Monsieur Latham. I worked for the Americans in NATO. I was cleared by the American authorities for the most highly classified materials because I frequently saw things and heard things that escaped the Americans. Why do you ask?
Are you suggesting something else?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed by your efficiency you responsible for this folder, aren't you? I mean you alone, correct? I can ask others in D and R."
"Yes," said Karin de Vries, walking slowly around the desk and standing in front of Latham.
"I saw your request -flagged red-in our department chief's file. I opened it and studied it. I knew I was qualified to expedite it, and so I removed it."
"Did you tell your superior?"
"No." The woman paused, then added softly, "I understood immediately that I could analyze and develop the information quicker than anyone else in our section. I've brought you the results-in only five hours."
"You mean nobody else in D and R knew you were working on this query, including your section chief?"
"He's in Calais for the day, and I saw no reason to go to his deputy."
"Why not? Didn't you need authorization? This is a matter that required special assignment. The red flag spells that out."
"I told you, I was cleared by the American authorities in NATO and by your own intelligence specialists here in
Paris. I've brought you what you wanted, and my personal motives are Irrelevant."
"I guess they are. I've also got a few motives of my own, which means I'm going to check and cross-check everything in this file."
"You'll find the entries accurate and confirmed."
"I hope so. Thank you, Miss de Vries, that'll be all."
"If I may correct you, sir, it's not Miss but Mrs. de Vries. I'm a widow. My husband was killed in East Berlin by the Stasi a week before the Wall came down-the Stasi, monsieur. The name was changed but they were as vicious as the most savage units of the Gestapo and the Waffen SS. My husband, Frederik de Vries, was working for the Americans. You may check and cross-check that also." The woman turned and left the room.
Stunned, Latham watched as the door was closed so sharply, one could say it was slammed shut. He picked up his phone and touched the buttons on his console for the embassy's director of security. Once past an irritating secretary who kept practicing her college French, which was less adequate than his own, thought Drew, the security head was on the line.
"What's up, Cons-Op?"
"Who the hell is a Karin de Vries, Stanley?"
"A major blessing contributed by the NATO crowd," replied Stanley Witkowski, a thirty-year-plus veteran of' Army Intelligence, a colonel transferred to the State Department because of his extraordinary success in G-2. ""She's quick, bright, imaginative, and reads and speaks five languages fluently.
Heaven-sent, my friend."
"That's what I want to know. Who sent her?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Her work habits are a little strange. I sent a sealed red flag down to Research, and without authorization or assignment she removed it from the file and processed it herself."
"A red flag? That is strange; she knows better than that. A flag has to be signed off by the section chief and his deputy, the assignee approved and registered."
"Tfiat's what I thought, and where this operation is concerned, I'm paranoid about leaks and false information. Who sent her here?"
"Forget that, Drew. She requested Paris, and from the supreme commander down she was golden."
"There's gold and there's fool's gold, Stan. She inferred things that went beyond her clearance in this matter, and I want to know how and why."
"Can you give me a clue?"
"I'll go this far. It concerns the new bad dudes marching around Germany."
"That doesn't help me much."
"She said her husband was killed by the Stasi in East Berlin.
Can you confirm that?"
"Hell, yes, even personally. I was stationed on our side of the Wall, busting my balls around the clock making contact with our people on the other side. Freddie de Vries was a young, smart-asa-whip infiltrator. The poor son of a bitch was caught just days before the Stasi became history."
"Then she would legitimately have a serious, even obsessive interest in events in Germany,"
"Sure she would. You know where most of the Stasi went-when the Wall came tumbling down?"
"Where?"
"Right into the welcoming arms of the skinheads, those [email protected] Nazis.. .. Oh, speaking of Freddie de V, he 'worked with your brother Harry. I know because my G-Two coordinated with both of them. Harry wasn't just upset, he was mad as