Perilous Panacea by Ronald Klueh Page B

checked during our investigation, and all approvals were in order. Neither Mr. Logson nor I remembered it.”
    “So it comes down to this, Dr. Kraft. Someone in your division did this. The computer makes your job easier, but it also made it easier to set up the hijacking.”
    Kraft stared at Saul, his face pale. “I can’t believe anyone here did it.”
    “How many people in Washington can access the website information on shipments?”
    “Access is tightly controlled. Probably only ten people.”
    “I’ll need their names.”
    Kraft took a deep breath. “I’ve got to protest.”
    “We won’t talk to anyone without getting approval from on high.”
    “I hope not. Because if the newspapers or TV get wind of this…”
    - - - - -
    Saul tapped the keyboard and another personnel record splashed onto the screen.
    KRAFT, BARTHOLOMEW ARTHUR
    DOE EMPLOYEE NO: 013967
    BORN: March 13, 1971
    EDUCATION: PhD…
    Saul glanced quickly through the record: PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Michigan University. Worked at GE and then went back to Michigan as a Professor in the Nuclear Engineering Department before being nominated to his present position at NNSA two-years ago. He listed reading and chess as hobbies.
    He leaned back in his chair and glanced around his cubicle: paper-cluttered desk, file cabinet, and another chair, fenced off from three other cubicles by portable gray fabric-covered partitions. By now he had combed the files of thirteen probables from Oak Ridge, New Mexico and Savannah River, the ten names from NNSA Kraft had given him, plus seven more he’d picked because of their management roles and top-secret clearances.
    He wondered why he saved Kraft’s file for last. Did he expect Kraft to be most interesting or least interesting? In all, he examined files of twenty-two men and six women with degrees from places like Yale, Michigan, Northwestern, Cal Berkeley, all the good schools. Not an interesting hobby among them.
    He considered taking a break to straighten up the desk. Twice in the last month he was told by Bureau veterans that such an office would not have been tolerated in the good old days. He picked up an e-mail memo from the travel office: “Minimization of Rental Car Expense.” He tossed it back on the pile and returned his attention to the computer.
    What now? Run a PPI on the people Kraft gave him and on Kraft? Comb their lives to try and turn up inconsistencies, like spending too much or having an excessively large bank account somewhere? In the end, it always came down to money.
    Saul tapped at the keyboard to access the National Crime Information Center computer. He entered the twenty-eight names to check for a criminal record. Nowadays, with drugs everywhere, unexpected names popped up in those files all the time. Drugs meant money—a lot or not enough. None of the names turned up in the NCIC computer.
    He typed a request to the NNSA computer for all people who worked in the Security and Safeguards Division during the last year. Then he asked for names of personnel who no longer worked in the division and when they terminated.
    JOHNSON, GREGORY LEE 15326 AUG 22, 2010
    BROWN, RANDOLF GEORGE 17265 MAR 30, 2011
    AUSTIN, STEVEN ALLEN 19223 JUN 15, 2011
    Interesting: Austin quit only a month ago.
    Saul focused on Austin. Jordan said a computer expert named Austin visited them at Oak Ridge. He typed:
    DOE PERS FILE: AUSTIN, STEVEN ALLEN, 19223
    The computer replied:
    FILE INACTIVATED, 06/24/2011
    Inactivated? Why? Files were rarely inactivated that soon after termination. To check that, he punched the keyboard for the files of Johnson and Brown, who were terminated over three months ago. Both files flashed on the screen with their new positions: Johnson retired and Brown moved to the Labor Department—still hadn’t found his high-paying out-of-government career position.
    He checked Austin’s security-clearance file. No unusual notations, just a regular guy, PhD and all. So why did he leave just