76
Safe house
Stockton lane
Richmond, Virginia
USA
Lat = 37 degrees, 33.2 minutes North
Long = 77 degrees, 30.0 minutes West
Thursday 21st September 1989(same day)
Fourteen thirty-seven hours EST
Max and his team had arrived back from snatching Yurchenko forty minutes earlier, on the journey back Yurchenko had been sedated and was now in the garage of the safe house.
Max had strung him up in an upright stance, his hands and legs had been secured with plastic ties and his arms were above him connected to a rope slung over a beam in the garage.
His feet were touching the ground and he had a loosely fitted cloth hood over his head.
Yurchenko began to regain consciousness and immediately felt nauseous and threw up the contents of his stomach spewing from his mouth immediately into the hood around his face and then trickling down his face and his neck.
The stench nearly caused him to repeat the process.
Max had observed this a few yards away whilst sitting in a chair, he watched for a few moments as Yurchenko began to struggle against his restraints and then stood up and moved around to the back of Yurchenko’s vertically prostrate body.
Max leaned close to Yurchenko’s left ear and said, “You’re wasting your efforts Yuri!”
Yurchenko had not heard the presence of anyone else and the voice startled him, he also detected the voice was not speaking with an American accent but seemed to have a more English pronunciation.
He tried to turn towards the direction of the voice but was unable to he said, “Who the hell are you and do you know how much trouble you are in by kidnapping me?”
Max replied, “relax Yuri me and you are going to have a little chat about Red Mercury.”
“No idea what you’re talking about!”
Yurchenko immediately felt excruciating and violent pain to his left rear rib cage and let out a loud animalistic cry.
Max leaned forward and said, “Wrong answer Yuri, let me explain the rules of this game. I ask you a question and you answer truthfully, noncompliance and I get to inflict more pain on you. What you just experienced is the mildest form of the pain range, each time it will become more painful and I have at my disposal a variety of ways and instruments to accomplish this. I am a fair man Yuri so I will give you ten minutes to digest what I have just said and when I come back we will start on a fresh sheet, understand?”
Yurchenko was still recovering from the blow to his side and only managed a grunt.
Max said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Max walked away from Yurchenko and placed the three-foot wooden baton he had struck Yurchenko with down on a table and left the garage.
One of his men was outside and he said to him, “Just keep an eye on him.”
“Will do sir.”
Max walked back into the kitchen area where Roy and Tracy were sitting at the kitchen table chatting, they both turned to look at him and Roy said, “Has he woken up Max?”
“Yes several minutes ago Roy.”
Tracy said, “Is he talking Max?”
Max gave a grin and replied, “Oh he can talk Tracy but at the moment he seems too not want to answer my questions. Nevertheless, I am sure he will change his mind I have just left him in some discomfort and helped him understand the rules of our little game.”
Roy had poured Max a black coffee and handed it to him; Max took a sip and could see the concern in Tracy’s eyes following his reply to her question.
Roy had also clocked Tracy’s concern and he sat down immediately across from her and said, “Tracy you certainly understand that it is never going to be easy extracting information from a suspect, we understand that you have rules and protocols to follow when interrogating a suspect. However, we only have one rule; whatever it takes to accomplish the mission will be done!”
Tracy looked at Roy and then at Max before replying, “I know the stakes are high but torturing is a hard pill for me to swallow guys.”
Max said, “It’s something that we do not relish Tracy, but as Roy said, whatever it takes,” Max looked at his watch and said, “He has had his ten minutes.”
Max placed his cup down and walked out of the kitchen.
As Max walked from the room Roy said to Tracy, “Don’t worry, Yurchenko is not a trained field operative. Max will not need to use too much persuasion to get him to talk.”
Tracy replied, “I hope you are right Roy!”
Max re-entered the garage, picked up the wooden baton in his right hand from the table, raised his right arm high above him, and immediately slammed the baton onto the tabletop.
The sound reverberated around the garage and frightened Yurchenko, Max walked over to him dragging the baton on the floor.
“Your ten minutes are up Yuri, so let me ask you the same question again, tell me about the Red Mercury that is now in this country?”
Yurchenko had reflected on his predicament in the last ten minutes and what the man had said about the pain he would endure.
He had weighed up his options; firstly, he was not happy about the pain option and secondly how much did his captor really know.
The question just asked told him his captor knew the Red Mercury was on US soil and he replied, “Yes! Red Mercury is here.”
Max said, “Where is it?”
“All I know, was it was taken to a warehouse but I was not privy to the location.”
“You are doing well Yuri, now what is the target?”
“Again I was not party to that information.”
The blow that followed to his stomach area knocked the wind out of him and the pain associated with it burned through his torso like a fire.
Max had used the end of the baton driving into Yurchenko’s stomach with just enough controlled force to achieve maximum pain but not at the expense of serious internal injuries.
A minute later Yurchenko’s breathing was returning to normal and Max said, “Yuri; you were doing so well, please do not take me for a fool do I need to repeat the question?”
Yuri quickly replied, “The SALT agreement, they will use it at the SALT signing.”
Max said, “Now we are communicating Yuri, I have a few more questions to ask you and we will be done.
For the next several minutes, Max ascertained the connection between Yuri and the CIA deputy director Walter Smith and the removal of the Red Mercury out of Russia by Ivan Balagula.
When he had finished Yuri said, “You have everything I know so let me go!”
Max replied, “Can’t do that Yuri, you have an appointment back in Russia with your President.”
“I will renounce everything I have said to you.”
“That’s your choice Yuri, but you are still going back home. I will have you cut down and made more comfortable.”
Max exited the garage and said to the OSC guard, “cut him down and restrain him remove his hood and make him comfortable and keep a two-hour guard rotation on him, anyone going in wears a balaclava,”
“Leave it with me sir.”
Max returned to the kitchen area where Tracy looked up at him with an apprehensive look, Max said, “It’s okay Tracy he capitulated quickly with very little incentive from me.”
Roy said, “There, I told you so.”
Tracy said, “What’s he said?”
Max briefed Roy and Tracy on the interrogation and when he had finished Tracy said, “So the target is the SALT agreement a week tomorrow.”
Max replied, “Yes, as we had initially believed.”
Tracy said, “So; where do we go with this information Max?”
“Firstly I will contact Vas and see what they have and then I will contact our end and update them on what we have.”