I looked at General Tingle and commented, "This was an inside job."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Fort Hood's the largest base in the country. Because it contains hundreds of miles of range roads and many dozens of ranges. Because your perps understand how range management works, they're familiar with the tank trails, and because it looks like they knew which units were firing on which ranges that day"

"All good points."

"Come on, General. Don't tell me you missed this."

General Tingle found it amusing that some outside dunce could figure this out. He grinned at me and said, "Hold that thought."

Tanner added, "It might also interest you to know, Mr. Drummond, that the soldier who flagged down the range control vehicle was a woman."

"Oh. You got a description?"

"Better. Early thirties, slender, medium height, long blond hair wrapped in a tight bun. A looker, too-the witnesses all agreed on that point. In fact, we obtained reliable composite sketches of both her and her male accomplice from the hijacked range control crew, and from the witnesses at the ranges." Eric allowed us a moment to absorb that, and then suggested, "Off the top of my head, I think this case, and I think this ring, fits the parameters you're looking for."

"Because of the woman?"

He hesitated, and then leaned toward me. "Well-what if this same group is working with this guy Barnes?"

Jennie, however, looked at Eric and said, "Slow down, champ. You're driving way too fast."

I said to Jennie, "What bothers you?"

"Everything." She looked at the faces around the room. "Criminal Science 101-cases are connected by commonalities, not disparities." She fixed her chilly blue eyes on Eric. "You said you suspect a ring because no two thefts were alike. That kind of counterintuitive logic is the antithesis of sound police work."

From a technical and procedural standpoint, she was correct. Also, it was instructive to note from the expressions around the room that nobody really appreciated an outsider coming into the inner sanctum to announce that one of the fair-haired boys was full of crap. Least of all Eric, who responded, a bit defensively," I know the science, Agent Margold. But there are times when you have to throw the manuals out the window."

"Do you?"

"Yes. After five years of weapons and munitions thefts, all targeting the same base, all showing unusual creativity, all evidenced by a strong awareness of base procedures and vulnerabilities… I'm sure these cases are connected."

Jennie did not immediately reply She studied Eric, and then said, "I worked Behavioral Science at Quantico for five years before I got this job. You know what we hated?"

When nobody else pitched in, I said, "What?"

"A city gets ten unsolved female murders in a year. The detectives come under intolerable pressure to achieve a few closures. Pretty soon, somebody cleverly rationalizes that because it's the same crime, because of the common sex of the victims, because of the common province of the murders, they're all related, and some horrifying serial killer is behind it. So they notify us, and we jump through our ass, and fly out a team, and we spend weeks poring over everything. They get the heat off themselves by shifting it to us. Problem is, it's not one killer, it's a bunch of killers. Also a waste of time."

Everybody grew quiet. Jennie stared at Eric. "So I'd like to know more about how you tied this together."

Being the diplomatic type, I turned to Eric. "Give us an example of another theft."

"All right. Winter, two years ago. A unit was sending a two-and-a-half-ton truck filled with Ml6s off post to a depot facility to have the weapons reblued-that is, to have the exterior metal parts recoated with an antirust compound. Now, here's the first interesting fact. It's routine to send broken weapons to depot level to be repaired-nonfunctioning weapons that won't work till they're fixed-but the thieves targeted a vehicle filled with working weapons."

I commented, "Which would seem to imply inside knowledge."

"Yeah, exactly. The truck got about thirty miles outside Killeen, when a car roared up from behind and nearly side-swiped it. The car had apparently been following and waited until the truck reached a lightly trafficked back road. Then the car got just ahead, and one of the thieves tossed out a bunch of oversized tiretacks. Our lab later determined that the tacks had been specially manufactured for this hit. The thieves wore balaclava hoods, and were armed. They made off with forty Ml6s"

Jennie and I exchanged glances. I had no idea what she was thinking. She asked Eric, "How many people in the car?"

"Two."

"Was there a woman?"

"Maybe." But after a moment, he admitted, "Look, they were both built like men, and they moved like men. But as I said, they were masked, so the truck driver couldn't provide good descriptions. We know one man was extremely tall and lanky. Maybe six foot six or six foot seven."

Jennie asked, "Well… was a woman observed at any of the thefts you haven't described?"

"No. But there were no reliable witnesses to the other thefts."

"No… witnesses." She asked, "What about the tall guy?"

"Just at the hijack."

Jennie began tapping a pen on the table. "Yet you're assuming all these people are part of the same ring, and you're assuming the female might have been present at other crimes?"

"I'm sure they're one team. And I'm sure she's part of the team. Sometimes she's involved, sometimes not."

"Did they kill anybody?"

"They planned well enough that they didn't have to."

Jennie leaned toward him. "Was that deliberate?"

"I'm sure it was."

"You're sure, Mr. Tanner? Seven times you've used that word. But, you're not… sure. You're manufacturing assumptions and guesses, and expressing them as facts. Right?"

"I-"

"Beyond the possibility of an inside source, I can't see any resemblance between the two thefts. You have witnesses to two of the crimes, yet none of the same perps were observed at both crime scenes. Correct?"

"Yes… but-"

"One crime was committed on base, employing masquerade, falsified documents, and a nonlethal weapon. The perps showed their faces and left witnesses. Have I described this accurately?"

"Yes, and I-"

"The earlier theft occurred off base. They used guns, they wore masks, and their technique was markedly less clever and less restrained. One theft showed complexity and finesse, the other was simple and coarse. One was a scam, the other your basic armed robbery." She leaned back into her chair and exhaled a long breath. "But maybe I'm just dense. Tell me again, what ties them together?"

Clearly, Eric had not been subjected to, nor had he anticipated, this kind of rigorous interrogation. He was becoming flustered, and it showed. He said, "Well, I see the differences, and… as I said, those differences are-"

"Those differences are enormous. How many weapons or munitions thefts and losses occurred at Fort Hood over the past five years?"

"Well… a lot."

"A lot?”

"It's our biggest base. Many dozens. Perhaps a hundred or so."

"Are they all interconnected? Applying your reasoning, the intent, the location, and the desired loot were the same."

"Look… we all know you can't-"

"That's right, Mr. Tanner-you can't. And now you're suggesting these same people-who aren't actually the same people-are working with Jason Barnes here in Washington. But how would Jason Barnes even know these people?"

"I… I don't know."

"You don't seem to know much." The room was completely still. General Tingle, Colonel Johnson, and the two older agents were mesmerized, watching their prize peacock getting his plumage ripped off by a pit bull.