Chapter 7. Interviewing with the Enemy

After I landed in the airport, I reserved a hotel room in one of the main cities in the Enemy’s country, and took a cab that went there. On the way I was able to see the view around, and despite the closeness to my country, it was much different from what was known to me. I’m not talking about the climate — the country was simply more developed. The economy of the Enemy’s country is far from being perfect, but it is still considered to be one of the countries of the other part of the world.

After I got up in the morning, and started to tour it (with a direct intention to gather intelligence information), I noticed that the atmosphere there was not much different from what I remembered in my country. However, it bothered me that all the people I asked accepted Aristotle’s Organum without a doubt. I assumed that that what would happen, but I hope the publication of my book will change this fact even there.

It was in the middle of that day, when a black car stopped next to me, and a man that wore sun‐glasses came out from the seat next to the driver’s seat. He said to me in a thick voice: “The ex‐Member of the Organisation, in order to prevent unpleasantness, please enter the car and sit at the back.”

“Sir,” I replied, “, I have a natural tendency to create unpleasantness, but I am willing to suppress it for the while, so I’ll cooperate.” I said that, and entered the car through the back door which was already open. I saw that outside the car, the man that wore the sun‐glasses, closed the back door, and entered the car as well. The car drove away, and after a short drive stopped in front of a fortified building.

I was instructed to get out of the car and after I went out, the guards in the entrance to the building let me and the man from the front in. He led me in a couple of hallways until we reached a door. The door opened into a window‐less room, which had a desk inside. On one of its sides, sat a man, that I assumed was the investigator, and in its other side was a vacant chair. The man that escorted me, told me to sit there, and then closed the door in which we entered and sat down on a chair at the side of the room.

The investigator addressed me and said: “Are you the ex‐Member of the Organisation?”

“Yes, sir.”, I replied.

“We would like to ask you a few questions regarding the Organisation and we hope, for your and our sake, that you will cooperate with us.”

“I’ll do the best I can. Normally, I tend not to cooperate even with myself. That way, if I decide to do a foolish thing — I don’t get hurt and can’t be blamed for causing it either.”

“Very well… I apologise that we brought you here so urgently, but you must remember that if it were not for this interview, you would not be able to visit here, and we wanted to interview you before you start touring our country and we will lose track of you.”

“Sir, the only person who ever lost track of me is myself.”

“I understand, but since you’re already here, I’ll begin the interview anyway. First question: why did you resign from the Organisation?”

“Because I wanted to resign from it.”

“And why did you want to resign from the Organisation?”

“So I’ll have a good excuse if somebody asks me why I resigned from it.”

The investigator seemed a bit confused but went on to investigate me: “Very well. Please describe to us your service in the Organisation, in general terms.”

“Generally, I served in the Organisation by following my commander’s orders in our trial to kill as many soldiers from your army as possible.”

“Would you be a little more specific?”

“But you asked me to describe the service in general.”

“All right. Can you describe it in a more detailed way?”

“Of course. I remember what happened in a rather detailed manner. I started to serve in November 5, 1996 at 8:03 exactly. For five minutes, I waited outside the registration room and then I was let in. The interviewer asked me for my name and I replied. Then he asked me for my address, my telephone number, my marital status… ”

The investigator interrupted me: “O.K.! O.K.! Forget it. Please estimate the amount of motivation the members of the Organisation had to fight.”

“Look, I only know for certain what was the motivation of my comrades from the post, may they rest in peace, but because they are not longer among the living, I don’t think it would be very helpful to you.”

“And what about those who serve in other posts?”

“It changes from post to post. The mutual relationship between the commander of the post to the members of the Organisation that are under his command can very much affect the willingness of the members to fight the Enemy.”

“How?”

“If the relationship between them is good, they are more willing to do so.”

“Ah hah. Can you tell me what was the attitude of your comrades toward the Enemy, the Supporter, or the Occupier?”

“Yes. From what I recall, we hated the Enemy and despised the Occupier, even though we acknowledged the fact that he allows us a freedom of action against the Enemy.”

“We already know that!”

“Excellent! Now you have a more solid basis to assume that.”

“Very well. Tell me: what weaponry and equipment, and in what quantity, did you have in the post?”

“All the weapons and equipment that we had were destroyed because of the tragic battle that occurred there between the members of the Organisation who served in the post to themselves.”

“Can you tell me anything about the equipment and the weaponry that is kept by other posts?”

“No. I wasn’t interested in what went on in other posts, because I was too concerned with the affairs of my own post. You see, I never thought I’ll ever have to give intelligence information for the other side.”

“I see. How would you rate the fighting ability and the level of the fighters who served with you in the post?”

“In my appreciation, the fighting ability of my comrades ranged between an excellent fighting ability to a very low fighting ability, with a tendency to concentrate in either of the two extremes, or in any level between them.”

“Do you have any other information that can aid us in our struggle against the Organisation?”

“Of course, I can explain Newton’s Second Law of Motion to you. It’s a very useful law and is almost compulsory for effective military warfare.”

“The men of our military already know and understand Newton’s Second Law of Motion, very well, and I’m sure they use it a lot for many purposes in the routine management of the military.”

“You see: even you agree that it’s useful! But since you already know it, I don’t suppose that there’s a use for me to explain it to you. I can guide you in other fields of physics with which I am familiar.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’m afraid I ran out of questions to ask you.”

“Excellent.” I replied, “Because I ran out of replies too. I made an effort that they will be as to the point and as informative as possible, but at a certain point, I too ran out of available knowledge.”