would take someone with more knowledge than Joel and I have to do it," said Jack Rowe.
"I hate to say it, Mrs. de Vries, but the info on you from Brussels made it clear that you were pretty expert in this department."
"Why would I implicate myself? With three insertions?"
"You've got me there."
"Run down our top personnel, and I don't care if it takes until the sun comes up," said Drew.
"I warn to see every resume from the Big Man on down."
The minutes passed, the printouts continued, studied by all, until an hour went by, then an hour and a half.
"Holy shit!" exclaimed Greenberg, looking at his screen.
"We may have a probable."
"Who is it?" asked Witkowski, ice in his voice.
"You're not going to like this, any of you. I don't like it
"Who is it?"
"Read it yourselves," said Joel, arching his head, his eyes closed as if in disbelief.
"Oh, my God," cried Karin, staring at the center screen.
"It's Janine Clunes!"
"Correction," said the colonel.
"Janine Clunes Courtland, the ambassador's wife, his second wife, to be precise. She works in D and R, under her maiden name for obvious reasons."
"What were her qualifications?" asked the stunned Latham.
"I can bring them up in a couple of minutes," replied Rowe.
"Don't bother," said Witkowski.
"I can give you a fairly accurate picture; it isn't often security's told to clear an ambassador's wife.
Janine Climes, University of Chicago its think tank, Ph.D. and full professorship in computer science before marrying Courtland after his divorce about a year and a half ago."
"She's brilliant," added Karin.
"She's also the sweetest, kindest woman in D and R. If she hears somebody has a problem and thinks she can help, she'll go right to her husband. Everyone adores her because, among other reasons, she never takes advantage of her position; to the contrary, she constantly covers for those who may be late, or can't complete their assignments on time.
She's always offering to help."
"A real roving butterfly," said Drew.
"Christ, is Courtland now on our list, Harry's list?" ,
"I can't believe that," answered the colonel.
"I'm not very partial to him, but I can't believe it. He's been too open with us, even gone out on a limb for us. I remind you and Karin that we wouldn't be here without his giving us the go-ahead, because we shouldn't be here unless we had clearance from the State Department, D.C." the CIA, the National Security Council, and probably the joint Chiefs. @
"The only people left out are in the White House," said the irreverent Greenberg.
"But then, what do they know? They're too busy trying to get their free parking spaces back."
"I remember reading about Courtland's divorce in The Washington Post," interrupted Drew, looking at Stanley Witkowski.
"As I recall, he gave everything to his wife and children, admitting that the constant relocations of a State Department officer were no way to bring up the kids."
"I can understand that," said the colonel coldly, returning Latham's look.
"But it doesn't necessarily mean his current wife is the other informer."
"Of course it doesn't," broke in Jack Rowe.
"My comrade in computer arms merely said he had a possible, right, Joel?"
"I believe he said 'probable," right, Joel?" Latham said.
"Okay, Cons-Op, because I happen to believe it. The Big Bird fed us too much not to. Don't tell me Courtland doesn't know about our lady from NATO here, and please don't tell me they haven't talked about her. Her looks, her remoteness, her NATO duty-she's high-quality fodder for the rumor mill. If anyone was a logical candidate for suspicion, I submit it's Mrs. de Vries. At least it throws people off the scent for the real mole."
"What about languages?" said Latham, turning to Karin.
"They'd have to be important."
"Janine speaks an acceptable French and Italian, but her German is completely fluent-" De Vries stopped, aware of what she just said.
"A 'probable," mused Drew softly.
"Where do we go from here?"
"I've gone," replied Greenberg.
"I just sent a query to Chicago, asking for in-depth data on Professor Climes. That stuff is all stored, so it should be coming back in a minute or two."
"How can you be sure?" asked Karin.
"It's nearly midnight there."
"Shhh!" whispered the computer scientist in mock secrecy.
"Chicago's a government-funded database, like the earthquake equipment, but don't tell anybody. Someone's always there because no one on the taxpayer's payroll wants to find his pants wet for withholding information from a machine like ours."
"Here it comes!" cried Jack Rowe as the screen lit up from Chicago.
The woman named Janine Clunes held the position of full professor of computer science for