Donovan showed his mild displeasure at being interrupted. “May I finish?”
“Certainly, sir. My apologies.”
“To answer your question, we have reason to believe that they are agents of Germany—if not precisely German nationals—because of the pattern of evidence that they’re leaving, from weapons to witnesses. There’s a file—”
Douglass stood up. “I’ll get it,” he said and went to the big desk.
“—and in it,” Donovan went on, “is everything the FBI believes we should have. It’s enough to establish that in all likelihood we are dealing with German agents—soldiers trained by Skorzeny. You’re familiar with Obersturmbannführer Skorzeny?”
“Yes, sir. Of course.”
Fulmar’s tone suggested that it was inconceivable that anyone could not be familiar with such a storied warrior, enemy or not.
Douglass brought back a folder thick with papers. He put it on the glass-top table. Fulmar glanced at it, then back at Donovan.
“And that brings me to the other flaw,” Donovan went on. “The OSS at its core is military and thus plays by different rules than does the FBI. While Director Hoover has been known to stretch the rules of law enforcement to suit his needs, by and large he keeps the bureau on the straight and narrow—his intolerance of crooked cops, for example—and this rigid mind-set, having trickled down to how the rank and file fundamentally operates, limits what the bureau is capable of accomplishing. You follow me so far?”
“I believe so, sir. No risk, no reward.”
“Yes. The President understands these limitations, as he does the parameters of the OSS, and thus has decided that the situation requires something more than the FBI offers….”
He paused to gather his thoughts.
“These attacks,” he went on, “spotlight some of our country’s biggest weaknesses. The United States cannot secure its vast borders—that’s a statement of fact, not a political ploy—and our infrastructure is vulnerable to subversive acts. We simply cannot protect every electrical substation, every train station, every town reservoir from attack. There are too many, and the manpower available—that is to say, everyone we are not sending to fight abroad—is far too few.”
“So one clever saboteur can with little effort cause remarkable chaos,” Fulmar said.
“Correction,” Douglass said, “is causing remarkable chaos.”
“And with more than one on the ground,” Donovan added, “there is a force multiplier effect. Follow?”
“If the public hears of two,” Fulmar offered, “they speculate that there could be two—or two dozen—others.”
“It’s already happening in the press reports,” Douglass said. “Reckless speculation. And soon the press will draw the obvious conclusion that the Texas and Oklahoma explosions show that the size of the attacks are becoming larger by the day.”
Donovan added: “Given time—and the Hoover Maxim on Criminality—the FBI would get these guys. But we don’t have the luxury of time.”
“‘The Hoover Maxim on Criminality’?” Fulmar said. “I am not familiar with that.”
Donovan?
?s eyes twinkled as he looked at Douglass.
“You wouldn’t be expected to,” Douglass said with a smile. “Quoting from the J. Edgar Book of Law Enforcement, ‘The Hoover Maxim on Criminality stipulates that all criminals—without exception—commit some stupid act before, during, or after a crime that allows for their eventual capture.’”
The director and deputy director of the OSS exchanged grins.
“Forgive us,” Donovan said. “We do not mean to make light of the circumstance. It is just that the important word there as far as we’re concerned is eventual.”
“Yes, sir,” Fulmar said. “We do not have time to wait.”
Donovan nodded. He liked what he just heard. Fulmar had said that he understood the urgency of the mission—and with “we” his acceptance of it.
Douglass said, “And that brings us back to doing whatever is necessary—”
There was a knock at the door.
Douglass looked to Donovan, who nodded.