“I know you’re still a little groggy from the painkillers, but it’s time we started talking, Emerson. Bad news. Turns out, you’re not doing so hot.”

Emerson moaned as he looked down at himself where he sat shirtless and in his underwear. There were bloody bandages all over him, at his shoulder, at his crotch, at his right thigh where the tourniquet was still cinched.

“What is this? What’s going on?” he cried as he shook in the chair. “Untie my hands. Untie my hands.”

Gannon leaned forward and lifted one of the incredibly bloody bandages off Emerson’s abdomen.

“Emerson, stop. Get a grip,” Gannon said, showing him the bloody rag. “Your stupid friends shot you in the truck back at the beach, remember? One of the bullets came in through your shoulder here, see, and went down your torso doing who knows what to you before it came out here next to your hip.”

“Nooo!”

“It’s true. I’m worried about you. Your lungs, your major arteries. You were shot with a 7.76. That’s a very large fast-moving piece of lead, son. Do you feel hot? Like you have a fever? You’re in incredibly serious need of medical attention.”

“Then get me to a doctor!” Emerson cried.

“I want to, bro. I really do. And I will,” Gannon said as he placed the bloody rag back onto Emerson’s stomach.

“But I need to find out what in the living hell is going on first. What the hell is going on?”

Emerson looked at Gannon in complete horror. He looked down at his shirtless self, at all the blood and rags.

“This can’t be happening,” he said.

Gannon folded his hands in his lap as he sat there. He crossed his legs as he calmly bit at a thumbnail.

“You’re wasting time, Emerson. Precious seconds. But hey, it’s your life. Not mine. I didn’t get shot. My heart and arteries and internal organs are intact and working fine.”

Emerson took a deep breath and held it. Then he let it out in a loud rush. His eyes were huge as he stared at Gannon.

“It’s about Messerly,” he said.

“Messerly?”

“Yes, Messerly. The NSA defector at the embassy in London. The entire operation. It’s all about him.”

“Oh, that Messerly,” Gannon said. “Assange 2.0. How is it about him?”

“He’s about to release a trove of classified emails that will rip the roof off the Western global intelligence apparatus. It reveals all of our black ops, our black sites. It also reveals some very questionable Bitcoin financial transactions between some very nasty people around the globe and members of US and British intelligence. Many people, especially a lot of higher-ups in the NSA and CIA and FBI, will go to jail for treason if it comes out,” Emerson said.

“I see,” Gannon said. “You guys are fighting to stay out of jail. I can buy that. That actually makes some sense considering your recent behavior. But what the hell does Messerly have to do with the FBI director’s plane?”