the Agency, as well as in all of the SERE schools.
The questions they continued to ask ran the gamut from his relationship with Kopec and what had happened at the safe house in New Hampshire, to how he had discovered the trapper’s cabin, what he had done after breaking into Christina’s clinic in Nivsky, and why he had chosen to assault the Wagner mercenaries the way he had.
As someone uncomfortable with praise, he was even more uncomfortable with talking about himself. Many times he couldn’t give them a why. He did what he did because it was either the way he had been trained or the only option he saw available. There wasn’t necessarily a lot of high-level thinking going on. In fact, a lot of it was gut-level.
The worst parts were when McGee stepped out of the room and left him alone with Levi. The man loved two things—golf and cars. He used both in an attempt to build a rapport with Harvath. Harvath wasn’t interested.
When the doctor couldn’t get him to open up, he took more direct routes—literally asking Harvath how he was feeling, what regrets he may have had, and what he thought he was going to do moving forward.
It was pretty intrusive stuff and frankly none of Levi’s business. He worked for The Carlton Group, not the CIA. If he chose to throw his hat in the ring for any future contracts, they could discuss his fitness then. Wanting to pick apart his current “emotional well-being,” as Levi put it, was a nonstarter. He made it clear that there was a bright line and that Levi better back up off it.
The only saving grace of the debrief was that one of the men on McGee’s detail, a guy named Preisler, was a hell of a cook. Steaks, pasta, all sorts of breakfasts, it seemed there was nothing he couldn’t pull off. For a former door-kicker, he was a formidable chef.
The other thing Harvath had appreciated was that when the debrief was done for the day, it was done for the day. There were no prohibitions on Harvath’s having a couple of drinks. As long as he wasn’t under the influence when they had him on the record, they didn’t care what he did. In fact, they went out of their way to give him his space and leave him alone.
Though Levi likely had a hand in it, you didn’t need to be a shrink to realize that after everything Harvath had been through, he was going to need some time to be by himself. He was even allowed to leave the house and walk down to the water without anyone accompanying him.
While he would have preferred his own house, his own dock, and his own slice of the Potomac, the view of the Chesapeake from here wasn’t terrible. And though he had to put on a coat, at least there wasn’t any ice or snow.
On their last night, Levi walked down lugging a cooler and dropped it on the dock next to Harvath. After helping himself to a beer, he sat down and looked out over the water. Harvath waited for him to say something, but the man didn’t make a sound.
They sat like that for a good ten minutes before Harvath broke the silence. “What else is in the cooler?”
“I wasn’t sure what you were drinking, so I put a little bit of everything in there,” the doc replied.
Leaning over, Harvath flipped up the lid and grabbed the bourbon, plus a couple of fresh ice cubes. He dropped them into his glass and then poured himself several fingers.
“Cheers,” said Levi.
Harvath raised his glass without looking at him.
“Scot, right now we’re off the clock. None of this is official and nothing is going into my notes. Okay?”
Harvath sipped his drink.
“You’ve been through some unbelievable trauma,” the shrink continued. “In my experience, people tend to go in either of two directions from here. They quit and usually fall into a life of substance abuse, which often ends in suicide, or they allow themselves time to grieve, time to heal, and they come back better, stronger.”
It was an observation, not a question, so Harvath didn’t feel compelled to respond.
“With just the little bit I know about you from your file,” offered Levi, “and what I have seen of you here, I think you can come back much stronger. It has to be your choice, though. That’s why if there’s anything you want to talk to me about, anything