by C. G. Cooper
“Good. They’re probably nearing exhaustion. That should help our interrogation.”
“What do you want me to do, Doc?” Dunn knew a thing or two about questioning suspects, but he also understood that Dr. Higgins’s skills were on a whole other level. The pudgy professor was the most effective interrogator Dunn had ever witnessed. You don’t get to be the CIA leading expert on interrogation techniques without having a lot of success. Higgins had paid his dues around the globe countless times.
“I’d like for you to be with me for the questioning. Do you think you can play bad cop?”
Dunn offered a rare smile. “No problem, Doc.”
Higgins went back to the files.
“I know I don’t have to tell you this, Doc, but we need to find the leak fast and have time to assess the full extent of the damage. Marge says the federal investigators are coming tomorrow.”
Higgins looked up from his scanning. “Then I guess we better get to work then.”
Dunn shook his head in amusement. Leave it to Higgins to state the obvious.
+++
Thirty minutes later they’d devised their plan. Dunn picked up the office phone and dialed his deputy’s number.
“I need four guards to meet me at the Batcave now. Tell them to come loaded.” The Batcave was what everyone called Patel’s underground research and IT facility. It not only held multiple office suites full of computers, but it also housed a large warehouse area that the teams used to test new technology. As a joke, someone had even plastered a few Batman movie posters on the door leading into the cavernous main room.
He hung up the phone and looked at Higgins. “You ready to go?”
“After you, Todd.”
+++
Five minutes later, Dunn and Higgins linked up with the four-man team waiting at the security desk outside the R&D labs. Each man wore all black combat suits and carried an H&K G36C automatic carbine. The fire team leader nodded to Dunn, who motioned for the men to follow.
The six men walked quickly down the long hallway leading to the entrance of the Batcave. Dunn put his hand on the entry scanner, and a second later the heavy magnetic lock clicked open.
Grabbing the door handle, Dunn turned to the fire-team leader. “Take Dr. Higgins down to the interrogation rooms. Help him setup whatever he needs. I’ll be down in ten minutes.”
SSI kept ‘mock’ interrogation rooms in the depths of its Tennessee campus. Used mostly for training, the rooms were now being utilized for the first time ever on SSI’s own employees. It still shocked Dunn that a breach of this magnitude happened on his watch. He promised himself that it would never happen again.
As the four operators escorted Higgins to the lower level, Dunn headed to the common computing room that most of the geeks occupied after hours. He’d already confirmed with security that the five men he wanted to question were still there.
He walked into the large common room and looked around. Even though he’d never been to the headquarters of Google or Facebook, this is what he imagined it probably looked like. The room was huge and wide open. There were dartboards and a ping-pong table in one corner and a full array of video game systems in another. The center of the space housed modern tables of varying shapes and sizes. Twenty some odd programmers and technicians were scattered around the room engaged in both work and play. Dunn understood the necessity to blow off steam, especially if you spent all hours underground. The guys worked hard and deserved the added amenities.
Scanning the large room, he quickly found the group he was looking for. They were clicking away on mini laptops. Everyone was so engaged that they didn’t even turn as Dunn moved closer. One young man finally looked up. “Can I help you, Mr. Dunn?” The caution was evident in his tone. Todd Dunn was known throughout SSI for his no B.S. attitude. If he came calling, you stood at attention. The rest of the small gaggle took the hint and stopped what they were doing.
“I need to see some of you.” Dunn read off the names. “If you can close up whatever you’re working on and meet me in the next room in five minutes, I’d appreciate it.”
Without another word, Dunn turned around and left the room.
“I wonder what that’s all about,” commented one of the programmers.
No one bothered to answer the statement. The five employees called out by Dunn quickly packed up their gear.
Terrence Zheng tried to hide his discomfort. He’d been one of the five Dunn had requested. Zheng tried to act casual as his nerves rattled inside. The last thing he wanted to do was spend time with Dunn. He’d thought that the FBI investigation would’ve given him the opportunity to leave the campus unnoticed, but there hadn’t been a chance to yet. Not only was his division being worked overtime, it had also been discretely recommended that they all remain on the headquarters’ grounds.
Terrence had to somehow get word to Ponder that they were starting to question employees. Maybe his newest benefactor could get him out of it.
As the five men stepped out in the corridor Zheng spoke up.
“Hey, can you tell Dunn that I’ll be there in a minute? I’ve gotta hit the bathroom. Too many Red Bulls,” Zheng offered embarrassedly.
“You better hurry up,” answered a small Vietnamese named Tony. “I heard the last time someone kept Dunn waiting he made him strip down and do push-ups in the cafeteria cooler.”
Zheng gave Tony an exasperated look as the others laughed. “I’ll be there in a second.”
He walked quickly to the restroom and headed for the nearest stall. Sitting down to relieve himself, Zheng pulled out his cell phone and logged in to the remote email server. He wrote a quick note and left it in the drafts folder. Flushing the toilet, he hoped the entire ordeal would be over soon. He looked forward to a much-needed vacation on a beautiful island.
Episode 2
Chapter 15
Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN
1:25am CST, September 28th
Terrence Zheng left the restroom and joined the others.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Dunn. Figured I should take a piss before we got started,” Zheng offered.
Todd Dunn nodded. “We’re headed downstairs. There’ve been some developments in Neil’s disappearance but we need your help. It shouldn’t take long.”
They all looked at Dunn in confusion. Usually they were allowed to work independently. Initial guidance was given followed by the occasional check-in. Then again, the current situation was unique. They all knew Neil well as he’d hired each one of them. The overtime they’d logged wasn’t just mandatory, every man had volunteered to stay and work.
Zheng played along because everyone else had. He couldn’t wait to walk out that door and never look back.
Dunn continued, “We’re trying to nail down details so we can find out what happened. I know you’ve probably already answered some of this stuff but me and Doc Higgins wanted to hear it personally.”
Two of the men groaned. What had already looked like a long night just got longer.
Dunn ignored the frustrated sighs, then turned and headed to the stairwell. As he walked, he was already running the interrogation through his mind. He’d already chosen his first target: Terrence Zheng.
+++
The mood went south as soon as they reached their destination. Even though they were used to working in the subterranean facility, this was something else. The main waiting area held stadium seating similar to what you might find in a university or outside an operating room in a teaching hospital. Everything had the sterile feel of a medical facility too. There were no decorations or even the slightest attempt to warm the place up. It was what it was, an interrogation facility.
The seating overlooked ten rooms, each about twelve by twelve with a metal table and two sets of chairs. Although the lighting was comfortable in the gallery, the interrogation rooms looked like they were lit by prison spot lights.
None of the five had ever been to the interrogation pod. There were only a handful of SSI employ
ees that had the security access to come this far underground.
SSI’s head of security didn’t try to lighten the mood. This was exactly what he wanted. He needed them to be on edge. They were visibly uncomfortable. Dunn directed the suspects to leave their belongings on a table in the middle of the room. They were then searched from head to toe by one of the guards and escorted to separate rooms.
As the five men entered their respective space, Dunn stepped into a side room that housed the control room. One wall was comprised of flat panel screens displaying video of each of the ten rooms. Dr. Higgins was sitting in one of the comfortable leather couches, reviewing his files one last time. He looked up as Dunn walked in.
“Everything go well with the roundup?” he asked cheerfully.
Dunn nodded. “They didn’t freak out until we walked into the gallery.”
“That’s to be expected. I can only imagine what is going through their heads at this very moment.”
“I think I know who we should start with. This Zheng kid.” Dunn pointed at the screen broadcasting Terrence Zheng in high definition. “Something doesn’t feel right about him.”
“Anything tangible?”
“Not that I can put my finger on, but there’s something in his eyes. It just looks like he’s hiding something.”
Higgins pulled out Zheng’s file.
“Let’s see. Terrence Zheng, born April 3rd, 1989 in Burbank, California. Parents are from Beijing, China. He attended the University of California at Berkeley for undergrad. Graduated with honors in three years and double-majored in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Went to MIT for graduate school. Dropped out after his first year to run a start-up. Won a spot in SSI’s business mentoring program. His company was sold last year for a tidy sum, and Zheng was then hired by SSI. He is now part of our cyber-security team and is tasked with monitoring our network and preventing intrusion.
“I must say, Todd, if this is our man, we might have quite a predicament on our hands.”
Dunn sighed. All but one of the five suspects worked in some critical capacity at SSI. He didn’t even want to think about the possible calamity should SSI’s network be laid bare.
“You have any problem with me playing the bad cop?” Dunn asked.
“I was rather hoping you would.”
+++
Zheng looked up at the mirrored observation window. It was even brighter in the room than it had seemed from the observation deck. He was uncomfortable but tried to act calm as he waited for someone to begin the questioning.
Todd Dunn and Dr. Higgins entered. Higgins took a seat while Dunn leaned against the opposite wall. The muscular man’s calm demeanor was gone. It felt like Dunn was staring a hole right through him. Despite his thought to do otherwise, Zheng began to sweat.
Dr. Higgins started. “Hello, Terrence, my name is Dr. Higgins.” He reached across and shook Zheng’s hand warmly. “I’m sorry we’ve taken you away from your work but we had some pressing questions to ask you and your colleagues.”
“Anything I can do to help, Doctor,” Zheng offered as cheerfully as he could.
Higgins smiled. He could feel the nervousness rolling off of the young man. It wasn’t unusual even for innocent men to feel uncomfortable in such surroundings. Through the years Dr. Higgins had developed a highly accurate barometer for judging people’s innocence. It usually only took a little friendly banter for Higgins to deduce whether a suspect was, in fact, hiding something. Getting the person to divulge the information was something else entirely.
“I appreciate your help, Terrence. Now, as you know, we’ve lost one of our most important assets, Neil Patel. We’d like to ask you some questions to see if we’ve possibly missed something. Sometimes in these investigations it’s the smallest, most mundane detail that solves the case.”
Zheng nodded gravely.
“How long have you known Neil?”
“Uhh, I’d say a little over two years.”
“You were one of the recipients of our start-up funding, were you not?” Higgins asked.
“Yes. I started a company called PlanBot. It was essentially cloud-based planning software.”
Higgins glanced down at the file. “Ah yes, and it says here that you later sold the company.”
“That’s right. With SSI’s help we found a larger company that wanted our technology.”
“Fantastic! You must have been very excited.” Higgins smiled.
“It was a lot of fun. I couldn’t have done it without you guys, and Neil, of course.”
Higgins paused again and pretended to go through the file. He had already memorized the key points and merely used the time to form his next line of questioning.
“So after you sold your company, you decided to come work at SSI. Was there a reason you didn’t go into, what do they call it nowadays…early retirement?”
“Honestly, I considered it. I made enough money that it would’ve been easy to find a place and settle down.”
“So what made you come to work here?”
“I really enjoyed working with the guys when I was in the start-up pipeline. There was always the opportunity to start something new again but this seemed like a good challenge. After a couple conversations with Neil, he offered me a job.”
Higgins knew he was being told the truth. Not only did he sense it, he’d taken a similar path after working with SSI on a particularly challenging assignment during his tenure with the CIA. The caliber of individual and the high degree of integrity impressed Higgins immensely and ultimately led to his retirement from government service. He’d never looked back. It was a common story amongst SSI employees. Here they were valued.
“How do you like it now that you’ve been here for a bit?”
Zheng hesitated. He knew this was where he had to be careful. “It’s been good.”
Higgins caught the hesitation. Was it simply a matter of an employee being unsatisfied with his work or was there more?
“Let me rephrase the question. Do you feel like you’ve been challenged professionally since you’ve been here?”
After a brief pause, Zheng answered. “At first I don’t think Neil knew where to put me. To be honest, some of the stuff he had me working on was pretty basic. Once he had a better idea of my capabilities he started giving me more and more.”
It sounded reasonable. After all, Zheng was used to running his own company. Former business owners didn’t always turn out to be the best employees. Going from a world where you make all the decisions to having someone else telling you what to do wasn’t always easy.
“And how is your relationship with Neil?”
“I think it’s pretty good. He doesn’t really micromanage so I mainly just see him in staff meetings.”
“Did you know about the conference Neil was attending in Wyoming?”
Zheng hesitated for the briefest of moments. Here it comes, he thought. It didn’t matter. They couldn’t trace a thing to him unless Ponder gave him up. He knew that would never happen. Plus, he’d covered his tracks like a true professional.
“Sure. We all knew he was going out there. I think someone even bought him a cowboy hat as a joke.”
Higgins chuckled. “I think I heard about that. Did you know what the conference was for?”
“I’m not sure. Neil mentioned it was some VIP thing. I did hear that he was giving a class or maybe a lecture.”
Zheng began to relax. Maybe they really were just ironing out the details. Deep down he enjoyed this game of cat and mouse. He’d played it for years online. There’d been a few close calls in his early days of hacking, but he hadn’t come close to being caught in a while. This was the first time he’d experienced the adrenaline rush of a face-to-face confrontation. The excitement played through his body as he secretly savored the moment. He was better than them.
“Did he mention where he was staying in Wyoming?” Higgins asked.
“I’m not sure. I know he was in Jackson Hole, but I didn’t have
the details.” In truth, Terrence Zheng knew all the details. Neil was never very careful about hiding anything from his staff. Zheng had Neil’s entire itinerary memorized. He’d even pulled up the Google Earth image of Hotel Terra during the time he knew Neil was being kidnapped. What he wouldn’t have paid to see the look on the cocky bastard’s face.
“Did you know that Neil refused to take any personal security on the trip?”
Zheng did. “I think he mentioned something about that. Neil doesn’t seem like a big fan of being escorted around.”
As the suspect finished his answer, one of the guards walked in and handed something to Dunn. Trying to looking nonchalant, Zheng glanced their way. That’s my phone! For a split second Zheng panicked. He quickly calmed, though, knowing there was no way they could get past the encryption he’d installed. If they tried, the phone would effectively cease to work. He knew how to cover his tracks.
After a few whispered words, the guard left and Dunn turned his attention back to the questioning. Higgins twisted around in his chair and looked at Dunn. “Any updates?”
Dunn nodded, walked to the table and raised Zheng’s phone. “You wanna tell me what you were doing with your phone in the bathroom?”
“I was just checking my email.”
“Anything interesting?” Dunn asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Not really.”
“Let’s cut the crap, Terrence. Tell me what you were doing with your phone,” Dunn ordered.
Zheng stood his ground. “I told you, I had to take a leak and out of habit I checked my email. I might’ve gone on Facebook too, I don’t know.”
Dunn looked his suspect right in the eye. “Tell me how you know Nick Ponder.”
Zheng’s eyes dilated rapidly, but he caught himself before panicking. “I don’t know…”
There wasn’t time to finish. Faster than Zheng thought possible, Dunn came around the table, grabbed him by the neck and pinned him against the wall.