ZAIN INTERVIEWS ME
“Morning General.” The three officers in the vicinity chorused. He then turned to me.
“Ms. José, these are junior officers Chowdhury Khan,” He pointed to a dark-haired, tall and dark-skinned man. “Zain Raj and Aiman Raj.” Then to two identical men. They were both medium heighted, with wheatish complexion and were dressed identically. Even their hair colour was the same. I would not be able to have differentiated them except that the one the General called Zain had a bullet mark on the right side of his high cheekbones. Also, even though they looked alike, Aiman had a warm glow in his eyes while Zain’s were stone-cold.
“They’re the ones who will be searching your belongings.” General told me. I handed my bag to Khan while the Rajs used a Garette to check for contrabands. In the end, I had to give up my earrings. Security’s really tight here.
“I’ll leave it here ma’am. I have to return.” General said.
“Ok.”
After he left, I was now alone with Zain as Aiman had left to the other side of the room and Khan was with him, still checking my bag. I found myself an ergonomic chair.
“So,” Zain started as he pulled a chair opposite me, his black eyes dauntingly studying me. “General told us you’re here for an interview. I would like to know your intentions for this truthfully or…” he raised a brow “we could use Sodium Pentathol, a truth drug.”
I was starting to feel uneasy as I didn’t like the sound of being forced. So I took a deep breath and started:
“I formerly worked as an MSNBC correspondent, a BBC broadcaster and a CNN journalist. When I found out policies against the truth were being put up, I resigned and started my own show and blog, ‘The Truth Canal’. I needed to know the truth as Western media doesn’t cover the truth except if it benefits them, so I decided to start blogging and I needed to hear and get information from a representative of the source.”
“And…how do you hope to achieve this?”
I was confused.
“Is there a reason for this?” I asked.
“You said you are coming here to interview. The way in which you get them to tell the truth matters, doesn’t it?” he finished with an American accent.
My eyes fell on a cabinet labelled ‘Na Pent.’ Maybe it would work.
“And of course don’t think about the truth drug because it is only to be used carefully. It has side effects that, believe me, you don’t wanna know.”
“Ok.” I started “I’ve learnt that most people here-”
“People?” he raised a brow.
“Most prisoners,” I corrected myself. “are apathetic. They don’t have firm beliefs. But by using a straight and rigid approach as they have flexible beliefs, they end up speaking the truth unknowingly.”
“Hmm…psychology of an apathetic. Fascinating. Did you study psychology?” he asked.
“No. I studied Mass Communication.”
“Ok. Interview granted.” He stood up.
The light from the screens showing the CCTV footage gave the room a steel blue glaze and made Zain’s scar more prominent.
“Do you have any interviewee in mind?” he looked at me over his left shoulder as he asked.
“No.”
HOPE LIES IN THE FILES
“Well then, have a look at these files.” He opened the drawer below the one marked ‘Na Pent.’ and brought out a score of navy blue binders and dropped them on the table beside me. I noticed that they were coded into 3; black, red and amber.
“Mr…”
“Call me Zain.” He replied in his usual American accent.
“Well um, Zain, what’s the colour code?”
“Amber is mild. Red is serious. Black is Grave.” He answered while pulling out more files.
Well ‘Grave’ would make a good information as they knew more. So I asked Zain to bring only those under the ‘Grave’ category. I started going through them but I quickly became tired as most of them were not to-date.
“How many prisoners are here at Evin?” I asked Zain.
“About 500.”
“And how many are listed under ‘Grave’?”
A hundred and twenty! That would take forever to go through and I had already spent 30 minutes on 10 files. These weren’t also recent.
“Wait! That’s it!” I clicked my thumb and forefinger together.
“That’s what?” Zain asked.
“Do you have the most recent category on ‘Grave’?”
“Uh, yes. About three days ago. Will that do?”
“Yes. How many?”
“Three.”
He opened another cabinet and pulled out quarter a dozen files and I collected them. I opened the first which read:
Name: Moore ‘stake’ Anderson
Nationality: Irish
Age: 34(1991-2025)
I didn’t continue reading as I couldn’t ask the dead questions. So I picked up the next and read it.
Name: Tova Sikes
Nationality: Israeli
Age: 26
Town: Tel Aviv
Offence: Responsible for the near-activation of a mine below the apartment of a nuclear scientist (name not stated). Detonation didn’t occur as witnesses contact right authorities. Attempted to set a suicide bomb.
Previous offences: shoplifting, mercenary activities and espionage (claiming patriotism).
Time of present arrest: 12:36pm (local time)
Occupation: divisional head of nuclear production, iaea.
Marital status: married
Spouse: oxana sikes
Children: nil
Current health status: in coma. As at failure of detonating suicide bomb, offender seized a pole and hit himself to unconsciousness. Currently in psychiatric infirmary.
I didn’t finish reading as I also couldn’t talk to the comatose. I dropped Sike’s file with disappointment. I looked at the last file. If the owner was not in good health, I would have a stale interview.
I opened it and read:
Name: Freilich van Gogh
Nationality: Israeli (although also German)
Age: 30
Town: Dimona
Offence: responsible for the detonation of a hand grenade at souk-al-jameel. Claims not to have done it, although witnesses, CCTV, drones and investigations pin him as guilty.
Previous offences: verbal assault in important personnel
Time of present arrest: 8:23am (Local time)
Occupation: Lieutenant colonel of ‘Eagle Eyes’, a mercenary squad.
Marital status: Widowed
Spouse: Erica Freilich Carnicky (1997-2020)
Cause of death: Corona Virus
Children: Alexandra Freilich- 10
Orpheus Freilich- 8
Hades Freilich- 8
Current health status: all health is intact. No medical concerns. Psychologically okay.
Concerns on behaviour: Currently a somnambulist. Found trying to escape but thoughts might have subsided. Sometimes paranoid and aggressive.
I snapped the binder shut with a smile.
To be continued
Khadija Abdulmalik is an SS2 student of Dialogue Academy, Kaduna