At 8:00 a.m. Jake and Honi entered the security offices at the NSA building. Jake saw the gurney with the body bag against the wall. He walked over and unzipped the bag.
“So where’d you get the manikin?”
Pettigrew grinned. “Cousin works at a department store in Alexandria.”
“Nice touch. Is she ready?”
“I think so. Where do you want her?”
“Let’s start in her cell. That way she has to physically make a choice. The interview room or going into the back with you.”
“So what, exactly, did you do to her,” Honi asked.
“I had Pettigrew play some tapes of people, who were being water boarded at Gitmo, from a room down the hall. She wouldn’t hear it clearly, but her imagination would fill in the blanks.
“People fall into two different classes. The majority, who live with fear and other emotions, and those few who don’t experience such feelings. A psychopath’s primary emotion is either anger or a lust for power. Sometimes I can manipulate that, but mostly no one can. What we learned at Gitmo is that even water boarding won’t work on a pure psychopath. For ordinary people, like Sylvia, fear is your key. Her fear of pain and suffering is much more motivating than the pain itself would be. It’s not about what the body can stand, it’s about the mind.”
“And people like Giles?”
Jake grinned. “He cares. Love will over-ride fear if you give it half a chance.”
Pettigrew unlocked the cell door, let Jake and Honi in, closed and locked the door, and headed into the back room where he had played the tapes.
“This is how it works,” Jake said. He walked over and sat on the cot next to Sylvia, not touching, but intruding into her comfort zone. “We talk. As long as you keep providing me with truthful and useful information, we keep talking. When you don’t, I leave and Pettigrew takes you into the back room. Then we will talk again tomorrow. Same conditions. Only you will determine what happens to you. I have an established procedure, and you have a simple choice to make.
“Did you join the organization before you went to work for the NSA or after?”
She looked around the jail cell and glanced toward the hall where Pettigrew had gone.
“This is completely voluntary, Sylvia. Either we talk, or I leave. It’s up to you.”
She looked down and fidgeted with her fingernails. She took a deep breath and whispered, “After.”
“Please speak up, Sylvia, I need to hear you clearly. I want to avoid any misunderstandings. Don’t you?”
She nodded her head. “After,” she said louder.
“Does this organization have a name?”
“They refer to it as the Phoenix Organization.”
“Did they offer you money?”
She paused and looked at the floor. Finally she nodded.
“A lot of money?”
She waited as long as she dared. She shifted away from him on the cot. “Yes.”
“You’re doing the right thing, Sylvia, just keep talking with me.” Positive feedback, Jake reminded himself. Establish a connection, one person to another. Ask only questions to which she can answer ‘yes.’ The longer she says ‘yes,’ the harder it becomes for her mind to say ‘no.’
“Did they pay you more than a hundred thousand dollars?”
Her delay time lessened. She nodded.
“If it were me, I’d keep the money in an offshore bank account, something I could access from anywhere in the world. Was that what you thought, too?”
She delayed again, this time a little longer, and then she nodded.
She’s testing what I’ll tolerate, Jake thought. Smart lady. “Is that a yes, Sylvia? I need to hear you clearly.”
“Yes,” she said almost immediately.
“I’ve read your file. You seem to do well in social situations. Is doing well socially important to you?”
She looked directly at him for the first time since he sat down. She didn’t respond.
“It’s nothing personal, Sylvia, it’s just a yes or no question. So say yes or no.”
“Yes.”
“The people who recruited you, were they from a higher social class than you?”
She seemed embarrassed.
“Just yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
“That must have been an honor. Being brought in by people who were socially important like that.”
She paused again and lowered her head.
“Is that a yes, Sylvia?”
“Yes.”
“You must have felt good, being a part of something so important. Didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she replied with only a small delay.
“Joining such an elite group. You must have been very proud. I would have been. Weren’t you?”
“Yes,” she replied, sitting up a little straighter.
“You want them to rescue you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said immediately.
“But they don’t have any idea where you are, Sylvia. It’s just you, me, Honi and Pettigrew. No one else knows. You understand that, don’t you?”
She didn’t respond. She just sat frozen in fear.
“They’re not coming, Sylvia. You agree they have to know where you are in order to rescue you, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
They don’t know, Sylvia. You understand that now, don’t you?”
Her shoulders slumped. She slowly nodded.
“Yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
“They’re gone. You’ll never see or hear from them again. Never. You can see that, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Did they threaten any harm to you if you said anything about them?”
“Yes. They made it clear they would kill me if I betrayed them.”
“They can hurt you only if they can find you, true?”
She nodded.
“Sylvia?”
“Yes,” she replied. Her pride and strength were draining away. She appeared much more submissive.
“You’re never going to see any of the money, either. You know that, don’t you?”
She glanced around the jail cell. “Yes,” she said quietly.
“It’s time,” Jake said firmly.
Pettigrew unlocked the cell door. Jake stood. Sylvia stood cautiously and moved slowly to the open door. She had that “deer in the headlights” look.
“You can come up front and talk with us some more, or you can go in the back with Pettigrew. It doesn’t matter to me. Your choice.”
She looked at Pettigrew, who stood there with a stone cold look on his face. She slowly turned toward the front of the offices and started walking. Jake glanced back. Pettigrew winked.
Jake and Honi led her into an interrogation room and closed the door. Jake placed a digital recorder on the table and turned it on. He stated the date, time, who was present and the reason for the interrogation.
“Sylvia, the charges against you are very serious. We have your phone records. We have your access records, the watch from your place, the burner phone you used from your home. We have Giles’ sworn statement about the affair, and everything you wanted him to do. I can get the most serious charge, treason, either reduced or dropped, depending on how much you help us right now. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“You’re going to have to respond verbally, Sylvia, for the recording.”
“Yes.”
“We know you are connected to the Phoenix Organization. They have committed murder and stolen a nuclear weapon. You are now an equal participant in those crimes and will face the same penalty as the others. I’m offering you a way out. Do you want out?”
She looked up, a glimmer of hope returning to her face. “Yes.”
“Tell me about the watch and the people who contacted you.”