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“End of story,” Wallace concluded. “Did I leave anything out, Jim?”
“No. That was fine. Thank you.”
“Any questions, Major?”
“That story poses more questions than it answers,” Derwin said. “What exactly is going on at this monastery?”
“I told you before, Major, you don’t have the need to know that,” Cronley said.
“And I’m more than a little curious, Cronley, how you became a captain so . . . suddenly.”
“I’m sure you are,” Cronley said, and then: “Oh, hell, let’s shut this off once and for all.”
He went to a door and opened it. Behind it was a safe. He worked the combination, opened the door, took out a manila envelope, and then took two 8×10-inch photographs from it.
“These are classified Top Secret–Presidential, Major,” he said, as he handed them to Major Derwin.
“Do I get to look, Jim?” Major Wallace asked.
“Who’s the fellow pinning on the bars?” Wallace asked a moment later. “I recognize the guy wearing the bow tie, of course.”
“My father.”
“Why is President Truman giving you a decoration?” Derwin asked. “What is that?”
Wallace answered for him: “It’s the Distinguished Service Medal.”
“What did Cronley do to earn the DSM?”
“The citation is also classified,” Cronley said.
He took the photographs back, put them back in the envelope, put the envelope back in the safe, closed the door, spun the combination dial, and then closed the door that concealed the safe.
“Are we now through playing Twenty Questions, Major Derwin?” Cronley asked.
“For the moment.”
“I want to play,” Major Wallace said.
“Excuse me?” Major Derwin said.
“I want to play Twenty Questions, too. What the hell is this all about, Derwin? You’re not a CIC special agent, you’re the CIC IG—without any authority whatever over the DCI—so why are you asking Cronley all these questions?”
“That, as Cronley has said so often today, is something you don’t have the need to know.”
“I’m making it my business,” Wallace said. “My first question is, who told you Cronley shot up Schumann’s staff car? No, who told you he tried to murder the poor bastard?”
“I learned that from a confidential source.”
“What confidential source?”
“You don’t have the need to know, Major Wallace.”
“Do you want me to get on the horn to General Greene, tell him what you’ve been doing, and have him order you to tell me all about your confidential source?”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“For a number of reasons, including Colonel Tony Schumann was a friend of mine, but primarily because the Army has handed me a CIC supervisory special agent’s credentials and told me to look into things I think smell fishy.”
