Le Bureau des Légendes #3.6

Marjorie: Who chose the alias?
Sylvain: I did.
Marjorie: Snoopy? You think our Mossad colleagues are idiots?
Sylvain: Absolutely not.

Esrin: You didn't bring me anything? You came from Paris empty-handed? No little gifts? A ball that makes snow when you shake it? Nothing at all?

Sylvain: If I were Mossad, and forget that my name ends in "stein", I'd use a Trojan horse to put a virus into the system.

Philippe Sieca: Were you scared?
Marina: No, surprised.
Philippe Sieca: First piece of advice: answer only "yes" or "no". Only offer what's necessary. I'll ask again. Were you scared?
Marina: No.
Philippe Sieca: What? How can you know if I was scared?

Philippe Sieca: Second piece of advice: lie only when you have to. You had to be scared. It's normal to be scared and to panic. It's a protection mechanism. Your fear protects you. The contrary would be unusual.

Marina: I was scared the first time. What if it reoccurs? I could panic and mess up.
Philippe Sieca: That's a classic. Two solutions: either you go into therapy for a few years, and we drop everything for now, or we choose a more technological approach.
Marina: Let's go for technology.

Philippe Sieca: That machine doesn't measure truth or lies. It's not God. It measures the external manifestations of your fear. In scientific terms, your reactions to stress.
Marina: How's that supposed to reassure me?
Philippe Sieca: You can't control your fear, but you can control how it's displayed. You can be scared. Just don't show it. That's quite different. There are special techniques.

Philippe Sieca: The machine records your physical reactions, such as heart palpitations and perspiration. You'll be asked two kinds of questions. Relevant ones, such as: "Do you work in a secret service?" And control questions, such as: "Have you ever cheated?" The answer to the control questions is usually "yes", but people are uneasy about answering honestly. Your reaction to relevant questions will be compared with your reaction to the control questions.
Marina: I understand.
Philippe Sieca: When they ask a control question, like "have you ever cheated?", your physiological reaction will deviate from the norm because the obvious reply, "yes", is somewhat embarrassing. For the relevant questions, such as "are you a spy?", your reaction will also deviate. You'll reply "no", which is a lie. The goal is for your reaction to deviate more with control questions than relevant ones. That way, they'll ignore it.

Marina: So, how do you do that?
Philippe Sieca: If you exaggerate your reactions to the control questions, your "relevant" reactions will appear minimal. It's all relative.
Marina: So if I artificially modify my breathing during control questions, I'll get away with the relevant ones.
Philippe Sieca: Exactly. I'll train you to do it. It all comes from here... Kind of like yoga. Hold your breath right after you exhale. Hold it for 5 to 15 seconds. Resume your normal breathing rate just before the next question.

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