The Cardinal of the Kremlin - Tom Clancy [203]
"Tell you what-we can take the people who have access to the leaked material and put 'em all on the box." On the box meant subjecting everyone to a lie-detector test. The last time that had been done here, it had nearly started a revolution at Tea Clipper, The scientists and engineers were not intelligence types who understood that such things were necessary, but academics who considered the whole process an insult to their patriotism. Or a game: one of the software engineers had even tried using biofeedback techniques to screw up the test results. The main result from this effort, eighteen months before, had been to show that the scientific staff had a great deal of hostility to the security weenies, which was not much of a surprise. What had finally stopped the testing was a wrathful paper from a senior scientist who'd shown that a few deliberate lies he'd told went undetected. That, and the disruption it had caused within the various sections, had ended things before the program had been completed.
"Taussig didn't go on the box the last time," Jennings noted. She'd checked. "None of the admin people did. The revolt stopped things before they got that far. She was one of the people who-"
"Because the software bunch brought their protests to her, She's admin, remember, she's supposed to keep all the scientific people happy." Perkins had checked, too, "Look, if you feel this strongly about it, we can come back to her later. I don't see anything myself, but I'll trust your instincts-but for now, we have all these others to check out."
Margaret Jennings nodded her surrender. Perkins was right, after all. They had nothing solid to point to. It was just her-what? Jennings wondered. She thought Taussig was gay, but that wasn't such a big thing anymore-the courts had said so in enough cases-and there was no proof to support her suspicion anyway. That's what it was, she knew. Three years earlier, right before she'd joined the counterintelligence office, she'd handled a kidnapping involving a couple of
She also knew that Perkins was being more professional about it. Even though a Mormon, and straighter than most arrows, he didn't let his personal feelings interfere with business. What she couldn't shake was the gut feeling that despite everything logic and experience told her, she was still right. Right or wrong, she and Will had six reports to fill out before they went back into the field. You couldn't spend more than half your time in the field anymore. The rest was always stuck at a desk-or a converted lunch table-explaining to people what it was that you did when you weren't stuck at a desk.
"Al, this is Bea. Could you come over to my office?"
"Sure. Be over in five minutes."
"Great. Thanks." Taussig hung up. Even Bea admired Gregory for his punctuality. He came through the door exactly on time.
"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"
"No. They're running another target-geometry simulation, but they don't need me for that. What's up?" Major Gregory asked, then said, "I like the outfit, Bea."
"Thanks, Al. I need you to help me with something."
"What?"
"It's a birthday present for Candi. I'm picking it up this afternoon and I need somebody to help me with it."
"Eek, you're right. It is in three weeks, isn't it?"
Taussig smiled at Al. He even made geeky noises. "You're going to have to start remembering those things."
"So what are you getting her?" He grinned like a little boy.
"It's a surprise, Al." She paused. "It's something Candi needs. You'll see. Candi drove herself in today, didn't she?"
"Yeah, she has to see the dentist after work."
"And don't tell her anything, please? It's a big surprise," Bea explained.
He could see that it was all she could do to keep her face straight. It must be some surprise, he smiled. "Okay, Bea. I'll see you at five."
They woke after noon. "Bob" trudged to the bathroom first before he remembered that there was no running water.