Local time – 7:55am, Sunday 17th June, 2011.
Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Daniel couldn’t help but smile at Ryan’s initial cockiness. He had expected some resistance when he approached him at the airport. The geek looked miffed, sure, but he didn’t react like someone who was planning to make a scene. He was instantly resigned to being arrested, and didn’t bother to deny his involvement in the video. Even seemed proud of it. The Czech police read him his rights, a formality, since they then handed him over to Daniel in the airport car park. The cockiness disappeared when Ryan realised he had no idea where Daniel was taking him; it certainly wasn’t to the American Embassy. He made a hell of racket in the back seat of the car, shouting about his rights as an American citizen and all the powerful people he knew who could sue on his behalf. What a stupid fucker. Daniel pulled over on a side road, showed him his knife and gagged his mouth. Then he put him in the boot. That shut the little wimp up. He called his boss, who told him to extract the necessary information any way he could, and offered Daniel a quiet and safe place to do it.
He had been given a room in a disused part of the castle, with thick stone walls and a small barred window. It was empty until security guards dragged two wooden chairs in and helped Daniel bring Ryan in from the car. They now stood guard outside the room and Daniel sat opposite the sullen Ryan, with his knife in his hand, reminding Ryan to behave. Daniel let the silence draw out and watched, amused, as Ryan became more jittery in his seat.
‘Are you trying to play mind games with me? Because it’s not working. I’m not telling you anything.’ Daniel waited. Sweat started seeping down Ryan’s face. After ten minutes of silence, Daniel spoke quietly.
‘We know what you’ve done Ryan. You will tell us where Alex North is. And then you’ll give us a full confession.’
‘No I won’t.’
This time five minutes of silence, finally broken by Daniel laughing to himself.
‘You are a very stupid man. Aren’t you? These childlish games you’re playing. Did you really think we wouldn’t find you?’
‘Making a video and emailing it to people? You’ve killed it now anyway! What do you care?’
‘Oh, we care. Not so much about the video. That’s all fairly pathetic. No, it’s the other things you’ve done that are a little more serious.’
‘What other things?’
‘We’ll get to them. But first you’re going to tell me where your friends are. Where’s Alex North?’
‘Nowhere you’re going to find her.’
‘I suggest you tell me now. It will be better for you in the long run if you cooperate.’ Daniel used his knife to remove some dirt from under his finger nails. He could sense Ryan stiffen in fear.
‘I want to see a lawyer.’ Ryan crossed his arms. Daniel laughed again.
‘Funny. That’s really funny. You think lawyers are present for this sort of chat? I’m not the police. I thought you were smart! Google must have thought so anyway. Lawyer. Fuck, that’s funny.’ Daniel was expert at this sort of meeting. He knew exactly what was going on in Ryan’s mind and he could feel he was about to break. Any moment now he was going to break.
‘I can’t tell you anything about Alex North. I haven’t seen her since we made the video. It’s free speech you know, nothing you can do about it.’
‘That’s crap and you know it. Where were you going this morning? You were at the airport, you were obviously going somewhere.’
‘Maybe I was. But not with her.’
‘Ok. So why don’t we talk about something else.’ Daniel stood up and walked behind Ryan. He then lent in towards his ear and whispered:
‘We know about the bomb. We’ve got you on that too.’ Ryan’s head whipped around, and his face looked stricken.
‘Bomb? What the fuck are you talking about.’
‘The one at the police station. We know it was your group who planned it.’
‘That’s total bullshit! We had nothing to do with it!’
‘Oh, I know. But that’s not really important is it? You’re a small terrorist organisation that was in Prague at the time of the bombing, and you were plotting to disrupt a meeting of leaders at Prague castle. If we tell the media you did it, you did it. Get what I’m saying?’
‘Why would you do that?’
‘Same reason you made the video. To get what you want.’
Ryan cupped his face in his hands and Daniel sneered when he noticed him shaking. This was so damn easy. He’d spent hours with people in small rooms before, even days, and still not got what he needed. But this loser was a piece of cake.
‘Do you know what happens to terrorists who kill innocent civilians? Do you think anyone bats an eyelid if they accidentally get killed during the investigation?’
‘I haven’t done anything! You can’t just make some crap up!’ The whiny tone was just what Daniel wanted to hear. The last notes of desperation before cracking.
‘You can be left out of it all, of course. As long as you give me an idea where your friends are. No one need ever know what you’ve told us.’ Ryan started shaking his head, a sure sign he was trying to talk himself out of something. He obviously didn’t manage to convince himself, as he squeaked:
‘Pakistan. I don’t know specifically where. They took a private jet this morning.’
‘Thank you. Now stay here. There’s someone else at the castle who’d like to meet with you. I’m afraid he’s even more upset with you than I am. You’ve possibly met him before. His name’s Sergey Page.’