“Come!” Douglass called.
The door opened and Mrs. Fishburne came through it, struggling with a tray holding three china mugs of steaming coffee and a plate piled with sticky bun pastries.
“I’m sorry that I took so long,” she said, placing the tray on the glass-top table. In her hand there was a sealed envelope, with STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL stamped in red on the front.
“This just came for you, Colonel,” she said. “An FBI agent hand-carried it here. He said that his orders were to give it to you personally. It took some time for me to convince him that the director and the deputy director were not only unavailable now, but that it would be hours before either was available at all. He gave that about five seconds of thought and decided that waiting was not high on his list of priorities.”
Donovan chuckled as he broke the seal of the envelope.
“You did well, Mrs. Fishburne,” the director of the OSS said, scanning the message. “As you’ll learn, the FBI has a very high regard of itself, and it is a noble endeavor indeed—if fruitless—to try to help keep them grounded.”
“Yes, sir,” she said without much conviction.
He looked up from the sheet of paper and added, “Don’t be surprised, however, if you suddenly find yourself the subject of a thorough FBI investigation.”
Mrs. Fishburne looked momentarily stunned.
Donovan grinned. “I’m only half kidding. If the FBI had decided you were a threat to the domestic security of the United States, Mrs. Fishburne, there’d already be an ample file on you. And they’d just be waiting for the Hoover Maxim on Criminality to work its magic.”
Fulmar glanced at Douglass and could see he was trying not to grin too obviously.
“Yes, sir,” Mrs. Fishburne said, clearly not at all comfortable with the explanation.
“That’ll be all for now, Mrs. Fishburne,” Douglass said. “Thank you.”
She turned and left the room, pulling the door closed behind her.
“Well, this appears to be both good and bad news,” Donovan said, leaning forward to pass the letter to Douglass, then picking up one of the steaming china mugs.
He looked at Fulmar and nodded at the coffee. “Help yourself.”
Douglass sat back in his chair and his eyes fell to the message.
* * *
Federal Bureau of Investigation WASHINGTON, D.C.
Office of the Deputy Director
*** STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL ***
March 7, 1943
Colonel Donovan:
As an update to the previous information provided by the F.B.I. to your office on the most recent acts of sabotage, Director Hoover has asked me to inform you of the following:
1. That our F.B.I. agents in Texas believe with a confidence factor of 90 percent that at least two (2) German saboteurs were responsible for the Mar. 5 bombing of the Dallas department store that killed two (2) citizens and injured five (5) others;
2. That our F.B.I. agents in Texas believe with a confidence factor of 90 percent that at least one (1) German saboteur was re sponsible for the bombing of the Mar. 5 Dallas Union Station train depot and the U.S.O. therein, killing five (5) soldiers and injuring twenty (20) others;
3. That our F.B.I. agents in Texas and Ok lahoma believe with a confidence factor of 70 percent that at least one (1) German saboteur was responsible for the bombing on Mar. 6 of the Red Rock Rail Line train en route Dallas to Kansas (casualties unknown at this time); and
4. That our agents in Oklahoma believe that in the train bombing:
(a) with a confidence factor of 50 percent at least one (1) German saboteur died in the explosion, and
(b) with a confidence factor of 100 percent two (2) F.B.I. agents in the defense of their country lost their lives in the explosion.