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Authors: Nelson DeMille
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guy. Sometimes it’s a small thing like a record album collection, or paintings
of cats on the walls, or dirty underwear on the floor. Sometimes it’s the books on the shelves or the lack of them, a photo
album, or, eureka, a diary. But here, in this place, so far, I felt I had mistakenly broken into the realtor’s model unit.
The last room on the ground floor was a study lined with books, in which sat a desk, sofa, and armchair. There was also an
entertainment console that held a TV and stereo equipment. On the desk was a telephone answering machine with a blinking light,
but we left it alone for the moment.
We gave the study a thorough search, shaking out the books, looking in and under the desk drawers, and finally reading book
titles and CD titles. Her taste in books ran to military publications, a few cookbooks, health and fitness books, no fiction
or literature whatsoever. But there was a complete collection of Friedrich Nietzsche, and a large collection of titles on
psychology, which reminded me that we were dealing with a person who not only was a psychologist but worked in a very arcane
branch of this field, to wit: psychological warfare. This might develop into one of the most relevant aspects of this case,
or the least relevant.
Heart and hormones aside, all crimes and criminal behavior begin in the mind, and the call to action comes from the mind,
and the concealment of the crime completely occupies the mind afterward. So we eventually had to get into the minds of a lot
of people, and that’s where we would learn about the general’s daughter, and learn why she was murdered. With a case like
this, when you knew why, you could usually figure out who.
Cynthia was flipping through CDs and announced, “Elevator music, a few golden oldies, some Beatles and classical stuff, mostly
Viennese guys.”
“Like Sigmund Freud playing Strauss on the oboe?”
“Something like that.”
I turned on the TV, expecting that it would be tuned to a fitness or news channel. But instead it was on the VCR channel.
I rummaged through the videotape collection, which consisted of a few old black-and-white classics, a few exercise tapes,
and some hand-labeled tapes marked “Psy-Ops, Lecture Series.”
I put one of them in the recorder and pushed the play button. “Take a look.”
Cynthia turned around and we both watched as Captain Ann Campbell’s image filled the screen, dressed in battle fatigues and
standing at a rostrum. She was, indeed, a very good-looking woman, but beyond that she had bright and alert eyes that stared
into the camera for a few seconds before she smiled and began, “Good morning, gentlemen. Today we are going to discuss the
several ways in which psychological operations, or psy warfare, if you wish, can be used by the infantry commander in the
field to decrease enemy morale and fighting effectiveness. The ultimate objective of these operations is to make your job
as infantry commanders somewhat easier. Your mission—to make contact with and destroy the enemy—is a tough one, and you are
aided by other branches of the Army, such as artillery, air, armor, and intelligence. However, a little-understood and too-little-used
tool is available to you—psychological operations.”
She went on, “The enemy’s will to fight is perhaps the single most important element that you must calculate into your battle
plans. His guns, his armor, his artillery, his training, his equipment, and indeed even his numbers are all secondary to his
willingness to stand and fight.” She looked out over her offscreen audience and let a moment pass before continuing. “No man
wants to die. But many men can be motivated to risk their lives in defense of their countries, their families, and even an
abstraction, or a philosophy. Democracy, religion, racial pride, individual honor, unit and interpersonal loyalty, the promise
of plunder, and, yes, women… rape. These are
of cats on the walls, or dirty underwear on the floor. Sometimes it’s the books on the shelves or the lack of them, a photo
album, or, eureka, a diary. But here, in this place, so far, I felt I had mistakenly broken into the realtor’s model unit.
The last room on the ground floor was a study lined with books, in which sat a desk, sofa, and armchair. There was also an
entertainment console that held a TV and stereo equipment. On the desk was a telephone answering machine with a blinking light,
but we left it alone for the moment.
We gave the study a thorough search, shaking out the books, looking in and under the desk drawers, and finally reading book
titles and CD titles. Her taste in books ran to military publications, a few cookbooks, health and fitness books, no fiction
or literature whatsoever. But there was a complete collection of Friedrich Nietzsche, and a large collection of titles on
psychology, which reminded me that we were dealing with a person who not only was a psychologist but worked in a very arcane
branch of this field, to wit: psychological warfare. This might develop into one of the most relevant aspects of this case,
or the least relevant.
Heart and hormones aside, all crimes and criminal behavior begin in the mind, and the call to action comes from the mind,
and the concealment of the crime completely occupies the mind afterward. So we eventually had to get into the minds of a lot
of people, and that’s where we would learn about the general’s daughter, and learn why she was murdered. With a case like
this, when you knew why, you could usually figure out who.
Cynthia was flipping through CDs and announced, “Elevator music, a few golden oldies, some Beatles and classical stuff, mostly
Viennese guys.”
“Like Sigmund Freud playing Strauss on the oboe?”
“Something like that.”
I turned on the TV, expecting that it would be tuned to a fitness or news channel. But instead it was on the VCR channel.
I rummaged through the videotape collection, which consisted of a few old black-and-white classics, a few exercise tapes,
and some hand-labeled tapes marked “Psy-Ops, Lecture Series.”
I put one of them in the recorder and pushed the play button. “Take a look.”
Cynthia turned around and we both watched as Captain Ann Campbell’s image filled the screen, dressed in battle fatigues and
standing at a rostrum. She was, indeed, a very good-looking woman, but beyond that she had bright and alert eyes that stared
into the camera for a few seconds before she smiled and began, “Good morning, gentlemen. Today we are going to discuss the
several ways in which psychological operations, or psy warfare, if you wish, can be used by the infantry commander in the
field to decrease enemy morale and fighting effectiveness. The ultimate objective of these operations is to make your job
as infantry commanders somewhat easier. Your mission—to make contact with and destroy the enemy—is a tough one, and you are
aided by other branches of the Army, such as artillery, air, armor, and intelligence. However, a little-understood and too-little-used
tool is available to you—psychological operations.”
She went on, “The enemy’s will to fight is perhaps the single most important element that you must calculate into your battle
plans. His guns, his armor, his artillery, his training, his equipment, and indeed even his numbers are all secondary to his
willingness to stand and fight.” She looked out over her offscreen audience and let a moment pass before continuing. “No man
wants to die. But many men can be motivated to risk their lives in defense of their countries, their families, and even an
abstraction, or a philosophy. Democracy, religion, racial pride, individual honor, unit and interpersonal loyalty, the promise
of plunder, and, yes, women… rape. These are
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