“Ah, you’ll see, I’m sure.”
“The Doctor,” as he was known, was a retired warrant officer, who had effectively written the book on modern interrogation techniques. He was fifty years old and now performed his work as a contractor. The CIA and other US military and intelligence units flew him around the world whenever they had information that absolutely needed to be extracted. He was widely considered to be the single best interrogator in the Western world.
Chase had heard of the man when he was in Iraq. Whispers about this magician who was ten times better and faster than all the other interrogators. But he’d never seen him in real life. Until now.
One of the agents shut the door of the aircraft. “Alright, time to get started.”
On the monitors, Chase could see that the Chinese operative was stripped down to his underwear and tied to a gurney. The gurney was tilted at an angle so that the Chinese man’s head was about six inches lower to the ground than his feet.
“Are you cold?” the Doctor asked. He spoke in English, although he knew several languages. A CIA translator sat in the cabin of the plane, in case he was needed.
“Yes,” the Chinese man replied in English.
The plane’s engines began warming up. Chase looked at the men next to him.
“Are we taking off?” Chase asked. He spoke softly, even though he knew that the Chinese prisoner couldn’t hear him behind the closed compartment in the back of the aircraft.
“Yeah,” said the CIA man who had picked him up. “It’s part of the theatrics — and since we’ll be in international airspace when the interrogation is conducted, it allows us to get past some legal issues. Don’t worry, though, we’ll be landing back at Andrews.”
Chase and the others put on headphones so they could hear the interrogation better.
The Chinese handler said, “What is that noise?”
“We’re on a plane, my friend,” the Doctor said. “We’re headed to Cuba. Guantanamo Bay.”
A twitch on the Chinese man’s face. If he was a Chinese intelligence agent, he no doubt had training in counterinterrogation techniques. The Doctor would be earning his money today.
The Doctor said, “Let’s start with what I already know. I know your name. All of them. I know where you’re from. I know what you ate for breakfast this morning. I know whom you are sleeping with. And I know that you work for Cheng Jinshan, and the Chinese Ministry of State Security.”
The Chinese man didn’t move.
The aircraft began to shake as it rolled down the runway, the jet engines pushing it into the air, climbing upward.
“Your life is over. Everything that you ever knew is now gone. All the training they gave you to prepare you for this moment — just throw it away. You see, that counterinterrogation training presumes that somehow, someday, you will be freed. That the United States will let you out, or trade you back to China. But that will not happen. Because we will make it look like you are dead. It is a certainty that you will stay in Guantanamo Bay Prison for the rest of your life, however long or short that may be. But no one outside a small group of Americans will ever know that you are still alive. The only thing you can do now is to affect the quality of your life in that prison.”
The Chinese man stared back, slightly shivering. He didn’t say anything.
“Are you willing to discuss Cheng Jinshan, and matters that relate to him?”
The man said nothing.
“Alright. I want you to see something. Think about a life in prison, with no outside contact. Think about that while you watch and listen to this.”
The Doctor placed headphones on the Chinese man’s ears and pressed a button on a device. A video appeared.
The man’s face contorted. After a few seconds, he began crying. Slowly at first, but as the video played, the crying turned into uncontrollable sobs.
On one of the monitors, a cute little girl, probably about age three or four, stood cuddled next to her mom’s leg. She was speaking to the camera, smiling and laughing.
Chase said, “What is that?”
“Recordings from his family. The guy has a wife and daughter in Chengdu. We had our agents in China reach out to them at the exact same time that we bagged this guy. Our agents posed as a holiday greeting card company. They got the daughter to answer a few questions about her father. Our agents told them that they were sending him a loving message. The one from the daughter is especially touching.”
On the other monitor, Chase saw the Doctor as he removed the Chinese man’s headphones. He stayed quiet for a few moments. The occasional sniffle from the Chinese man was the only sound from the interrogation room.
“Would you like me to play it again?” asked the Doctor.
The man shook his head no. The altitude of the aircraft leveled off.
“We know that you aren’t the one that ordered the Beltway attacks.”
Silence.
“And I promise you that you won’t be blamed. But you were part of it. You passed on information to the Iranians. We know that, too.”
No response.
“You will need to go to prison for the rest of your life. Here. Please watch the video again. I want to make sure that you understand what this will mean for you.”
The video of his wife and daughter appeared again. They answered more questions, laughing and smiling. The video lasted a full minute.
When it ended, no one spoke for a few moments. Then the Chinese man said, “What do you propose?”
“I will not ever lie to you,” the Doctor said. “I want you to know that. As a testament to that relationship of honesty, I will tell you something that you will not be happy with now. You will need to go to prison for the rest of your life. That will not change. But your punishment could be much worse. And there are many different types of prisons. You see, I can also promise you that if you help us get information that we need, you’ll be able to get more videos and recordings of your daughter and wife. That surely would be a more desirable alternative than any other circumstances, would it not? It is better to have something to look forward to. Better than decades of looking at a wall, in between interrogations.”
The man tried to control himself, but he kept crying.
“But this is a one-time offer. You only get one chance at this. Again, this is the honest truth. I will always be honest with you. I know from experience that honesty between me and my subjects is the only way to get a mutually beneficial exchange.”
The Chinese man did not reply.
“Are you uncomfortable? Can I make you more comfortable?”
The man was upside down and mostly naked. On the high-definition video, Chase could see goose bumps on his arms. But he said nothing.
The Doctor said, “I will now be honest with you about the consequences of not accepting this arrangement. We are airborne now. It will be several hours until we reach our destination. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When we get there, our relationship will end. I will be forced to hand you over to another interrogator. He is not kind like I am. He believes in pain. He will hurt you. For the rest of your life, he will hurt you. And once you are his prisoner, I will have no control over what happens to you. He doesn’t make offers like I do. He only threatens and punishes.”
The man sniffed.
“Let’s watch the video again.”
The video played again. The man cried some more. Chase realized that the Doctor was using a form of emotional waterboarding. It was like he was dunking his mind into and out of the only thing that could really get to the man — his wife and child. The interrogator was using the video and audio to immerse him in that environment. Over and over and over. It was breaking him down. Forcing him to consider a life of misery, without the only thing that truly made him happy.
When the video was over, the Doctor said, “Let’s start with something simple. I will ask you a question. If you tell me the answer, which I already know, then I will let you put your clothes back on. Another truthful answer, and I’ll let you sit up while we finish our discussion like civilized men. Will that work?”