"What makes you think it wasn't your office?"
"I've never heard of a file called Romulus," Welwood said, "and I have clearance for all files in Operations."
Hancock raised an eyebrow. "Have you considered the possibility your boss may be keeping things from you? That you don't know everything in your department?"
Welwood looked worried. "Well, it was filed PF1. There's only one paper copy of the file under the title Romulus in existence. That means it's possible someone in Operations has the only copy and I don't know about it."
"If there's only one paper file, how could this have been tagged in the computer?" Hancock asked.
"I assumed someone tagged all file names and pertinent information."
"You assume a lot." Hancock leaned back in the chair and steepled his fingers. He considered the other man in silence for so long, Welwood began fidgeting. Finally he spoke. "What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, sir."
"There's much you don't know," Hancock agreed, "but with the information you have, what is your best guess?"
"This Major Thorpe is digging into something connected with whatever is in the Romulus file," Welwood said.
"And you came to me with it, when it might well have originated here." Hancock abruptly stood, tucking the file under his arm. "Thank you. You are very thorough. I'll remember it."
Chapter Eight
Thorpe did exactly as Lieutenant Colonel Kinsley had ordered him. He knocked on her door at 0900, marched to a point two steps in front of her desk and reported as ordered. Then he got his first surprise of the day.
"Sit down, Major Thorpe," Colonel Kinsley said, her tone almost pleasant.
Thorpe carefully moved over to the chair in front of her desk and sat down, not quite sure how to take this departure from the previous time he had reported to her, especially in light of what had happened last night.
Kinsley pointed at a map of the world behind her desk. "SOCOM presently has troops deployed to forty-two countries around the world and I am responsible for filling every single personnel slot for every single assignment, from three men on a medical training mission in Belize to the deployment in Bosnia."
"The operational groups are stretched beyond their own personnel capabilities. Up to a month ago, Tenth Group could barely keep up with the operational demands of supporting the Bosnia peacekeeping mission while at the same time running Operation Provide Comfort to the Kurds in Turkey on the border with Iraq. First Battalion of Tenth Group, stationed out of Stuttgart, is one almost hundred percent deployed. Fourteen of fifteen A-teams, two of three B-teams, and the battalion headquarters are all currently deployed."
"Second and Third Battalions, out of Fort Carson, Colorado, are over eighty percent deployed. The peacekeeping mission has overwhelmed Tenth Group's resources. If you add in trying to make sure that soldiers get to their necessary schooling, such as O & I, and specialty training when required, such as scuba and HALO, there will always be some gaps. Plus there is the natural turnover of duty reassignments and soldiers who are finishing their time in service and getting out."
There wasn't much new here, Thorpe thought. When he'd been on a team it was standard to be deployed the majority of the year. It was hard on families and it was hard on the soldiers, but it was what Special Forces was all about. Special Forces wasn't a pure wartime asset, sitting around training, waiting for the big one. Its active missions crossed the spectrum from peacetime through all-out war. A Special Forces soldier expected to be away from home most of the time.
"As a stopgap measure," Kinsley continued, "we have brought in individuals such as yourself from the reserves to supplement the active duty forces. At best it's been a Band-Aid solution. At the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President is considering activating parts of the Nineteenth Special Forces Group, which is National Guard, to supplement the Tenth Special Forces Group in its missions. Unfortunately, Nineteenth Group is behind the power curve in terms of personnel also. Instead of deploying the group intact, the SOCOM commander, General Markham, my boss, is considering using the members of Nineteenth Group to fill out the deployed Special Forces units. Allow them to give some of their people a break for a couple of months, before going back."
Thorpe was following this discourse with half his brain while the other half was wondering what had happened to her attitude from the previous evening.
"I have to travel to Europe to gather information for that activation to make sure, if it does occur, we can support it and how the deployed groups would like to rotate their personnel and use the reservists. Because you are in the reserves, I would like you to come with me to provide me with that perspective."
"With all due respect, ma'am, I've only been in the reserves a couple of months. I may have spent a long time on active duty, but this is my—"
"Major Thorpe," Kinsley said sharply. "Need I remind you that you conducted an unauthorized search into the Department of Defense database yesterday?"
"No, ma'am, but I don't see what one has—"
"Major Thorpe, I recommend you do whatever I tell you to do without the slightest question. You are going with me to Europe. That is all. Quite frankly, given your record, I don't particularly want you along, but on the other hand I'd rather have you where I can see you than leave you behind here to run amok. You can get our travel information from Sergeant Christie."
Thorpe knew when he was dismissed. He stood and saluted.
"By the way," Kinsley said, stopping him at the door. "Don't use the computer again. That's an order. Clear?"
"Clear, ma'am."
Thorpe exited her office. Christie didn't say a word; he simply held out a packet of papers. Thorpe took them back to his office. He checked the flight information. He would be departing in two days out of Pope Air Force Base.
"Heard you're leaving us for a while," Takamura said as Thorpe sat down.
"Small world."
"Heard also that you did something to piss the colonel off," Takamura said. "I hope it didn't have anything to do with our work on the computer yesterday."
"Actually, that's exactly what pissed her off," Thorpe said. "But don't worry, I didn't mention that you helped me."
Takamura looked concerned, but Thorpe wasn't in the mood to reassure him.
Thorpe stared at the computer on his desk. "Hey, Takamura, if you did what you did yesterday, that search, would Kinsley know?"
Takamura's worried look grew more severe. "Funny you should ask that. As I've been working this morning, I've noticed that someone's monitoring all the computers in the office. It's not easy to spot, but there are certain signs, if you know exactly what to look for. If whoever that is — and I assume it's the colonel — doesn't want us to run that search, we'd be shut down within a minute of getting started."
"Shit," Thorpe muttered. "I should have xeroxed a copy of that list."
"Actually," Takamura said, "I've got something better than that." He held up a 3.5-inch disk. "What's that?"
"The list," Takamura said. "I downloaded it yesterday while it was printing."
"You're a genius," Thorpe said.
"There's some that might agree with you," Takamura said.
"Hold on to that," Thorpe said. "I have to make a call." Thorpe put the travel packet on the corner of his desk and called Parker. He briefed her on what had happened so far and the meeting with the CID colonel the previous evening.
"He's got a point," Parker said when he was done. "Most serial killers do want the bodies to be found. You know, maybe Dublowski's daughter did just run away. Perhaps
you're letting your emotions interfere with your rational thinking.