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"My half brother!"
"Yes."
"If I were you, I'd suspect me." Greg said it with a laugh, but he was very uneasy.
"Oh, we did, believe me," Bicks said. "You've been subjected to the most thorough investigation I have seen in twenty years with the bureau."
Greg gave him a skeptical look. "No kidding."
"Your kid's doing well in school, isn't he?"
Greg was shocked. Who could have told the FBI about Georgy? "You mean my godson?" he said.
"Greg, I said thorough. We know he's your son."
Greg was annoyed, but he suppressed the feeling. He had probed the personal secrets of numerous suspects during his time in army security. He had no right to object.
"You're clean," Bicks went on.
"I'm relieved to hear it."
"Anyway, our defector insisted the plans came from a scientist, rather than any of the normal army personnel working on the project."
Greg said thoughtfully: "When I met Volodya in Moscow, he told me he had never been to the United States."
"He lied," said Bicks. "He came here in September 1945. He spent a week in New York. Then we lost him for eight days. He resurfaced briefly, then went home."
"Eight days?"
"Yeah. We're embarrassed."
"It's enough time to go to Santa Fe, stay a couple of days, and come back."
"Right." Bicks leaned forward across his desk. "But think. If the scientist had already been recruited as a spy, why wasn't he contacted by his regular controller? Why bring someone from Moscow to talk to him?"
"You think the traitor was recruited on this two-day visit? It seems too quick."
"Possibly he had worked for them before but lapsed. Either way, we're guessing the Soviets needed to send someone who the scientist already knew. That means there ought to be a connection between Volodya and one of the scientists." Bicks gestured at a side table covered with tan file folders. "The answer is in there somewhere. Those are our files on every one of the scientists who had access to those plans."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Go through them."
"Isn't that your job?"
"We've already done it. We didn't find anything. We're hoping you'll spot something we've missed. I'll sit here and keep you company, do some paperwork."
"It's a long job."
"You've got all day."
Greg frowned. Did they know . . . ?
Bicks said confidently: "You have no plans for the rest of the day."
Greg shrugged. "Got any coffee?"
He had coffee and donuts, then more coffee, then a sandwich at lunchtime, then a banana midafternoon. He read every known detail about the lives of the scientists, their wives and families: childhood, education, career, love and marriage, achievements and eccentricities and sins.
