Captain Hayes. Great. No wonder he looked uncomfortable. But he wouldn't aid or abet anything wrong against me or anyone else. I'm sure of that. 'Alright, ma'am.'
Connally grinned again. 'Don't make me feel old. Pam is fine.'
'And I'm Bob,' Gonzales added. 'Like I said, you're not a person of interest. You're someone we're asking for help. Could you just tell us if you've noticed any of your fellow officers acting at all unusual?'
'Unusual?' Paul frowned and spread his hands. 'How do you mean?'
'Uh, working extra long hours, say. After the normal work day is over.'
Paul stared at Gonzales and then Connally, trying to judge if the question was serious. 'We all work extra hours.'
'I mean, consistently. Not underway, but inport.'
'So do I. We all work extra hours. Inport, too.'
Connally gave Paul a searching look. 'None of the officers works longer than the others? At times when no one else is around?'
'Somebody's always around. And as for longer… look. Our typical work day is maybe twelve hours. Inport. Every four days inport is a duty day for junior officers. We spend twenty-four hours straight at work on those days. Maybe you get one of the night quarterdeck watches on your duty day and it's pretty much just you and the petty officer of the watch awake. But that's normal for us.'
Gonzales leaned back and laughed. 'Your work patterns are consistently after normal working hours and on weekends? All of you?'
'Yes. Pretty much. That's right. Even if it's not a duty day. There's always some emergency popping up, something that has to get done and get done right now.'
'How about money? Does anyone seem to have a lot on hand?'
Paul let his puzzlement show. 'How would I know?'
'Uh, spending, uh…'
'Yeah. On what? There's nothing much you can buy and take on the ship, no cars up here, no private housing, a couple of fancy restaurants maybe.' Paul shrugged. 'Somebody could be a billionaire and I wouldn't be able to tell. There's nothing they could be spending it on in front of me.'
Connally looked at Gonzales. 'I told you we'd have to bring him in on this. He can't help us otherwise.'
Gonzales nodded heavily. 'You're right. Lieutenant Sinclair, I have to ask that you swear to secrecy what we're about to discuss.'
Paul felt his internal barriers rising again. 'I don't understand. But whatever it is, of course I won't reveal classified information.'
Gonzales waved to Connally, who gave Paul a level look. 'I'll be blunt,' she stated. 'We have very good reason to believe one of the officers currently assigned to your ship is engaged in espionage against the United States.'
Paul simply stared at her for a long moment before he could speak. 'Espionage? You think one of the officers in the wardroom of the Michaelson is a spy?'
Both special agents nodded. Connally spread her hands, palm down, on the table before her. 'Yes, but it's a lot more solid than 'thinking' that's the case. We have confirmed information of ongoing espionage. We've been tracking it for some time, with assistance when appropriate from the FBI and other government agencies. Just to let you know NCIS isn't alone in this. I can sum up what we know by saying the espionage operation has been ongoing for several years. We know, from sources we will not divulge to you, that one of the primary players is a Navy officer. I know,' she agreed, seeing the look of shock on Paul's face, 'that's hard to accept. But we know it.'
Gonzales leaned back, rubbing his jaw line with one thumb. 'Recently, there was a disruption in the deliveries by this officer. Then one delivery. Then another disruption, lasting from June 16th to the second of August.'
Paul looked blankly back at the special agent for a moment, until the information clicked. 'That brackets the period the Michaelson was just underway.'
'Exactly. The officer transferred from the assignment they'd held before. We know he or she transferred up here. We know they couldn't pass materiel to their foreign contacts while your ship was underway. Within a few days of your ship getting back, there was a drop to their foreign contacts. Pretty clear cut, isn't it?'
'But most of our officers have been onboard for a long time,' Paul protested.
'Right. But you had two new ones transferred to you recently.'
'Yes-' Paul had to break his gaze on Gonzales to shake his head in disbelief. 'Two of them.' Commander Moraine, a spy? Is that why she's so nervous all the time?
Connally nodded, picking up the conversation. 'A Lieutenant Pullman and a Commander Moraine.'
'Yes, but Brad Pullman-'
'We can't rule out either of them. They both came from the area the spy was operating out of, and they both arrived on your ship at the same time.'
'That's why you wanted to know if anybody was acting strange.'
'But you say they're not.'
'Not that way…' Do I really want to bilge Commander Moraine this way? But if she's doing what they say… is she doing that? I personally watched Jen get court-martialed and almost convicted on evidence that didn't prove anything. Is this that same sort of thing? How can I know? Paul became aware the special agents were watching him, waiting for the rest of the sentence. 'Commander Moraine is usually pretty nervous. But,' something made him add, 'I've had some pretty experienced people say that's just because she's worried about her job, about not messing up.'
'Do you work with Commander Moraine?'
'She's my department head. My immediate superior.'
'Does she mess up a lot?'
Paul almost laughed at the question, but once again saw it had been asked seriously. 'It's hard to tell. I've only been working for her a few days. I can say I've had worse superiors based on what I've seen so far.'
'What about Pullman? Does he seem unusually nervous?'
'No, he-' He's so confident about everything. Brad never seems fazed by anything. 'Not at all,' Paul concluded.
The special agents exchanged a glance that Paul couldn't interpret, then Connally spoke with exaggerated care. 'Paul, we'd like your help in investigating this.'
'I'm answering your questions as best I can.'
'Yes. You are. What I mean is that we need to take some steps to try to identify whether Pullman or Moraine is our guy. Steps on the ship itself.'
'Herself,' Paul corrected automatically.
Connally looked amused. 'Herself. What I'm saying is we need you to actively help the investigation from the inside of the wardroom.'
'Actively?' Paul eyed her warily, not liking what he was hearing.
'Yes.' Connally leaned forward again. 'What we'd like you to do is wear a wire. A tap, you know? And get into a conversation with Moraine and one with Pullman and bring up some subjects we'll provide you with. That may give us the answers we need to focus the investigation tightly on a single suspect.'
Paul suddenly became aware he was holding his breath. They want me to spy on my fellow officers. Good God, how can I do that? He stared at the two special agents, knowing they could see his feelings clearly in his expression. 'I can't do that.'
'It's important.'
' I can't do that. Those guys trust me. We work together. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for months on end. How can I go in there and spy on them? It'd be a… betrayal of trust. Their trust in me.'
Special Agent Connally nodded in acknowledgement of Paul's words, her own expression understanding. 'We know it's very difficult. But you have to consider what's happening.'
'What you think is happening.'
'No, Paul. We know, for certain, that espionage is taking place. I can show you the evidence for that if you swear not to reveal it, as well as the sort of material that's been compromised. Things like the capabilities of your
