Chapter 663: The Strength of MI5

Interrogating a member employed by the Grand Paris Police, the Third Bureau of the Imperial Office of the Tsarist Russia, the German Mainz Intelligence Office, or a secret anti-government organization is one of the exciting professional tasks.

Usually, the situation is always favorable to the interrogator, but the training, experience, patience and perseverance of the interrogator will greatly weaken the interrogator's advantage.

The Intelligence Act explicitly prohibits MI5 and MI6 from exercising any judicial or police power. However, counterintelligence agencies inevitably have to detain and control resistant targets for a long time. In the case of time pressure, we need to cultivate, adjust, and terminate the ability of human behavior through suggestion, inducement, or the use of psychological and physiological means, which means ensuring the obedience of the interrogee.

The obedience of the interrogee may be voluntary or involuntary. However, one point that needs to be emphasized is that the interrogation must be conducted in a controlled environment.

Usually, our interrogation goal is to obtain intelligence through hostile covert operations and from individuals or groups involved in these operations. And our interrogation goal is also to obtain intelligence from members of foreign intelligence agencies, secret agencies, or underground anti-government organizations.

However, unlike the police's public security interrogation, the purpose of our interrogation is not to make the defendant confess his crime and then send him to court. We don't care which law he violated or which crime he was charged with. Because, for intelligence agencies, the defendant's admission of guilt is not the end of the interrogation, but the prelude to obtaining more intelligence.

——Arthur Hastings, "British Secret Intelligence Service Interrogation Manual"

Interrogating Herzen, a fool who has just graduated for less than a year, is not a challenging job for Arthur.

To be frank, for Arthur, even torturing Elder and forcing him to ask where the treasures he bought deep in the alleys of Greenwich are hidden in the bookshelf is more difficult than interrogating Herzen.

If Arthur is asked to make a fair evaluation based on his conscience, Elder is usually unreliable, but once that guy is determined about something, he will not be a coward who makes a sound even if his neck is tied to the gallows.

As for why Elder's reputation is so bad, it is simply because he has not been sure of many things in his life.

However, although Herzen is not difficult to deal with for an experienced interrogator like Arthur, interrogation is indeed a difficult problem for the Moscow Police Department, which has not received systematic training.

In this year, the political security police of various countries are generally still at the initial stage of physical interrogation, and their leaders generally do not have the long-term perspective of Arthur. Therefore, for them, interrogation is just a physical job, and it is nothing more than seeing whose corporal punishment method is more unique.

But in the London Police Intelligence Bureau, Arthur's requirements for interrogators are far more than just having a lot of strength.

To serve in the interrogation department of the Police Intelligence Bureau, four conditions must be met.

First, you must receive enough training or have sufficient interrogation experience to quickly find clues.

Second, you must be able to master at least one foreign language and be very familiar with the words used in interrogation.

Third, you must have rich background knowledge about the country of the person being interrogated, and fully understand the organization or group to which the person being interrogated belongs.

Finally, Arthur requires all interrogators to sincerely treat the person being interrogated as a human being.

It is precisely because of these harsh conditions that the Interrogation Department has always been the unit with the highest average education, basic quality and police rank in the Police Intelligence Bureau and even the entire Scotland Yard.

All members of the Interrogation Department are above the rank of Sergeant. Half of the members graduated from the University of London, and the other half, although they did not go to university, were also sent to the University of London for further studies for 3 to 6 months.

High investment means high returns. It is precisely because of these valuable talents that "Iron Heart" Hastings can always get intelligence that others don't know, including but not limited to: the location of protest rallies, the roster of protest groups, hidden criminal dens, and even the first-hand reshuffle of the London underground society.

The biggest difference between the Interrogation Department under Arthur's management and other foreign intelligence agencies during interrogation is that he has never advocated the use of confrontational means.

Although deceiving and inducing the interrogator to reveal the desired information is a necessary means, Arthur requires his interrogators to ask themselves the following question before the interrogation: How can I get him to tell me the information?

Instead of: How can I set a trap for him and trick him into revealing the information I want?

As for the reason for doing this...

You can directly quote Arthur's original words when training interrogators-if we treat the interrogator directly with hostility, or use coercive tactics in the first round of confrontation, the interrogator may no longer be willing to reveal information. According to experience, most interrogators are more willing to reveal information when their personality is respected or treated with kindness. Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, we should first consider how to make friends with them.

And Arthur also set an example to prove to the interrogation department that he was not just talking.

This best police officer in Britain regards his life as a large-scale interrogation of the whole world. His interrogations include not only the black literary giants and republican emperors of France, but also the angry young people and petty citizens of Germany and Italy.

In other words, his interrogation of Herzen did not begin now, but had already begun since the premiere of Turandot in Leipzig last year.

So far, the interrogation has been going very smoothly. The Sir had already gotten everything he wanted to know. Today, he came to the police station just to maintain the relationship between the two parties so that they can cooperate more smoothly in the future.

Before entering the office, Arthur did not forget to ask the police chief, taking the opportunity to strengthen his professional image: "Do you have the background information of the person being interrogated? I need to know his family background and growth experience."

The police chief did not know what Arthur was playing, but this did not affect the tall image of the British policeman in his heart: "Of course there is, but I can't guarantee that's all. But can I ask, what do you want those things for?"

"Of course it's for the interrogation." Arthur put on his hat and stood up and said: "Generally speaking, I will divide the interrogation object into nine types, each type corresponds to a different personality, and the best way to understand a person's personality is to read his background information."

When the police chief heard this, he hurriedly called his officers to get the information. In addition, he did not forget to follow Arthur and temporarily add a few words of his own understanding.

"He is the illegitimate son of the Yakovlev family. Do you know the Yakovlev family in Moscow? When Russia was still called the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the emperor's surname was Rurik instead of Romanov, they were already great nobles. Vasily III was able to unify the Russian land at that time, which was inseparable from the Yakovlev family's use of all their land and wealth to support him. Do you know Vasily III? He is the Vasily III who annexed the Principality of Pskov and the Principality of Ryazan, recovered Smolensk from Lithuania, and made the Khanate of Kazan bow to Russia..."

Although Arthur had heard that Herzen's family was prominent, at that time, he only thought that Herzen's ancestor was at most an ancient Russian prince who was annexed. But now, after hearing what the police chief said, Arthur realized that Herzen's ancestors had also made contributions to Russia.

And from a practical point of view, Herzen's family is much more important to Russia than the Orlov and Golitsyn families.

After all, the funding from Herzen's family actually bought Russia millions of square kilometers of land, which sounds a bit like the Russian Lu Buwei.

This is a generation replacing the old. If Russia was still the Rurik Dynasty, how could a descendant of a family of pioneers like Herzen be arrested by the military police?

Arthur heard this and asked in a roundabout way: "How come you arrested him when he has such a distinguished background? Didn't his elders put pressure on the authorities?"

"Oh." The police chief waved his hand and said: "His family is indeed powerful, but it depends on the situation, right? If it was just a common crime, we would not trouble him with his father who was a diplomat in Paris with the title of 'court attendant' and his second uncle who was once the ambassador to Sweden and is now a member of the Senate. But didn't the emperor give the order himself this time?"

Arthur said sarcastically: "It seems that General Volkov is taking chicken feathers as a token of authority."

The police chief didn't dare to admit that Arthur was right, nor did he dare to say that he was wrong. He could only smile and say: "Anyway, It was he who gave the order. After all, he is the commander of the Moscow gendarmerie, and we are just running errands and doing odd jobs. "

Arthur stopped before entering the door: "What's his name?"

"Alexander Ivanovich Herzen."

"Herzen?" Arthur pretended to be surprised and said, "Well... the Herzen you mentioned, is it the Herzen I know? The young man who works in the Moscow Land Office?"

The police chief was also very surprised: "You... you know that guy?"

Arthur pretended to be silent for a while. He thought for a while and said, "This will happen later..."

After listening to Arthur's plan, the police chief was full of admiration: "This... then I'll trouble you!"

He led Arthur into the office. Herzen heard someone open the door and subconsciously raised his head to look over.

But before he could speak, he heard Arthur introduce himself to him: "Hello, Mr. Herzen."

Herzen didn't expect to see Arthur in this place, and he was a little confused for a moment: "Hello... Hello."

The first thought that came to his mind was-I was betrayed?

But in a flash, he denied this view.

Because he couldn't believe that British diplomats would betray him to the Tsarist government, and appear in front of him triumphantly after betraying him.

This situation is really illogical.

Therefore, he quickly accepted the second view.

Arthur either came to visit him or came to find a way to rescue him.

When he thought of this, Herzen's depressed mood improved.

Arthur looked back at the police chief and said to him according to the plan they had agreed before entering the room: "Sir, please give me some private time. I want to have a brief chat with my friend."

"Okay, sir." The police chief pretended to be embarrassed. He took out his pocket watch and checked the time: "But please pay attention to the time. It will be at most 20 minutes. Our director will be back from the meeting soon."

Arthur took off his hat and thanked him, then watched the police chief leave the room.

Herzen saw the police chief leave and hurriedly asked: "Why are you here?"

Of course, Arthur could not tell the truth to Herzen, because the police chief was listening next door.

Arthur placed the top hat lightly on the oak desk, and the metal bracelet collided with the wooden tabletop to make a crisp sound.

"It's really sad. I still remember that you were sighing to me a few days ago that the world was impermanent. Your good friend was captured by the police. As a result, you squatted into the police station by yourself today."

Hercen smiled bitterly and said, "Who said it was not? Ogalov was in prison for this case for three weeks, but no one can figure out why. I ran around for him, now, even I squatted in myself, too.”

Arthur slowly took out a small notebook from his top pocket, and used the cover of his torso to pretend to be smoking: "To be honest, I didn't expect that the next time I met you was in the bureau. inside."

Hercen lowered his head and looked at the handwriting on his notebook. He immediately understood what was going on. He said casually: "You can come in to visit the prison, can my father and mother come to see me?"

Arthur smiled and pulled out the silver-plated cigarette box, and when handing the cigarette, the mirror on the inside of the lid reflected the scene outside the window.

Herzen took this angle to catch a glimpse of the corner of the police uniform in the corridor - someone was indeed surveillance.

Arthur picked up the cigar and fired: "Maybe, I just heard them say that it seems to be just for cross-examination. Your guilt is not serious, otherwise I would not have let me come to visit you. They seem to be the main one. It was for your friend. If you know some news, you might as well be honest with them. If you don’t do it well, you can let you out sooner.”

Of course, Herzen would not believe it, because he had just seen it in Arthur's notebook, and the military police found banned books such as "December Party Humanities" and "On Social Contract" from his home.

If it is exaggerated, he can be punished for "promoting liberal thoughts" by just this.

As for how to solve it, Arthur's notes were also written very clearly.

You know nothing, you know nothing, this is my advice to you. You are still young and full of energy. You want to speak, which is the worst. Don't forget that you know nothing, and in this case, this is the only way to be saved.

Being frank and lenient and resisting strict is a fool. If you take it seriously, you deserve to be exiled to the Caucasus and Siberia.

The ban on books has been confirmed, and there can only be no choice but to minimize the impact.

What Herzen has to do is not to say anything or disclose any news.

I didn't join any secret groups, nor did I know the Herzen Ogalov group. You have nothing to do every day except to work on time from 9 to 5.