“In a heartbeat”

“In a heartbeat” is both a phrase of suddenness and a coercive refrain in Henry and Shishani’s relationship. First recalled as the word that helped make Henry cooperate, it returns as a threat against Celia Favreau; later, the image of a heartbeat turns inward, accompanying Henry’s failure to feel certain of who he is.

The Word That Begins the Relationship

Shishani recalls that Henry had been unsure about sharing what he knew with an American. Henry warned him that one phone call could bring the Russians down on him “in a heartbeat.” Shishani says that this warning helped secure his cooperation: whatever laughter and money later passed between them, he argues, their relationship was defined by that first conversation. As he speaks, he taps his temple with the hand holding his cigarette, emphasizing how persistently the word stayed with him.

The phrase therefore carries more than speed. In Shishani’s account, it compresses a threat of exposure and its immediate consequences into a single image of time. Henry remembers the exchange but says nothing; when Shishani explains its significance, Henry manages only to blink and acknowledge that he understands.

The Threat Repeated

Shishani later proposes a system in which he will call Henry from an untraceable number to request information. When Henry asks what would happen if he refused, Shishani answers with a threat against Celia Favreau, the woman he says Henry shares his bed with. If Henry will not answer his questions, Shishani says, she will die “In a heartbeat.” He sits up almost boyishly excited as he delivers the threat, making the phrase’s familiar cadence serve a new and brutal purpose: it is no longer only the remembered warning that induced Shishani’s cooperation, but a threat designed to control Henry through the danger to someone he loves.

The repetition binds the two men’s positions without making them equivalent. Shishani invokes Henry’s earlier words to explain why he cooperated, then uses the same measure of suddenness to threaten Henry into compliance. The phrase becomes a small verbal instrument of coercion, passed from one conversation into another and made more intimate by the threatened death of Celia.

From Threat to Bodily Uncertainty

Later, as Treble waits for Henry to verify who he is, Henry knows that he sounds different. He is not sure who he is and tries to listen for his heartbeat, but fails; only then does he answer, “Yes, Treble.” The passage does not repeat the full expression, yet the heartbeat remains its central image. What Shishani had used to make danger sound immediate now marks Henry’s inability to find certainty in his own body. The phrase’s recurrence thus connects external threats of sudden death with Henry’s inward disorientation.