CHAPTER 5

TRIGGER THE TWO WORDS

THAT IMMEDIATELY

TRANSFORM ANY

NEGOTIATION

In August 2000, the militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf, in

the southern Philippines, broadcast that it had captured a
CIA agent. The truth was not as newsworthy, or as valuable
to the rebels.
Abu Sayyaf had kidnapped Jeffrey Schilling, a twenty-
four-year-old American who had traveled near their base in
Jolo Island. A California native, Schilling became a hostage
with a $10 million price tag on his head.
At the time I was a Supervisory Special Agent (SSA)
attached to the FBI’s elite Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU).
The CNU is the equivalent of the special forces of
negotiations. It’s attached to the FBI’s Hostage Rescue
Team (HRT). Both are national counterterrorist response
assets. They are the best of the best.
The CNU is based at the FBI Academy in Quantico,
Virginia. The FBI Academy has come to be known by the
one word, “Quantico.” Rightly or wrongly, Quantico has