DHS–Domestic Terrorism
Annex
Washington, DC
March 30, 2018
After the first week of questioning, Martin started talking. A skilled team from the CIA and FBI were assigned to the case, and the pair had experience getting government employees to spill their guts without the use of any enhanced interrogation techniques. Both agents were surprised that he folded so quickly, but neither was convinced they'd gotten everything. He told them he'd been recruited as an inside source four years ago, and his task was limited to reporting information in a one way stream to people he never met, in exchange for deposits into an account opened in his wife's name. As a loyal public servant, he claimed that the only information he passed would eventually be released to the public anyway. The endless questions followed a contrived pattern Martin navigated easily. He'd worked in government long enough to know all the games.
"You know, information related to upcoming RFPs and that sort of thing."
"What about on-going investigations?"
"Sure if it looked like something that they were interested in."
"How did you know what they were interested in?"
"Well, it was easy," he answered, "I could track the payments based on what I passed along, and there was no payment for information they already knew."
"How often did you pass information and by what means?"
The information was passed via a numeric pager or international call to a drop box if urgent or to a General Delivery post office box in a Chicago box-pack-ship store if routine. He fell into Dan's trap by using his pager. Martin tried to explain his behavior and justify it to his inquisitors. Unexpected medical bills for his wife drained his savings, and he was just replacing the money he "lost". He'd done this for her and his family. Martin ignored the instructions to destroy any documents related to the deposits into his account. He gave up the bank information he conveniently kept on his computer, and investigators from the Treasury department were tracing the payment streams. The last fifteen to twenty percent of the information Martin knew would be difficult to extract.
"Martin, how would you like to be able to turn this situation around and make a fresh start? We are willing to consider a deal with you but need to understand whether or not you'd be able to work on the right side of the law."
Martin smiled to himself, knowing that the negotiating power shifted, and his position had become much stronger. They want me to continue working here and feed their own information through the same conduit.
"Well, sure. I mean if there's a way out of this mess, I'm listening."
What the investigators did not know is when Martin demonstrated the encrypted pager, he used a password to activate the device signaling that he'd been compromised, so any information he did send would be considered suspect by his handlers. He would tell them anything they wanted to hear to save his skin. He had plenty of money socked away which none of the investigators would ever find.