The Interrogation
Part 1: Captured and Questioned
The effects of the drugs were wearing off. Laura gradually became aware that
she was sitting on a chair in the middle of a darkened room. There was a dim
light overhead, but the light it cast didn't reach the corners of the room. The
only other furniture she could see in the room was a leather office chair and a
small table. The only object on the table was a cell phone. She went to move
her arms and discovered that each of her wrists was handcuffed to the back of
the chair. She pulled against the cuffs and heard metal on metal. She tried to
move the chair, but it must have been bolted to the floor because she was unable
to move it. Laura felt that sinking feeling one gets when they are very
frightened as she realized the predicament she was in. She blinked back the
tears that appeared in her eyes.
The sound of a match being lit and the scent of tobacco alerted her to the fact
that she was not alone in the room. She stiffened with fear. The sound came
from behind, and she stretched her neck to see who was there, but in addition to
the dimness of the corner, the angle at which the chair was placed made it
impossible for her to see. Laura kept silent. She didn't want to show her
anxiety, and she knew her voice would betray her. A very long minute went by
before she heard footsteps approach her and a man come into her view.
The man was casually dressed - jeans and a white linen shirt unbuttoned at the
collar, cowboy boots. His longish brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, and
he looked as though he had last used his razor on his face a few days ago. His
eyes were a cold blue, his mouth unsmiling. Laura's fear increased as she took
in the cold and appraising look on his face.
"Are you hungry?" He asked gently.
"Yes," Laura answered her voice almost a whisper. When had she eaten last? How
long had she been kept unconscious? Her hunger and thirst said to her that it
must have been quite some time ago.
"Thirsty?"
"Yes."
"Are you afraid?"
"Yes."
She should have known better - she thought that he would offer her something to
eat or drink, some words to calm her fear, but instead, he bent down and looked
into her eyes and said, "Good. That's very good. Before we're done here,
you'll be much more hungry and thirsty. And you are wise to be afraid. There's
a lot for you to be afraid of."
He rose slowly and circled around her, pausing right behind her. She felt his
hand push her hair off the back of her neck, and then felt the pain as he put
out his cigarette against her flesh. She gasped at the burning pain, and closed
her eyes tightly as they filled with tears.
He came around in front of her and lit another cigarette. "Nasty habit, this.
I shouldn't chain smoke." A slight smile accompanied the words, and Laura
understood the warning in them. She was fighting to control her tears and her
breathing, trying to calm herself. "My name is Snake and I want you to use my
name when you talk to me. I am going to ask you a few questions, and you are
going to answer them. If you're uncooperative, you'll feel the consequences.
If it takes a while to convince you to give me the information I'm looking for,
I have a lot of time to make you very, very uncomfortable." He was standing in
front of her, his closeness intimidating her.
"Who do you work for?" His voice was soft, but didn't disguise the fact that he
was demanding an answer to his question.
"The Brenford Corporation." She said. And this was true; they employed her.
But she had no doubt that he was referring to her other employer, the government
agency that had planted her at Brenford, knowing that her technical skills would
give her access to the information they were looking for.
Snake's arm shot out, and he backhanded her across the face sharply.
"You know damn well what I mean. Lesson number one. Don't play games with me.
Let me ask you again. Who do you work for?" He raised his voice only
slightly, but it brought another wave of fear sweeping over her as she realized
that she had been given only a taste of what he could do to her.
"I...I don't know what you mean," she tried to bluff.
Again, he backhanded her face. "Lesson number two. You don't lie to me. And
use my name when you speak to me. Who do you work for? " His voice was soft
again.
Laura pressed her lips together and looked down. She knew what she would see in
his eyes. She was frightened but she was not about to give in and cooperate.
There was too much at stake. Maybe she could keep bluffing...
"Lesson number three. When I ask you a question, you answer me! And you answer
immediately. Now, tell me who you are working for." He shouted at her, and
hit her across the face again.
Her cheeks were stinging, and she tasted blood in her mouth. The tears were
streaming down her face. She wasn't a professional, and she didn't know how far
they would go to find out where she had hidden the file and how she had
encrypted it. She didn't want to break and tell them. She was as good as dead
anyway. Regardless of whether or not she cooperated, they weren't going to let
her walk out of here.
Her fear at the situation she was in suddenly gave way to anger, and she snapped
at him. "Go fuck yourself!" As soon as the words left her mouth, Laura
realized that she had just made a big mistake. The cold calculated cruelty in
his face was replaced with a look of rage. He bent down and grabbed her chin
and pulled her face forward.
His voice was low, and he spoke slowly and distinctly, but the anger and the
threat in his words cut into her.
"Don't you ever...ever again...raise your voice to me...or swear at me." His
fingers dug in deeper and she whimpered. "The next time you do, I will make
sure that it's the last time. " His voice was only slightly raised, but the way
he spoke the words cut through her. "Do you understand?"
Laura nodded.
"I asked you a question, bitch!" he said in almost a whisper.
"Yes."
His other hand grabbed her hair and pulled her head back sharply. "Yes, what?"
Laura was confused for a moment then remembered that he had told her to use his
name. She understood why. It was an intimidating name, and her being forced to
speak to him with respect reinforced her feeling of being powerless against him.
"Yes, Snake."
He released her hair and her chin, and she let her head fall forward, her eyes
tightly shut, and no control over the tears that were running down her face.
"Yes, Snake, what?" He prompted again.
"Yes, Snake, I understand."
"And what do you understand?"
She stammered through her tears, "Not to raise my voice to you or swear at you,"
she choked out the words, and remembered to add, "Snake."
He pressed his cigarette against the side of her neck to put it out. Laura
screamed at the pain, and a panicked feeling came over her when she heard him
light up again.
"I'm going to send you to your cell now, Laura, to think about the conversation
we just had. You can save me a lot of aggravation and yourself a lot of pain if
you realize on your own that I will get from you the information I need, it's
only a question of how much you can take before you break. "
Snake picked up the phone and dialed a number. "I'm done for now." He spoke
into the cell phone. "Come and get her, and put her into one of the maximum
security cells. No comforts."
She had a pretty good idea of what the maximum-security cell would be like, but
what did he mean, no comforts? As if he read her mind, Snake answered her
question, his tone conversational.
"You may be wondering what no comforts means Laura. It means that you get
nothing in your cell...no blanket, no pillow, no food, no water. You'll eat and
drink only when I allow you to, and that will depend upon how cooperative you're
going to be."
He continued. "Let me point something out to you, Laura...I know who you are
working for. You're working for CDX. Now had you been cooperative, I might
have been inclined to let you have a drink of water. And your face wouldn't be
starting to show bruises this quickly. So you just resisted me for nothing."
Laura looked up at him in surprise. Mind games, she thought. He was playing
mind games with her. Well, he mighô know whom she was working for, but she knew
that he and Brenford had lost all access to the list of pick up points for the
materials they needed. She had destroyed all backups, wiped clean the areas
where they had been stored, encrypted the original and moved the directory. It
was now lost among billions of files on the Internet.
The man who walked into the room was wearing a Brenford uniform. He uncuffed
Laura from the chair, careful not to give her any sense of freedom. He released
her right wrist, and took the cuff that had been attached to the chair and put
it around her left wrist before uncuffing her right wrist and pulling her up
from the chair.
Another Brenford uniform joined the first at the door and before she was led
away, Snake said to her, "If you attempt to escape, you will be shot in the
knee. It will be very painful and extremely effective in stopping you. Don't
be foolish."
Laura kept herself up straight and staring straight ahead as he led her from the
room. The fear she felt was making it difficult to move. They got into an
elevator, and she saw one of the men unlock a small door in the panel, and enter
a code to activate the elevator. It descended down a floor, and opened into a
large, well-lit area. There was a guard console in the middle of the area, and
several monitors. Laura couldn't see the screens, but she guessed that the
guard was watching the hallways and access to the elevator.
They paused at the door to a cell and Laura saw that the door had no hinges or
doorknobs, and was opened by an electronic pad that slid the door upon a keyed
entry number. Both men came in with her, one keeping his gun trained at her
knees as the other unfastened both handcuffs. In spite of Snake's warning,
Laura evaluated her opportunities to escape, but things seemed hopeless.
As the men left, Laura explored the cell. Not that it took much time. The room
was small, about 8 feet by 10 feet and empty. In one corner of the room was an
L-shaped partition behind which Laura found a toilet and a soft plastic
container of handy-wipes. The water in the toilet was a deep chemical blue, and
a quick look under the top of the water tank showed her that the water source
contained the chemical and not the tank. They've covered all the bases, she
thought. Even in desperation, no one would be able to drink the water from the
toilet. The ceiling in the room was high, impossible to reach even if one were
standing on a chair. In each corner of the room Laura saw that a camera had
been mounted. So, she was being kept under observation by the guard in the
central area of what seemed to be a prison floor. There was nothing she could
do in that cell other than sit and wait.
Laura sat down on the floor in a corner of the room, and put her head down on
her knees. All she could do was wait, and then what? Another interrogation
session? Not something to look forward to.
Laura thought back to how she had found herself in this predicament. Agent
Kendell had come to her apartment, explaining that her assistance was needed on
a matter of national security, and that because of her experience and her having
an acquaintance key to the problem, she met the profile suited for the job. She
had passed a security clearance and Agent Kendell told her that an intense
review of her records indicated she had a strong sense of ethics.
But it was not her sense of ethics or the pride she felt in being solicited for
this assignment that convinced Laura to accept it. She had always dreamed of
playing cloak-and-dagger, and never thought she would have the opportunity to do
so.
The acquaintance in question was a college friend of Laura's. He had risen to a
prominent position within Brenford, the corporation under the government's
scrutiny. Laura was encouraged to contact him and show interest in a position
with Brenford. Since Laura had some fame within the technology community, Agent
Kendell felt that Ian Maddock would be interested in bringing her into the
company. Laura was surprised that he had become involved with anti-government
activities. They had dated for a while during their second year of college, but
had mutually decided that the relationship was not going anywhere, and had
decided to remain friends. They stayed in contact the first few years out of
school, but gradually the pressures of their selective careers had led to their
getting together less and less frequently, until they lost touch.
As Agent Kendell predicted, Ian was more than happy to meet with her, and began
the professional courtship ritual of bringing her into the company. Any
problems Laura felt at deceiving him were negated by her understanding of just
how much harm he could cause his country's well being.
With Ian as a sponsor, Laura was quickly accepted by Brenford's executives and
had pretty much free reign in her department. Had Agent Kendell not briefed
her, Laura would never have recognized the fact that Brenford was involved in
any illegal dealings. But when you know what you're looking for, and you're on
the inside...
Laura still didn't know how she was uncovered. She received a call from Agent
Kendell, who recognized the urgency of getting her out by calling on an open
line, only seconds after she received a summons to Ian's office. She kept her
voice calm, and worked as quickly as she could to hide the list of pick-up sites
and eliminate the backups, and had just pressed the key to send the file into
the depths of the net before the door to her office was pushed open, and she was
"escorted" to Ian's office. It became quickly apparent to her that Brenford's
security was deeply involved in the corporation's illegal activities. Laura
tried to play innocent, she kept hoping that perhaps Ian was only acting upon a
suspicion. Ian barely spoke to her as he ordered the guards to detain her in
one of the conference rooms while they searched her office. While there was no
proof that Laura was the one who had removed the list from the system, the audit
trail on her PC indicated suspicious and unaccountable activity. She was
brought back to Ian's office and pushed into a chair at his desk. Ian looked at
her long and hard and then said to one of the guards "Take her to my place in
Maine. You'll need to put her out. I believe she would give you a hard time,
and we wouldn't want her to make a public scene."
Laura started to talk to him, continuing her play of innocence, hoping to
convince him, but Ian stopped her. "Laura, stop. We both know what's going on
here. I'm very sorry to find out that you were planted here. I thought
perhaps..." he stopped abruptly.
"Get Snake." He turned away from her abruptly, and said to one of the security
men. "He'll be in charge of her interrogation. His track record is 100
percent success in getting reluctant tongues to talk. Send my limo for him."
Before Laura could react, her arm was grasped firmly and extended to make her
veins accessible. She couldn't struggle against the grip, and a needle was
quickly emptied into her arm. A feeling of panic started to come over her as
her breathing became labored, and the room began to turn around her. A second
later, she was out.
That brought her to the chair in the room with Snake. His questioning methods
made it clear to her that she was not brought in on a suspicion. As Agent
Kendell feared, her cover had been blown. But how?
Laura didn't know how long she had been in the cell. There were no windows and
the lighting in the room was continuous. She was hungry and thirsty, but it was
bearable for now. Laura had dozed off a few times, but her dreams quickly
turned into nightmares, and she would awaken with a start only to realize that
her situation in real life was as bad as any nightmare.
She had used the toilet and had washed up a bit with the wipes. She didn't want
to think about her current situation so she tried to fill her mind with all
different kinds of trivia. But the fact that she was locked in this very secure
cell in someone's home and that she had just spent a half-hour with Snake being
interrogated could not be ignored.
Snake. She was afraid of him, very much afraid...yet, she found the memory of
being bound helpless before him arousing. Laura could feel the wetness between
her thighs. She tried to push the thoughts and feelings she was having out of
her mind. She took deep breaths, and concentrated on meditation techniques that
took her mind to other places. By putting herself somewhere else, she was able
to ignore the hunger and thirst, and, she hoped, would lessen the pain when he
continued his interrogation. Because of one thing Laura was certain, and that
was that he would interrogate her again.
