NYPD only know that he's here now and apparently has been for at least a couple of years. It would have been nice if earlier information about him had been shared with us.")
Henry pressed his lips together and lowered his head, shaking it. "I apologize for that, Lieutenant."
("I'm not talking about you, Henry. Murders happen everyday in New York. Who's to say that this ... man the government has been monitoring for over a century is not responsible for some of them?")
Henry lowered his eyes and his head to mask his guilt for he knew that in 2014, Adam had confessed to the torture and murder of Xander de Soto and was most likely responsible for the torture and murder of Julian Glasser, also in 2014. But had Adam or Clarke Walker murdered the cab driver, Raj Patel? He wasn't sure which. But he was sure that Adam had used his stolen butcher knife to autopsy a live Richard Smight to death. He had kept quiet about his suspicions that Adam or one of his pawns were behind those atrocities. At the time, he simply didn't know how to tell anyone without sounding insane.
"He, like our other operatives, received some ... directives from us," Austin admitted, unable to maintain eye contact with either Henry or Abe. "I wouldn't classify what he did as murder. Although it appears that he has been rather ... creative ... while executing some of those directives."
"Creative?" Henry scoffed, frowning at Austin. "He may have gotten someone else to steal my hunting knife from my office in the OCME but he, himself was most likely the one to have used it to autopsy a man named Richard Smight in 2014. While he was still alive! Is that the type of creative expression this government expects from its operatives?"
("Dr. Morgan - ")
"No, no, no, it's alright, Lieutenant," Austin told her. "Let him talk."
Henry sighed, moving his eyes slowly from Austin, to the speakerphone, and back to Austin. "Were you aware that your so-called operative used my hunting knife in that particular murder in an effort to frame me for it?"
Austin nodded. "You needn't have worried, though, Doctor. We wouldn't have allowed it to come to that."
"You wouldn't have allowed - " He abruptly paused, washing his hand down over his face. "But you allowed him to roam free, having full knowledge of what he was and is capable of!?"
"He wasn't always that way," Austin replied. "At least, not from any of the reports I've seen dated prior to ... prior to 1985, when he learned about you and became obsessed with finding you." Austin paused, setting his jaw tightly, and eyeing Henry. "Very sorry about your wife, Abigail. We, uh, just didn't see that coming."
Ignoring and even rejecting Austin's apology, Henry said, "What you're saying is that this man, this grossly unbalanced man was given a license to kill?!"
It was hard to do but Austin maintained direct eye contact with the two men sitting across from him this time. After all, their Immortal operative was responsible in great part for the death of Henry's wife and Abe's mother. For that, and the other trouble they'd suffered at the hands of their operative, he was genuinely sorry; even if he was failing to convey that to them.
"His clearance didn't exactly rise to that level of security, Doctor," he replied. "More like ... a mechanic."
"A hit man," Abe gruffed out.
"But whatever security clearance or ... license to act has been granted him in the past has now been officially revoked. He's no longer afforded the protection of the United States government," Austin said. "When he began his search for you in 1985, communication with him became haphazard at best. However, when he finally found you a few years ago, we thought that that might cool him down a bit. It didn't. In fact, it only seemed to make matters worse. We fell out of communication with him and ... "
"It became more difficult to track him," Henry finished for him. "And to keep others safe from him."
"We failed," Austin admitted. "But we won't this time. He's in custody now and we do have our ways of controlling him."
("As do we," Reece stated. She next spoke directly to Henry and Abe. "You two have been through a lot. The NYPD extends its sincerest apologies for not having provided better protection for you in the past. But rest assured that we are here for you now and will always be here for you in the future. I'm asking you to have a little more patience while we wrap up this case so that you two can resume your lives here in New York - with your friends where you belong.")
Both men smiled and thanked her in unison. She ended the call, stating that Mike and Jo were reporting in on the other line. Austin then stood up, indicating that the meeting was over. Henry and Abe left the room with Austin not far behind them.
"In spite of everything you've learned this morning, gentlemen," Austin began, "I hope you know that you have nothing to worry about for the duration of your stay here." They turned to face him and he could see their uncertainty and mistrust.
"I won't offer any apologies for the manner in which the government chooses to handle its affairs," he told them as he walked behind his desk and sat down. "No matter how much people disagree, it works. And it has worked for more than two centuries."
Henry walked up to his desk and asked, "What information do you have on me?"
Austin sat forward in his chair and replied, "Well, besides being an exemplary medical professional and crime solver, a good man with a good heart." He eyed Abe over Henry's shoulder. "Devoted to family; dedicated to your job; loyal to friends." He moved his gaze back to Henry. "Just the type of operative we'd welcome as a replacement for the one we've just lost."
"Utterly ridiculous!" Henry said and began walking out of the office.
Austin stood up from his chair and added, "You'd have the full protection and backing of the United States government which means you'd never have to worry about your, uh, 'cover' being blown. Because 'exposure always looms', doesn't it, Doctor?"
Henry recalled having said those very words in the antiques shop to then murder suspect and computer hacktivist, Liz Chamberlain. He had tried to explain to her the near futility of him giving her a false death certificate so she could begin a new life. He whirled around to face Austin again, his face dark with anger.
"You bugged my home! Invaded our privacy!" He hurled the accusations at Austin, who visibly flinched from them.
"We had to be sure about you, that you were no threat, either," Austin explained. "We make no apologies for that."
An angry Abe now stood next to his father. "So all that time ... you guys knew what was happening and you stood by and did nothing."
"We had to see how things played out," Austin told him.
"You mean you had to see if this guy," Abe said, pointing to his father, "would have offed that guy. As much of a game player as Adam is." He leaned on his knuckles against the top of the desk. "What, you guys take bets on who would off who? Bet you cleaned up," he said accusingly.
"Abraham, let's just go back to our room," Henry said, patting his arm and pulling him away.
"Might want to think about it, Doctor," Austin called to their retreating forms.
Henry stopped and looked over his shoulder back at Austin. "Become one of your so-called operatives, a paid hit man at the government's beck and call? No, thank you. I'll take my chances on my own."
He and Abe left the office and Captain Ness stepped in, closing the door, then facing Austin. "Any orders, Sir?" she asked.
"Not yet," he replied, sitting back down in his chair. "We've got time, though. And time is something that Dr. Henry Morgan has lots and lots of, it seems."
Captain Ness frowned slightly, confused. But she smoothed her features out and left the office when Austin dismissed her.
Notes:
Information on U.S. Secret Service found at
wiki/United_States_Secret_Service#History
Slight references to Forever TV shows including S01/E06 "The Frustrating Thing about Psychopaths"; S01/E11 "Skinny Dipper"; S01/E14 "Hitler on the Half Shell"; S01/E18 "Dead Men Tell Long Tales"; partial quote 'exposure always looms' from S01/E17 "Social Engineering"; and S01/E22 "The Last Death of Henry Morgan".