Perilous Panacea by Ronald Klueh Page A

everything they did, they filled most upper levels of government he’d come in contact with; the Bureau had more than their share. Saul remembered last Election Day when Mary gave him hell for not voting, as did the holier-than-thou TV commentators. Since being in Washington, he’d found a reason for him and the other fifty percent of eligible voters that didn’t vote: you don’t vote for the Krafts and the Logsons; you don’t vote for congressional staffers like Mary, who stand at their great man’s side and whisper wisdom into his ear. They run the government. Well, maybe not Mary—not yet, at least.
    “Whoever did this had detailed information they could only get in your division.”
    Kraft squared the pad of paper with the edge of the desk. “If I allowed you to snoop around here, in no time at all every big-dick reporter would be as well.”
    Evasion, political expediency, it was everywhere, even where nuclear weapons were involved. But in this town, why would they be different? From his limited observations, Saul had concluded all anyone cared about was their career development. For many, that meant blending a proper government career into a better out-of-government career. Mary kept saying he wasn’t serious enough about his career development.
    Earlier at headquarters, he found out Spanner was running into the same stone walls. Maybe that was sufficient reason for going to the Senator. Once the story hit the press, there would be action, at least public relations action to give the story the proper spin.
    “I’m not interested in snooping around. To start, explain your operation to me.”
    Kraft glanced around the office, obviously trying to figure out how to get rid of Saul. “Well…a shipment is arranged between the two contracting installations, as we call them, the shipper and the receiver. Then we schedule transportation. Everything is done by computer on a secure website.” He pointed to the darkened computer monitor on the table behind his desk and explained how they had recently updated the sophisticated program they used to arrange shipments.
    Kraft explained how all the information was logged in, including dates, destinations of all past shipments and all shipments planned for the next month. All security arrangements, travel routes, everything was there at the click of a mouse. “Every shipment is tracked using a Cray supercomputer at Kirtland Air Force Base. They have access to the same information we do.”
    “I visited Kirtland, and they know everything except what’s in a shipment. Tell me about Savannah River, the destination of the shipments. The people there say they did not request most of what was hijacked.”
    “The computer tells a different story. Their request and agreement to receive the shipment were logged in and the SAVE was approved.” Kraft explained SAVE, the Shipment Agreement and Verification Evaluation process package. “The first step is an agreement between shipper and receiver on shipment contents. Then the shipper puts together a shipping plan that includes the manifest and the DSP—Detailed Security Plan—and these and other documents make up the SAVE package that is submitted for approval by SPAC, the Strategic Planning and Authorization Committee. The entire process is on our secure website.”
    “Who is on SPAC?”
    “Mr. Logson and I make up the committee.”
    “And you approved this SAVE package?”
    “Well, I really could not recall the exact SAVE, but then I read and approve many SAVE plans and other documents, and I can’t be expected to remember the details of all of them.”
    “What about Logson?”
    “He didn’t remember this specific SAVE either.”
    “Would you or Logson normally approve a three-truck convoy as a code two?”
    “Well…regulations state…no, probably not.”
    “But the computer said you approved it, right?”
    “Well, according to the computer, an ED was sent to people who needed to know. The secure website was