Foreign Influence

He tied her back down in the vehicle exactly as he had before and closed the door. From the front seat, he grabbed two water bottles and then searched the warehouse until he found a suitable length of hose.

The good thing about gasoline was that it was so pungent Harvath wouldn’t need much for what he had pla

He made a big deal of banging around the rear of the van. He opened one of the water bottles and poured out some of the water. He then carefully siphoned a small amount of gasoline out of the van and into the bottle.

With Nicholas in tow, he stepped back around to the other side and opened the sliding door. He studied Sterk. Her breathing was rapid, as it should be for anyone in her situation. She was frightened. She wasn’t yet, though, suffering from another attack.

“You can’t do this,” said the Troll as Harvath stepped into the van. “What if you don’t just burn her, but you end up killing her?”

There was a long list of harsh interrogation techniques he could have tried on Sterk-sleep deprivation, stress postures, sensory bombardment, or even extreme cold-but he didn’t have the time. Frankly, after the beating the woman had taken from Nicholas, he was surprised she hadn’t already broken. She was a much tougher character than he had expected. He had no idea if she had undergone training to resist hostile interrogation or if she was just one tough woman. It didn’t matter. Everyone broke eventually, the key lay in discovering exactly how to break them and if time was of the essence, as it was here, how to do it as quickly as possible. Whether Adda Sterk was left physically or psychologically wounded by the ordeal was of no concern to Harvath. She held all the cards and could end the experience at any point she wanted.

The more one knew about one’s subject, the better equipped one was to carry out a successful interrogation. Considering the fact that up until several hours ago they had believed Adda Sterk was a young male hacker of Asian descent by the name of Tony Tsui, it was plain they didn’t have much to go on. But they did have one thing.

On the scale of harsh interrogation methods, one of the stronger tactics that can be employed is the exploitation of a prisoner’s phobias. The fact that Sterk was asthmatic left no question in Harvath’s mind that she harbored a fear that most asthmatics shared, asphyxia.

Opening the bottle filled with the gas-water mixture, he poured the contents over the woman’s hood. Panic quickly overtook her as she began writhing and struggling against her restraints.

He followed by pouring the second bottle of water over the rest of her body. Her nostrils were so filled with the scent of gasoline, she would assume that she was now covered with it from head to toe. The gas seeping into her hood had probably found its way into the open wounds around her face and head.

Harvath didn’t have to wait long. Whether there was some trigger like dog hair on the floor of the van, or if it was the stress of believing she was about to be set ablaze, Sterk was soon consumed by another intense asthma attack.

Lifting her from the van, he carried her several feet away and set her on the warehouse floor. He pulled the hood from her head and tore the tape from her mouth. He pulled out her inhaler and showed it to her. “Are you going to answer my questions?”

Gasping for air, Sterk nodded feverishly.

Harvath shook the inhaler, placed it in her mouth, and administered the medication.

He waited until her breathing became less labored and then dragged her back to the support column. Now it was time to see if she would cooperate or not. He studied her face as he asked his first question. “When I met you in Jagland’s office, why did you give up Michael Lee?”

The woman coughed repeatedly before answering. “Because I didn’t need him anymore.”

“But he was your cover.”

“It didn’t matter. That cover became useless when Lars was killed.”

“You’re not making any sense,” said Harvath.

“I knew that someday, someone might come looking for me. That was why I had created the whole Tsui persona. It was a layer of protection. I set it up so that everything traced back to Lars and from him to Michael. But when Lars was killed, my backstop was gone.”

“Who killed him?”

“I don’t know. The police say he died in a car accident.”

“You don’t believe that. I can tell by looking at your face.”

“I don’t know what to believe,” she said. “Could what happened to Lars have been an accident? Possibly. But I’m not certain. That’s why I was waiting to see what happened to Michael.”

“You mean you were waiting to see if he would be killed as well?” asked Nicholas.

Lee shouted at the woman again from behind the duct tape covering his mouth. He pulled against his restraints and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including Sterk’s, that if he managed to break free, he would kill her.

“That’s why you gave him up to me,” replied Harvath. “You wanted to see if I had been sent to finish off Tony Tsui.”

“Obviously.”

“Then what?”

“Then, when I thought it was safe, I would have started over under a new persona.”

The woman was absolutely mercenary, but as far as Harvath could tell, she was telling the truth. “So who killed Jagland?” he asked.

Sterk looked down at the floor and refused to answer.

“I want to make something perfectly clear,” said Harvath. “Right now, the only person in this entire world you should fear is me. If I even suspect you’re holding out on me, I’m going to light you on fire. I will let you burn and then I will put the fire out before it kills you. The pain will be worse than anything you have ever experienced. The heat will sear your lungs and you’re going to suffer from smoke inhalation. It’s going to be severe.

“I’ll repeat this process until you’re dead or you give me what I want. Which will it be?”

“My life’s worth nothing if I survive. They’ll find me and they’ll kill me just like they did Lars, and I’m certain it’ll be in a ma

“Who are they?”

Sterk didn’t respond.

Harvath turned to Nicholas, “See if there are any matches in the van. If there aren’t, heat the cigarette lighter.”

The Troll nodded and headed for the van.

Sterk looked at him. Both sides of her face were begi

“You don’t have to die.”

“I’m dead anyway.”

“We can protect you.”

“You don’t even know what you’d be protecting me against. These people have resources beyond your imagination.”

“So do I,” he replied.

The woman laughed and shook her head.

“What if we gave them Tony Tsui?”

From the other support column, Lee’s eyes bulged.

“How would you do that?”

“Never mind,” said Harvath. “What if we can give them Tsui, or at least make it look like Tsui isn’t someone for them to worry about anymore?”

“These are not stupid people. They can’t be easily fooled.”

“I wouldn’t expect them to be.”

Nicholas returned with the van’s cigarette lighter and held it out to Harvath. “Let’s burn the witch.”

Harvath took it and looked at Sterk. “It’s your call, Adda.”

The woman studied the faces of her two captors and thought about her options. After several moments she said, “I’ll cooperate, but on one condition.”

“You’re trying to negotiate? You’ve got to be kidding me,” stammered the Troll.

“What do you want?” Harvath demanded.

Sterk focused her gaze on him and replied, “A little added insurance.”