28 - The confession
The M40 Motorway, England – 1:30 pm Wednesday
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Nick was amazed it only took another fifteen minutes before they escaped Margaret Watson’s desperate pleas for them to stay for lunch. Ignoring the lonely lady’s shrill ‘Thank you for visiting, officers,’ they raced down the worn path to Alison’s Aston Martin. Nick sucked in fresh air, glad to escape the pungent potpourri parlor.
He focused on the dated photo of their prey he held in his hands as Alison sped through the narrow streets of Kidderminster, barely listening as she reviewed the meeting in a polite yet cool tone. He only looked up when she finished her summary with, ‘So let’s get back to London and check that photo with Alan’s gamer housemates.’
Before Nick could respond, she turned the music up, supposedly to drown out the icy wind gusting outside. However, the soulful sound of One Republic could not dispel the frosty weather inside the DB11. It was clear to Nick that he needed to melt the icy barrier between him and Alison.
‘Ali, can you turn the music down, please? We need to chat.’
‘That depends on what we must chat about, Nick. Or is it something you need to tell me?’
As Nick reached across and turned the music down, he decided it was time to tell Alison about what had instigated the sorry mess he’d brought her into. Evidently, she knew there was more to his story than he’d let on.
Taking a deep breath, he stumbled over words he had never spoken.
‘Ali, I have a confession to make … something no one knows about.’
She looked sideways as he paused, but her expression was more aloof than personal.
‘I … err …’
Nick froze, uncertain of how to reveal something that might make him look weak if he didn’t word it correctly.
Ali continued staring ahead at the road as she sped back to London.
She isn’t going to make it any easier for me.
After inhaling a deeper breath, Nick confessed in a broken voice, ‘I did something really stupid, Ali. That’s how the hacker got into my computer and stole 831.’
Nick felt the car decelerate slightly as he considered his next words. Alison needed to know what had driven him into the gambling universe.
I’ll look like a loser if she doesn’t understand that.
And that was one thing Nick could never be in anyone’s eyes.
Unfortunately, that meant sharing secrets he’d vowed to keep locked in the deep abyss the secretive WHINSEC1 had bored into his soul.
Yet, that darkness is nothing compared to what will happen if Alan Watson works out how to use 831.
Nick was sure there was enough material on the compromised VM for a technical person to construct a functioning prototype of 831. And the rooms in Redbridge and Kidderminster implied that Alan Watson loved working with hardware. Even if not, once the hacker realized what he had, he could auction it on the dark web for a large sum. And that would create an even bigger problem for Nick.
Nick knew he could never tell Alison what 831 did. To protect its secret, he’d have to sacrifice something else.
Of course, I won’t tell her everything - just enough for her to understand that the hack wasn’t really my fault.
‘For you to understand why it happened, I need to tell you some things that must remain confidential, Ali.’
Ali continued staring ahead as she replied with a slightly offended tone, ‘I think you know you can trust me by now, Nick. If you can’t, why have to asked me to help find your missing cyber project?’
Nick swiftly responded. ‘I know I can trust you, Ali. But this is “off the charts” secret. You can’t let anyone know what I’m about to tell you. And that means anyone.’
Ali gave Nick a swift glance. He couldn’t miss the intrigue painted across her face.
Nick allowed the silence to hang for a long time.
Then, after another deep breath, Nick queried, ‘What do you know about WHINSEC, Ali?’
It was almost a minute before she tentatively replied, ‘I’ve heard rumors, Nick. Lots of rumors. But some of them are so dark, I can’t accept them as true. I’m guessing it’s like with most rumors – there’s just enough truth to whet people’s appetites. Yet, the little bit of truth is deep fried in lies whose purpose is to increase what we call the FUD2 factor.’
Alison drew in a sharp breath when Nick replied, ‘I’m guessing that the truth is worse than the rumors you’ve heard. Maybe you should pull over for a bit? Some of this will be hard to hear. It’s the part you must take to the grave.’
The M40 Motorway, England – 2 pm Wednesday
Please note: The horrific images used in the rest of this chapter were drawn by a man wrongfully imprisoned and tortured in Guantánamo Bay prison camp. They describe some of his experiences. For more information, check out this 2019 article from the New York Times.
Alison sighed as she pulled over to the side. It had already been a long day.
Sure, the drive out to Kidderminster was exhilarating. I haven’t taken the DB11 for a run like that for too long. I reckon I averaged 130 miles an hour once we hit the M40.
Margaret Watson had been unforgettable, too, though in a different way.
The poor dear doesn’t realise how much she evidences all the signs of an abuse survivor.
At least she had identified their hacker and confirmed a few other things about him, though Alison would have preferred it if what they knew wasn’t true.
And now Nick’s going to reveal some deep, dark secret I need to know but aren’t permitted to act upon.
She pushed the engine’s stop button and turned to face Nick. It was hard to miss the earnestness on his face. It was like he was willing her to believe what he was about to disclose.
“So, I guess you know WHINSEC is not the original edition of the CIA’s black ops training school, Ali?”
Alison gave an audible sigh as she responded, “Yes, Nick. I know it used to be SOA – School of the Americas – and that it had to ‘rebrand’ per se after developing a reputation for training the world’s most vicious black ops personnel. Its alums include a long list of people with a longer list of crimes against humanity.”
“I also know WHINSEC was supposed to clean up SOA’s act. Their courses were revised to include human rights and the Geneva Convention, and subjects like enhanced interrogation and torture were removed or heavily modified.”
“That’s good, Ali. You can recite the public spiel perfectly. So how would you feel if I told you that WHINSEC’s black ops training is still based on the original SOA manual, and subjects like torture have simply been covered up? What if I told you those extreme subjects have practical assessments conducted on live prisoners?”
Alison gasped. “I’ve heard rumours to that effect. But I couldn’t believe they were true in today’s world.”
Alison’s brown eyes grew round like saucers as Nick continued.
“I won’t go into specific details about what I had to do there, Ali – it would make you vomit. Just thinking about it makes me sick. But I’m sure you can imagine. We were taught waterboarding, electric shock treatment … if you can think of a form of torture, I learned it. And then there were methods I’d never even heard of, things I couldn’t imagine.”
Nick paused before continuing with a sad voice.
“The worst training sessions occurred at Guantánamo Bay. We had to watch physical demonstrations and then replicate them on unwilling, unsedated prisoners. It was horrific.”3
Nick’s voice wavered as he confessed, “I wanted to hurt the monsters that ruined my life, Ali. I wanted to hurt them so bad, to make them pay for what they did to me and so many others. Yet, the line was blurred between the animals I despise and the things I was required to learn and practice so I could hunt them down and destroy them.”
Nick paused before quietly adding, “It made me wonder who the real monsters are.”
Ali stared at Nick, her soft eyes filled with sadness. No words could reach into that moment to ease Nick’s pain.
She waited for Nick to continue.
However, nothing further fell from his lips. It was apparent that he was traumatised by what he’d seen and done in the name of serving his country.
No wonder he escapes into gambling, though he still hasn’t told me how Alan duped him.
“Come on, Nick,” she said with genuine warmth as she restarted the car. “Let’s see if Alan Watson is your son-of-a-bitch hacker. If he is, we’re going to find him. And when we do, he’s all yours.”
Nick said nothing. He merely stared out of the window for the rest of the trip.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long to arrive at Redbridge.
If you’re a subscriber, thank you for your support … and please click the heart-shaped LIKE button at the end of this chapter. And if you have any suggestions to help make it better or you simply want to encourage me as a storyteller (either would be appreciated), please leave a comment.The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation trains military, law enforcement and security personnel from approved Western nations. Learners are taught how to respond effectively to regional security challenges. Well – that’s what the website says. Fyi, the topics listed later in this chapter were in SOA’s curriculum (WHINSEC’s hideous precursor that’s explained later). Maybe that’s why there’s no mention of SOA on WHINSEC’s website and WHINSEC is described as a recent creation. For more information, refer to WHINSEC faq’s
Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt
If you think this is fiction, check out this 2019 article from the New York Times