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Milinkavich looked around the room. “Where are we?”
Interrogation 101: Confuse and disorient the subject. Rapp had tried to put himself inside Milinkavich’s head. He’d been drugged for most of the transport from Cyprus to Baltimore. There was a chance he sensed that they had landed midway in between, but there were no windows for him to look out. The most obvious conclusion he would draw was that they were back in America, but he would also think there was a chance that they had taken him from Cyprus to an Eastern Bloc country for interrogation, possibly even Belarus. It was no secret that the U.S. government outsourced some of the less gentile aspects of the war on terror to the former Soviet satellites.
“We are someplace very private. Someplace my own government knows nothing about. Just the two of us. I would prefer, as I’m sure you would, to solve this problem in a very unofficial way.”
Rapp watched as Milinkavich’s eyes darted to the unlocked door and then quickly away. He would be weighing his chances of escape.
“I did not know we had a problem,” Milinkavich said in an upbeat voice. “Our two countries are no longer enemies.”
Rapp seized his opening. “I’m sorry. I forgot. Which country did you say you are from?”
“Russia.”
“And you used to work for the KGB?”
“Yes.”
“And you are sure about that?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“And you want to be my friend?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“And you seek to win my friendship by lying to me,” Rapp said casually.
“I am not lying to you,” Milinkavich said with great conviction.
“I want you to think long and hard about this, because I’ve got a lot of questions for you. You tell me you worked for the KGB, which means you know how this works. There is an easy way to do this and the hard way. If you want to do it the easy way you need to be absolutely honest with me. If you want to keep lying to me we’ll do it the hard way. Which means I’m going to have to string you up by your ankles and play baseball with your nuts.”
The Russian brought his hands together, clapped them, and said, “No problem. I only speak the truth to you.”
Rapp cocked his head to the side and his left eyebrow shot up. “I’m going to say it one last time. This is not a game and I’m not amused by your reassurances. You have two choices. You either tell me the absolute truth, or I will make things extremely painful for you.”
“Absolutely. I speak only the truth.”
Rapp wondered if maybe he hadn’t broken the man’s jaw. He was speaking without too much difficulty. “Where were you born?”
“Moscow.”
Probably a lie, Rapp thought, but not absolutely provable at the moment. “Where did you grow up?”
“Moscow.”
Most likely a lie. “And you work for the KGB?”
“Yes,” the big man said as he slid his other foot off the bed. “I have already told you that.”
Rapp watched him shift his weight and inch toward the edge of the bed. “I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” Rapp turned over his left shoulder and pressed a white button on a gray intercom box. “Bring down the car starter and the alligator clips.”
Milinkavich sat up a little straighter. “What do you mean, car starter?”
“It looks like we’re going to have to run some electricity through your brain and see if it helps jog your memory.”
“No.” The man stood, waving his hands as he took a step toward Rapp.
“Sit back down,” Rapp said in a firm but calm voice.
