He looked directly into Fulmar’s eyes.
It was a penetrating gaze, and as Fulmar looked back into the steely gray-green eyes he felt himself automatically sit more rigidly.
“What I am about to tell you,” Donovan began in a tone deeply serious, “is known by only a few people in the OSS.”
“Yes, sir,” Fulmar said, but it was more a question.
“The President has directed the OSS to quote quietly and quickly unquote put an end to the acts of German sabotage on American soil.”
“Sir?”
“Do I need to repeat myself?” Donovan said softly.
Fulmar glanced at Douglass, who was expressionless, then back to Donovan.
“No, sir,” Fulmar said. “It’s just that it was my understanding that that was the FBI’s territory.”
“It is. Which is why what I am asking of you requires the utmost secrecy.”
After a moment, Fulmar said, “Yes, sir.”
“Do you have any questions?”
Fulmar nodded.
“A few, sir. The first being: ‘Why me?’”
“You are the proverbial round peg for the round hole,” Donovan said, sliding back in his chair to a more relaxed position and crossing his legs. “You understand the mind of a spy and the mind of a German—you speak German fluently, yes—?”
“Yes, sir.”
“—And how many other languages?”
Fulmar shrugged. “Three fluently, maybe four, five passably. Living in so many places, they came to me easily….”
The director nodded. “And that—and I mean your ability to blend in ‘so many places,’ as you put it—coupled with your actions in the rescue of the Dyers makes you our round peg.”
He paused.
“You perform exceptionally under pressure…and we’re under a great deal of pressure.”
There was a long silence before Douglass broke it.
“The President—and our country—simply cannot have these agents taking the focus off of the war abroad,” the deputy director said.
“Yes, sir. What would you have me do?”
“Whatever is necessary,” Donovan said.
“And, sir, that would be—?”
“Whatever is necessary,” Donovan repeated evenly.
The director let that sink in, and when Fulmar slowly nodded that he understood, Donovan went on:
“The FBI has been directed to share with us everything they have on all the bombings. On the surface, that sounds great. But I find at least two fundamental flaws in it, the first being that Director Hoover is not going to willingly turn over all of the information if there’s a chance that he can hold something back in order for the FBI to collar these German agents and get the credit—”
“We know for a fact they’re German?” Fulmar said.