Twenty-One

Meet Dr. West

Lee walked to interview room 6 with trepidation. It was a feeling he had not had when preparing to interview The Silent Man, as they were referring to him. He didn’t know the reasons behind this change in mood. Perhaps it was because he had been demanding to speak to him all day, or perhaps because he had just led an operation that almost killed this man. Either way Lee had done everything in his power to put off this interview with Eli West, but now, the time had come. He turned the door handle and took a deep breath. He entered the room, he hoped, with an air of confidence, as James followed �" his supporting cast. As he sat down and straightened the folder in front of him he eyed the man in front. His messy hair suggested an age much younger than his eyes and pot belly did. It was hard exactly to gauge the man’s age. Lee extended a hand, ‘Eli West is it?’

‘And you are?’, already more progress had been made than in Lee’s earlier interview.

‘Detective Lee Harding. We met.’ Eli nodded, ‘This is Detective James Smith he’ll be assisting me with this interview’

‘So you’re the one in charge, they tell me’, Lee looked at James, who shrugged.

‘Well I guess that’s right. What is it you’ve been wanting to talk to me about all day then?’, Lee took note of the man’s British accent. Eli looked from Lee to James, fidgeting and visibly nervous.

‘How do I know I can trust you guys?’, Lee wondered just what had happened to make the man mistrust two police officers,

‘What makes you think you can’t?’, Lee replied. At this Eli smiled and shook his head,

‘You really don’t know what you’re up against do you?’, ignoring the taunt, Lee pushed on, referring to his notes,

‘So who exactly are you?’

‘I told you. My name’s Eli West’

‘But what do you do? You’re British I take it’

‘I am. I’m a doctor in nuclear physics. I did my PhD in experimental fusion reactors’, Lee looked up from his papers, intrigued.

‘How’s that working out for ya?’

‘Not that great at the moment’, Lee almost couldn’t believe he was getting answers.

‘Dr. West, What were you doing in that house?’, Eli thought about the question for a moment.

‘I was being held captive’, again Lee shot a look toward Eli, before trying to subtly turn his eyes to James. ‘Well, in a manner of words’,

‘Held captive by whom?’

‘By your government Detective Harding’. A silence filled the room. Neither detective knew how to respond. After about 10 seconds of silence James had his input.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You heard me’

‘Why were you being held by our government?’, James and Lee were entertaining what were obviously the man’s wild fantasies. He smiled again briefly.

‘Alright boys I’m about to break something to you which you clearly haven’t been informed of. Your nation is currently engaged in an intelligence war with Europe’,

‘What?’ Lee replied immediately.

‘Look, I’m not a politician. Read the news ok? What you probably currently refer to as the “European Union”’ Eli made quotation signs with his fingers, ‘exists today only in name. In 6 months it will be dissolved and replaced by a far stronger economic, political and military union. The Coalition of Allied Governments in Europe’ Lee and James stared open mouthed, ‘The political scene is changing in Europe. What I’m telling you is that in 6 months’ time there will be a new world superpower. CAGE will be one nation in all but name. Anyway the point is the political leaders of this union and of your country have some seriously different foreign policy objectives’, James quizzed Eli’s story,

‘What does this have to do with you?’

‘I was employed in CAGE’s new research unit. All we really cared about was the funding. Anyway I developed a prototype nuclear fusion reactor. But they soon informed me they weren’t going to use the technology for power’

‘A bomb?’ interrupted Lee,

‘Yeah. But this thing could be mass produced �" I’m talking factory levels, and each one ten times the strength of the Tsar Bomba. So I contacted your intelligence service. Gave them the location of the facility and hopped on the next flight to Washington. And they blew it up’,

‘So why hold you captive’, Eli laughed.

‘You ever heard the term there’s no such thing as a free meal?’ Lee nodded, ‘They didn’t want to rescue me. They wanted the bomb for themselves. So they asked me to develop the reactor and I told them no. They tried to convince me they needed it for power’

‘The chest…’ Lee put the final piece of the puzzle in himself.

‘That’s right. They brought me that thing to try convince me they had some impending energy shortage’

‘What do you mean try?’ retorted James.

‘That chest is like 50 years old man. Everything in there is bullshit. Probably hundreds more wells have been discovered since then, not to mention all the purification techniques that have been developed. It meant nothing’ the words hung in the air. It was like Lee had been hit with a bomb.

‘So it was a lie?...’

‘Afraid so’

‘They killed one of our men to get that chest. Put another one in a coma…. And it’s a lie’, Eli leaned forward over the table.

‘They are willing to do anything to get their hands on that bomb. All of them’, at this final sentence something clicked in Lee’s head.

‘So the guy upstairs, he was trying to get you back’, Eli’s face slumped. He went ghostly white.

‘What do you mean the guy upstairs?’

‘The guy who drove up to the house. We arrested him. He’s upstairs in an interview room.’

‘Oh god. What have you done? You’ve taken him right to me.’

‘Don’t worry doctor West you are completely safe here. He’s in handcuffs’, Eli grabbed Lee’s hand from across the table,

‘Lee, look at me’ Lee did so, ‘Trust me when I tell you this; If you’ve arrested him, put him in handcuffs, taken him here, if he’s told you anything, that is exactly what he wanted to happen.’

‘What?’

‘Detectives, the man upstairs is probably one of the most dangerous you will ever meet. He is currently sitting exactly where he wants to be sitting. Inside the same building as the man he’s been chasing for the last 6 months.’, It was after this that the lights went out.