Do or Die Chapter four

The sound of an electronic beep woke Lenny up from his sleep. Two armed guards entered his cell and wordlessly motioned him to follow them. As they led Lenny to the interrogation room, he looked slowly around, as if trying to find something to use against the guards. He saw a large air vent similar to the one in his cell, and wondered if these air vents ran through the entire prison complex. After five minutes of walking, he entered the interrogation room, sat down, and buried his face in his arms, trying to sleep again.

Fifteen minutes later, Diane and I entered the interrogation room. Lenny slowly looked up and glared at Diane, knowing that she had been the one that tranquilized him. As we sat down across from Lenny, he shifted his gaze towards me.

“What do you two want?” Lenny asked, presumably already knowing what we wanted.

“You know exactly what we want, Lenny,” I said. “We want answers. Facts.”

Lenny ran his hand through his thin, brown hair and sighed. “You’re not getting any details from me,” he said. “You can try, but I’m not saying anything.”

“You’ll tell us what we want to know,” Diane said. “If you cooperate, we’ll see about getting your prison sentence shortened. Sound good?”

“Bite me,” Lenny said without hesitation.

“If you don’t cooperate, we’ll have to…” I began.

“Have to what? Resort to torture? Isn’t that against the law in your country?” Lenny was very careful to emphasize his Russian accent for some reason.

“You’re right, we can’t torture you,” I said. “But don’t you want to get back to your family? Back to your home? You can get there a lot quicker if you cooperate.”

Lenny glared at me angrily and said, “Fine. What do you want to know?”

Diane pulled out a tape recorder and began recording the conversation. “First we want to know about this database wiping device. Describe it to us.”

“Well,” Lenny began, “it’s not exactly a device that wipes the database, it’s a computer program. Not a virus, but a program. The program has been integrated into an object, though.”

“Go on,” I encouraged.

Lenny growled at me, but continued. “This device is just a small USB device, like you’d see for sale at any computer store. It’s not a store-bought device, though; it was manufactured by Techrah Co. about three years ago.”

“Tell us more about this program,” I said. “What does it do, exactly?”

“Well, there’s not much I can tell you besides the fact that it’s designed to eliminate all files in a database or a set of databases. I don’t know much about the device.”

“Do you know somebody who does?” Diane asked.

Lenny shook his head. “No, I don’t. All I was told was that it would wipe out the entire CIA database and cause the CIA to collapse.”

“And who told you that?” I asked.

“I…I can’t remember,” Lenny said. His voice began to shake, which indicated that he could be lying. “He was a pretty muscular guy. He mentioned working with the National Security Agency; I’m pretty sure he was an American. Other than that, I can’t remember much…”

Observing his nervous behavior, I asked, “Lenny, would you be willing to submit to a polygraph test?”

Lenny gasped, but quickly calmed himself down. “I’m afraid not. See, I have a medical condition that gives false results, and…”

“What medical condition is that?” Diane interrupted.

“Well, I…can’t remember the name of it, but…” Lenny’s voice trailed off. He scratched his head as sweat began to accumulate on his brow.

“We know you’re lying to us, Lenny,” I said. “Tell us what you know.”

“OK!” Lenny exclaimed suddenly, startling Diane and I. “I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Good,” I said. “Proceed.”

Wiping a tear away from his eye, Lenny said, “I really can’t remember the name of the man who developed the USB drive. He never really gave me much information about himself, other than he was the president of Techrah Co. and he used to work for the United States government. I made up the NSA story; he could’ve worked for the CIA.”

As Lenny continued to confess, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was describing Harry Graff almost perfectly. I pointed this out to Diane, but she ignored me and continued listening to Lenny’s confession.

“…you might want to research this Techrah Co. I couldn’t find much myself, but perhaps your databases will find something?” Lenny wiped the sweat off his brow and exhaled slowly.

“Thank you for confessing, Lenny,” I said.

“It helped to get it off my chest,” Lenny said.

“Would you be willing to talk about a couple other things?” I asked.

“What do you need?” Lenny asked. “I can’t really tell you much more; I’ve told you most of what I know. And what I haven’t told you, you can easily figure out on your own.”

“You say you don’t know much about this Techrah Co. What do you know about it?” I asked.

“Well, I can tell you that it’s based in Moscow,” Lenny said. “I’ve been to their headquarters many times. Nice building; not what you would expect a corporate headquarters building to look like.”

“We don’t care about the building, tell us about the company,” Diane said.

“Pushy much?” Lenny asked? Laughing, he said, “I don’t know much about the company, but I can tell you that it focuses on technologies like computers, programs…and it also does computer maintenance.”

“OK, so why would this business want to take down the CIA’s database?” I asked.

“That I can’t tell you,” Lenny said. “All I know is that the company developed the program and I bought it. And by bought, I mean I bought a fake one publicly and the actual one privately.”

“That would explain why we couldn’t find anything in your mansion,” I said. “Where can we find this device?”

“My men had it moved to a warehouse complex in Lyubertsy. Ever heard of that place? Near Moscow; not too hard to find.”

“How can we access this complex?” Diane asked.

“We’ve come up with several secret phrases for security reasons,” Lenny responded. “Nobody is allowed in the complex unless they know these phrases.”

“Could you describe these phrases for us?” I asked.

“First,” Lenny began, “you must say, ‘Eto zhizn,’ which means ‘This is life.’ That should get you into the complex. Second, the guards will take you to the warehouse with the USB drive if you say, ‘Techrah pravit vsem,’ which means ‘Techrah rules all.’ Those are the only two phrases you will need.”

“Looks like we’re going to Lyubertsy,” I said. “Now, I need to ask you one more question. Why were you planning on wiping out the CIA database?”

Lenny looked at me and said, “Because I’m a diseased man.”

“Not funny Lenny,” I said. “Tell the truth.”

“No,” Lenny said, acting as if he were a three-year-old who didn’t want to come to the dinner table.

“Johnny, he’s not going to talk anymore,” Diane said. “Let’s just leave him be for now; we can always come back to him if we need him again.”

“You’re right Diane,” I said. Turning to Lenny, I said, “Thank you for the information. It’ll definitely help us.”

“You’re welcome,” Lenny said. He raised his hand and quickly said, “Goodbye.”

As Diane and I left the room, Lenny quickly looked at the ceiling and saw a large air vent similar to the one in his room and in the hallway. As the two guards returned to take him back to his cell, Lenny smiled, hatching an escape plan.

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