***** Vol.4 Chap.44 The interrogation *****
A serious-looking agent strolled down to the room.
“Dr. JB Smith?”
“Who wants to know.”
“I am Jordan Tapinski, the agent in charge of the GL case. Please, shall we talk inside the room?”
He opened the door and let JB in first. Joe and George continue to stand outside still.
“Please have a seat.” Jordan said without emotions. Just another case interview.
The air was getting tense. JB was extremely uneasy.
He opened his suitcase and set up the video camera pointed right at her. The atmosphere stiffened immediately.
“Let me come to the point. I am the case manager for the Global Liberators. We have been keeping tabs on the GL and their chief scientist, Dr. Johan Schmidtiz for quite a while now.”
“What? Did you say Dr. Johan Schmidtiz?”
“Yes, Dr. Schmidtiz was an employee at another company but had recently joined the GL. We had a file on him here.”
“Are you sure that was Dr. Schmidtiz?” JB blurted out.
Jordan ignored her question at first and was about to continue. Then he stopped, rummaged among the paper work in his suitcase and produces a picture of Johan Schmidtiz. He shoved the picture in front of her.
“Is this the man you have been talking to?”
There was no question that the photo shown was Johan Schmidtiz. She recognized the undeniable moles on the face.
Resigned, she sat back on her char. “Yes, that is Johan.”
Jordan nodded, then continued. “We had solid information that the GL had manufactured a red pill that would make anyone who ingested the pill to be violent. We also know you are the brain behind the manufacturing process of the red pill under Dr. Schmidtiz’s guidance…”
“I was told that I was working on an antidote to the red pill!” JB stood up and pound on the table.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“So, you do not deny that you were working on some pill?”
“I was working on the blue pill!” She shouted angrily.
Without further argument, Jordan pulled out the three patent applications.”
“Are these your patent applications?”
She flipped through them perfunctorily.
“Of course they are. These are highly confidential. How do you obtain these?” Proudly, she threw those patent applications back down on the table.
“We had a video of you signing the patent application?”
Jordan ran the video on closed circuit TV. In the video, there was JB grinning from ear to ear as she was signing the patents.
“How did you get that video?” She was confused.
“Was that you signing the patent applications?”
“Of course.”
He let the video ran and paused it at one point and pointed to a reflection on the video.
“Was that Dr. Schmidtiz that you worked with?”
“Yes.”
He pointed to the three patent applications again.
“Please examine if these are your patent applications again and if these are your signatures or not.
Resigned. JB flipped through the three patent applications.
“Yes, these are the patents leading to the blue pill, the antidote to the red pill.”
“Was that what Dr. Schmidtiz told you?”
“Of course. I would never work on anything so heinous that would lead to the red pill.”
“So, you know about the red pill?”
“Of course, it was on the news.”
“Do you know the ingredients of the pill you worked on?”
“Dr. Schmidtiz mentioned they are chamomile and other calming herbs.”
“Did you ever check out the data independently?”
“No, no reason to.”
“Let me tell you. The ingredients you worked with include caffeine and chili powder.”
“What? No way.”
“We have a mass spectrometer here in the lab and we had independently checked out all your ingredients in this patent application.”
JB sat back, unbelieving and all her pompous air had deflated.
“We are trying to duplicate the process of ‘the blue pill’ as you call it and that was when we discovered that the ingredients all appear to give opposite effects.”
“Unfortunately, we were not successful at all in producing the pill. It seemed there was some process missing in the description here in the patent application. As such, the application will never be granted. That is the reason why we are most interested in talking to you.”
Jordan continued. “If you wrote the patent application, then you should be quite familiar with the contents. Perhaps tomorrow, you could spend a longer time with our scientist to review the process and see if you can spot any missing ingredients or hidden process.”
“We sincerely hope that you would agree to help us bring the real culprit to justice.” Jordan paused.
“We had more questions for you about Dr. Schmidtiz and his organization as well. Will you help us?”
As confused as JB could be, she had no choice but to cooperate. Her patriotic self wanted to help. Her moral self wanted to help. Her proud self detested what was going on right now.
“Please be our guest for the next few days. We have arranged a safe house for you. Joe and George will always be with you.”
“Shall we meet again tomorrow?”
“Am I under arrest?”
“That depends on how much you cooperate with us.”
“Am I a prisoner?”
“No. But for your safety, we preferred that you stayed under our protection for now.”
Jordan turned off the camera and packed up all the documents.
“Off the record, may I ask you a question?” JB was inquisitive.
“Of course.”
“Is my life in danger?” She asked timidly with doubtful eyes.
“Off the record, the real PPTSB wants you and the GL wants you.”
That confuses her to no end.
Jordan strolled out of the room and mumbled something to Joe and George.