Mahoganys Dream | Page 5

me or give me an unsatisfactory answer, I
will do things to you that will make you prefer death."
Dunleavy reached down into his case again. This sudden movement
made Tsang flinch backwards in fear. This time he pulled out a
different manila folder, which he turned inside out and then stood
upright on the table. The side facing Tsang had a large photograph

clamped to it. "This is Liang, your wife. She's a little ugly for my taste,
but if you lie to me or give me an unsatisfactory answer, that won't stop
me from going down to your house on Mesa Drive and beating the shit
out of her until she's even uglier. If you really piss me off by playing
dumb, I'll stick chopsticks up her ass when I'm done."
Tsang gasped.
Dunleavy went on. "You really fucked up when you stole data from
one of my labs. That helium pump design was so fucking advanced that
the chinks won't be able to make heads or tails of it without the
compression intervals, which I presume would've been your next job."
Tsang just hung his head. He knew that all of his answers would be
unsatisfactory.
__________
Brian could hear Tsang's screams through the wall. The shrieks were so
loud they made his teeth chatter.
After Dunleavy had begun his questioning and received no satisfactory
answers, he made good on some of his threats. Brian was certain the
things he saw in that room would give him nightmares for weeks.
When he couldn't stand to watch anymore, he stormed out the room and
called Bruce again, who confirmed that he was not, repeat not, to
interfere with Dunleavy's interrogation. So he had gone back to the
room and stood outside the door, where he was determined to stay until
Dunleavy was finished with Tsang. He justified this decision with what
he considered unassailable logic: If Dunleavy killed Tsang, he would
tell the investigators that he had not been in the room when it happened.
This gave him a modicum of comfort, which Tsang's blood- curdling
yells chipped away at immediately.
At one point he went back to his desk at the Data Room to retrieve a
pair of foam earplugs that he hoped would drown out Tsang's screams
of agony. They didn't help much. He could still hear Tsang's screams

through bone conduction.
At last, around three o'clock, Dunleavy emerged from the room.
After locking the door behind him with keys Brian didn't know he had,
he turned to the young agent and said, "Wanna grab some beers?"
__________
They went to a local bar and grille named The Manhattan Project.
It was still early. Brian usually got off work at five and then made it to
the Cancer Center by six, so when Dunleavy invited him for drinks,
he'd thought, Why not? After the day he'd had so far, he needed a drink.
At the bar, Brian was astonished when Dunleavy transformed into a
completely different persona than the one he had met earlier at the
Base.
When he asked about this miraculous transformation, Dunleavy told
him, "Oh, that's just my interrogator's alter ego. That's nothing.
That's just work."
Mostly in jest, Brian asked him how many alter egos he had.
Dunleavy thought for a few seconds and then said, "At least three: One
for my interview subjects, one for the Senate Intelligence Committee
and one for all other situations."
Brian asked him which one he was having drinks with.
Dunleavy said, "The real me. The regular me."
Multiple personalities and human rights violations aside, Brian
eventually found himself thinking that Dunleavy was not such a bad
guy. He'd told Brian that he'd just turned forty and had a doctorate in
organizational behavior from Ohio State. He said he worked for the
Interview, Interrogation and Debriefing unit of the Bureau, which he

claimed was an elite squad of only seven specially trained agents based
in Washington.
According to Dunleavy, the I.I.D.'s chief function was "debriefing"
foreign intelligence agents and their American assets. He said he'd been
with the unit for the last twelve years and it was the most gratifying
work he'd ever done.
Brian told him that in his four years with the Bureau, he'd never once
heard of the I.I.D. Dunleavy said that was normal. Because of the
highly classified information sometimes divulged to I.I.D. agents
during their interrogations, the unit had an UMBRA security
designation, the Government's highest.
"It can't be all that secret," Brian remarked, "if it's on your business
card."
"I can see you didn't graduate number one in your class at the
Academy," Dunleavy answered sardonically.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Which other unit of the Bureau uses the acronym I-I-D?"
Brian searched his mind but could find no answer.
"The I.T. Procurement