Chapter Four
Graham winced. He knew Mr Ziegler was upset but he wished he wouldn't stand so close to his wires and cables. He watched Toby pace backwards and forwards and decided against saying anything until the Communications Director had calmed down.
"We could say that the Statement of Aims was unfinished when Sam was abducted and so its publication has been delayed." Toby had been coming up with ways of stalling the kidnappers since Leo had replaced the handset, moments earlier. "Or we could just change the schedule and say that due to security issues, the Statement is being rescheduled."
"Or we could just announce that the world's most powerful nation is being held to ransom by a Colombian drug cartel, because it amounts to the same thing," Leo snapped back. Javier had told Leo that he was being given another chance. The Statement of Aims that Sam had written with the Colombian Embassy staffers was due to be presented at a luncheon on Monday.
Graham grimaced as Toby turned and again walked over the wires. "Well I'm glad I'm not you," Toby said to Leo.
"I'm glad I'm not Leo," the President announced from the adjoining doorway, "Although, I'm not too happy being me at the moment either." Bartlet walked into the room, sat down on the sofa, and wiped his hand over his eyes. He looked up at Leo who shook his head in response.
"He's not going to wait. He knows we're not going to cancel the Statement." As Leo spoke, Bartlet lay back against the sofa and closed his eyes. "He said that he will allow Sam to speak to us tomorrow."
"We thought we might get something from some dealers that were arrested but they didn't know anything. They knew something big was going to happen but not the details," Ron said.
"It was a long shot," Bartlet said as he sat up. "If you haven't found Sam by Monday..." he trailed off but Ron knew what he was asking.
"If there are no more demands and we don't find Sam by Monday then the chances of finding him at all are slim. The chances of finding him alive are non-existent."
Everyone knew the situation but hearing it spoken out loud by Ron made it sound like Sam's fate had already been sealed. Bartlet clasped his hands and Toby noticed his knuckles were white. Leo slumped into his chair, the adrenaline that had been pumping through him suddenly dissipating. Toby stood in the middle of the room and looked at Ron. The silence wasn't broken until Graham quietly said, "Mr Ziegler, you're standing on my wires."
Sam felt the warm hand on his forehead and hoped the warmth would seep into the rest of his body. He could hear his name being called but didn't open his eyes.
"He feels really cold," one of the voices stated worriedly and he heard his name being called more urgently.
"Of course he's cold he spent a night in that fucking basement," a hand shook Sam roughly and he finally opened his eyes, flinching away when he saw the hand belonged to Mael.
"We should have brought him back up here. He's not much use if he dies of hypothermia."
"Just get him lucid and hurry up," Javier ordered. He had been in a foul mood since his conversation with Leo.
Sam was dragged off the bed and towards the sink. He heard the water running and knew what was coming next. This time he took a deep breath before his head was plunged into the cold water.
He had spent most of Saturday asleep. Two meals lay untouched on the floor by his bed. He had dreamt that he was diving from a boat. Toby, Josh and his father were with him, they were all wearing tuxedos. He had dived down to the ocean bed and when he had surfaced his friends were gone and the boat was in the distance. The sun started to disappear and the water had grown colder and colder until Sam had been unable to move his legs and had started to sink down. A clump of seaweed clung to him and Sam had woken to find the blanket tangled around his legs.
But now he was awake and being led, once again, to the kitchen.
It was exactly twenty-four hours since Toby had sat and listened to Leo talking to Javier and now he was sitting in Leo's office again waiting for the phone to ring, waiting to hear Sam's voice.
Josh was asleep on Toby's sofa. Donna knew something was going on but Leo had told her not to wake him. Toby, Graham, Ron and two agents were already sitting in his office and Leo didn't know if he could cope with Josh as well.
The President stood in the Oval Office, hands in pockets, staring out of the window. He was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt but the casual clothing did little to make him feel relaxed. Charlie stood behind him holding a cup of coffee that he had asked for but hadn't turned to accept.
Graham eyed Toby nervously. He had invested in some extension leads and moved his machine nearer to the desk but he still suspected Toby would end up pacing dangerously close to them again.
Leo sat staring at the phone. A sharp intake of breath was his only reaction when the phone finally rang. Javier quickly explained that they would hear Sam's voice next and there was a pause as the phone was passed to him. Leo glanced at Toby but he was leaning forward, his eyes fixed on the carpet below him. At the sound of Sam's voice Toby clenched his hands together and closed his eyes.
"Leo, I've got to read this to you." There were mumbled voices in the background and then Sam continued. "FARC have given the President every opportunity to comply with their demands. The first demand, that the two Colombian prisoners who were extradited by Colombia to the USA be released before their trial, was ignored. Hopefully the final two demands will not be. Tomorrow, the presentation of the Statement of Aims should be cancelled. In its place the President should publicly announce that he will no longer be assisting the Colombian President in his futile campaign against the drug cartels and narco-terrorists." Sam stopped talking and broke into a coughing fit. Toby stood up and walked to the back of the sofa. He placed his hands on it and again bowed his head. When the coughing stopped Sam took a couple of ragged breaths and continued in the same strained, emotionless voice. "You have until midnight on Tuesday to inform us that the dinner has been cancelled."
Leo took a deep breath in the silence that followed Sam's statement and then spoke. "Okay Sam, we understand...we…" Ron stared at Leo, in all the telephone conversations he had listened to, he had never heard Leo's voice falter. "You hold on son, you hear me."
"Yes."
"It will be over soon." Leo tried to sound reassuring but even as he uttered the words he realised the sinister double meaning of them.
"Yes," Sam replied again.
"I mean it, Sam, we're not giving up so don't you dare either," Leo's words were greeted with silence.
There was the sound of muted voices and then in the distance Sam coughing before Javier's voice came on the line again. "He has a cough, it is damp in the basement." Toby noticed Ron's smile and exchange of looks with one of the other agents. "You have seen the photo. You have seen what we have done to your colleague. I warned you that would happen if you ignored our demands. If the Statement of Aims is released on Monday then the consequences will be even more severe. If we do not hear from you by the deadline, you will not hear from us again and our hostage will obviously have become superfluous." With that, the line went dead. Leo stood for a while with the receiver in his hand before replacing it.
"Well he's getting careless. His taunt about Sam's treatment means we know we're looking for a house with a basement." Ron announced.
"Oh well, that's wonderful, Ron! That really narrows it down," Leo said.
"It does help, Leo. We're pretty sure that Sam is near DC. I know most buildings have basements but if we're in a position where we're trying to narrow it down having that knowledge could really be a great help."
Graham took off his earphones and stood up. "Give me a while, and I think I'll be able to say where in DC." He was smiling broadly and Toby decided that he was starting to like Graham after all.
After the phone call Sam was taken back to the bedroom. The blanket lay on the floor at the end of the bed and Sam crawled towards it. He didn't have the energy to climb on the bed but pulled the blanket around his shoulders and leant against the wall instead. He brought his knees up as far as his injured rib would allow and rested his head on them. Leo had said that it would be over soon and Sam knew that it would be. He knew that he had to hold on. Leo had told him to hold on. Josh would be willing him to hold on, but he wasn't sure that he could. He wanted it to end and he wasn't sure he cared how it ended anymore. He reached up with one hand and held onto the bed post. It felt comforting to have something solid to hold on to.
He tried to concentrate on his breathing which was becoming more strained with each coughing fit. He tried again to remember the relaxation techniques Ginger had taught him. It had been during the last State of the Union and although he had never done it after that, he remembered that it had worked. Sam closed his eyes and pictured himself back in the West Wing.
"You have to have your knees together," Ginger instructed.
"Well, now I've lost my centre of balance, and that's not very relaxing," Sam pointed out.
"I haven't finished." Ginger rolled her eyes at an amused Bonnie. "Do you want to relax or not?"
"I do, I do. I want to relax."
Ginger pulled Sam's arms up until they were pointing out to the side. "You are standing like a tree. Your feet are the roots and your arms are branches and you're going to breathe in through your nose, count four, then out through your mouth." Sam closed his eyes and started to breathe how Ginger had told him to.
"Hey!" Sam cried happily.
"See, it works."
"It really does." He continued for a while and then his smile started to fade. "I hope I'm not in the rainforest, because that wouldn't be very relaxing."
"Sam!" Ginger warned.
"No really, one minute you're standing there with a toucan sitting on you and the next-bam, you're being felled by a multi-national logging company."
Ginger ignored him, "Breathe in and hold, two, three, four and out and in-"
"What are you doing?" Nobody had seen Toby walk up behind Sam.
"I'm standing like a tree."
Toby came and stood in front of Sam and placed his hands on his hips. "See this? I'm standing like a pissed off Communications Director."
"Well I don't think that's going to help you to relax, Toby."
Toby turned and walked into his office and ripped some pages noisily from his pad.
Josh had been passing through the Communications Office when he spotted Sam. "What you doing?"
"I'm standing like a tree."
"Yeah? I have this thing where I stand with my back against the wall-"
"Am I the only sane man in this building?" Toby bellowed. "Are two of the most intelligent men in Washington really outside my office discussing relaxation techniques when the State of the Union is three weeks away!"
"Think he means us?" Josh asked. Sam nodded vigorously and quickly walked into Toby's office.
"It's that fucking woman again!" The sound of Mael's voice jolted Sam back to the present. It took him a few moments to work out that the knocking he could hear was the woman who had called the other day. Before Sam could make a sound, Mael appeared and once again silenced him by placing the barrel of his gun against his head.
Sam struggled to stifle the urge to cough but couldn't manage it. Mael covered Sam's mouth and Mrs Delaney continued to knock as Sam struggled to breathe. The torture continued until Incul poked his head around the door and announced that she had gone. Mael released Sam who rolled away from him and lay gagging until he vomited.
Leo told himself he would go home when the President went to the Residence. That had been an hour ago. Each time Leo had gone into the Oval Office, Bartlet had been reading or writing. Once he had peered at Leo over the top of glasses and asked him if he wanted anything. Leo knew that Bartlet wanted to talk. It was just a matter of waiting until he was ready.
Leo looked in at his friend again. This time he was sitting on the edge of the sofa, his hands clasped and resting between his legs. Leo walked over and sat down in front of him.
"Abbey's coming home tomorrow," Bartlet said without looking up.
"She's cutting short her trip?"
"Yeah." Bartlet stood and walked over to the window. "When President Miguel offered to release Juan Aguilar in return for those five DEA agents, I didn't even consider it."
"Don't…I know where you're heading with this." Leo walked over to his friend. He remembered only too well the Colombian President's offer to release a man who ran one of the largest drug cartels in the world in return for five US hostages. There was a shocked silence when Miguel had put the ball in Bartlet's court and told him that he would release Aguilar if that is what Bartlet chose to do. The President had thanked Miguel but told him that he didn't think it was a good idea. Leo had been thinking about it a lot recently and knew it was only a matter of time before Bartlet mentioned it.
"Do you remember Sam trying to persuade me to go for the exchange in that meeting?" Bartlet smiled in recollection of Sam's earnest appeals.
"I don't think I was there."
"Sam wanted to discuss it. He wanted me to at least discuss negotiating. Toby was determined that I shouldn't." Bartlet sighed and turned to face Leo, "Sam said something to Toby about understanding the principle but there being real lives at stake. I remember wishing Sam would just stop talking, because I really didn't want to hear that argument."
Leo smiled, "Yeah, Sam can usually be relied on to voice the argument nobody wants to hear."
This time Bartlet smiled at his friend in agreement and both men walked back towards the sofa.
"Sam told me that we could argue principles when the hostages were back home." Bartlet leant back, "Do you think Sam will want to argue about principles with me if we get him back?"
Leo didn't want this conversation. He had his own worries about how Sam would feel about his part in the negotiations. He was relieved when Charlie chose that moment to enter the room, Ron close behind him.
"We know for certain that Sam is in Washington," Ron announced, "but better than that, we know he is somewhere within earshot of the cathedral bells and it's thanks to Graham."
At Bartlet's puzzled expression Leo explained, "That guy I was telling you about that keeps crawling under my desk."
"We listened to the tape of Sam, and Graham was pretty sure he had heard something. He's been working on it since then and managed to separate the sound until it is clear that what you can hear are church bells. Now, there are only two places in Washington, that church bells are rung."
"The Post Office Tower-" Bartlet suggested.
"And the Cathedral, we checked the times and there was a group of ringers practicing at the cathedral at a time that matched with the tape. So we know Sam is in Washington, it's a clear day, there's no breeze to carry the sound so we know that he must be somewhere that would allow for the bells to be picked up on a recording on a telephone message."
"You also know he's in a room with a basement," Leo said, suddenly realising how helpful that information could prove to be now.
"So what now?" Bartlet asked.
"Now we work out exactly what sort of area we're dealing with. We start talking to realtors to find possible properties. When we've done that we'll link any reports about suspicious neighbours or activity from the last few days to the properties."
"You said 'we start' you meant 'we've started' right?"
"Yes sir, we've started."
"Good." Bartlet looked at Leo, "Are the others still around?"
Leo knew, without checking that Toby, CJ and Josh would still be in the building. "I'll go get them."
It wasn't much, but it was the first glimmer of hope any of them had since Sam had been bundled into a van and taken from them.
The sunlight burst rudely into the room and Josh rolled away from it. The sound of a vacuum had been his alarm clock for the past few mornings. He pulled the blanket over his head and tried to ignore the droning noise as it came nearer. It increased in volume as the door was opened and Toby entered carrying two cups of coffee and a bag of bagels.
"Get off my sofa."
Josh stretched and slowly sat up. Waking Josh, feeding him and getting him off the sofa had become part of Toby's morning routine. Josh shifted along so that Toby could sit beside him as he lay out the bagels and peeled the lids off the cups.
"Who's reading the Statement of Aims?" Josh asked. The statement that Sam had worked on at the Colombian Embassy was to be published today. What should have been a low-key affair had turned into a media circus. The press had linked anything related to Colombia to Sam. They remained unaware of what the kidnappers were demanding. The Washington Post had passed on any information they had received from the kidnappers to the White House. And, although they had published the photo of Sam, they had not released any details about the kidnappers or their demands although speculation remained rife.
Toby handed Josh a bagel. "Marcus Ottero, he worked with Sam on the statement."
"Does he know the significance of what he's doing? I don't think it's fair to let someone do that if they're not aware of the-"
"He volunteered, and Leo has met with him and explained what the possible…consequences could be. Apparently he told Leo that he thought Sam would want the statement to be published."
"How does he know?"
"Josh!" Toby warned but with a mouthful of bagel it wasn't very effective.
"He doesn't know that Sam would want that. I think Sam just wants to get the fuck out of whatever hell-hole he's in right now and couldn't care less what we had to cancel to do it."
"Josh!" Toby shouted so loudly that Josh jumped, spilling his coffee on to his pants. "We are going to sit here and eat some breakfast and drink some coffee. We are going to have this one moment. Because I can't even begin to imagine the nightmare that we are going to face today, and I can only think about getting through it if we start off by sitting here eating bagels and drinking coffee and not thinking about it."
Josh looked at Toby for a while before reaching out, picking another bagel and taking a bite from it. They ate in silence.
In the Colombian Embassy, Marcus Ottero sat reading the statement that he would be delivering in less than three hours, the statement that he and Sam had worked so hard on, the statement that the kidnappers did not want made. Like Toby and Leo, Marcus tried hard not to think about Sam.