Unwanted Spy by Jeffrey Sterling

Author:Jeffrey Sterling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

New Beginning, Same America

I WAS DUE TO ARRIVE IN NEW YORK JUST AFTER CHRISTMAS. Since this was the fourth time I’d been relocated in the last two years, I had the routine pretty much committed to memory. I had already found an apartment and was just finishing some last-minute preparations at headquarters prior to my departure. One bitterly cold day, made even worse by a very strong and unforgiving wind, I had just parked my car and was making my way to the headquarters building when I felt a strange sensation in my chest, as if bubbles were popping in and around my heart. By the time I reached my desk, the feeling had grown in intensity and my left side was starting to feel tingly. I tried to ignore the discomfort, but after an hour it had gotten so bad that I made my way to the office of medical services. As I waited for the nurse to finish a phone call, a wave of numbness came over me. I staggered back, my chest tightened, and my vision went black.

“Are you all right?” the nurse exclaimed.

“Uh… no. Something’s going on with my heart.”

The moment I mentioned my heart, the nurse sprang up from the desk and reached for my wrist. Within a moment or two, she rushed me to one of the examination rooms. The next thing I knew, after an EKG and the insertion of a painful IV in my hand, I was being wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance bound for the nearest hospital.

At the hospital, I was attached to a monitor and given another EKG. The nurse examining my readings looked worried. “So, you’re not in any pain?” she asked.

“Not really, just a nagging discomfort in my chest.” My answer seemed to surprise her.

I was told I had an irregular heartbeat, and I was given medication that was supposed to fix the problem. But after about two hours, one of the doctors told me, “The medicine is having no effect. We’ll have to admit you.”

A routine morning had morphed into an ordeal that would last four days. Rather than ringing in the new year in the Big Apple, I found myself watching Dick Clark celebrate on the TV in my hospital room, wondering what had happened to me.

In a funny way, I found my stay in the hospital interesting. All the patients around me seemed to be at least thirty years older than me, which probably helps to explain why I quickly became a favorite of the nurses. One of the nurses who came to chat with me had been born in Iran, which gave me the chance to speak Farsi during my stay. My main worry was whether my condition—whatever it was—might derail my New York assignment. A few colleagues from CP division came by to visit, but there was no talk about my assignment, and I heard not a word from any Agency officials.

As for my health, I was baffled. I worked out regularly, had a relatively healthy diet, and had no history of heart problems.

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