Prologue

March 20, 1942

Office of Strategic Services

Chicago, Illinois

The noise basically was annoying at first but later on, one could get use to it. This pretty much excluded Colonal Arnold Becket, a man prone to headaches and a temper which earned him the nickname “Hothead” among OSS personal. Today was a special day, the auto typewriters were in full force as German codes were intercepted and decoded. The normally noisy room was now an explosion of noise and the excited shouts as German codes were flooding the machines. Something was going on in Germany.

“Sir you have to look at this!” said Major Francis McDougal, in a heavy Scottish accent. He handed the paper over as he backed away in fear of the colonel’s famous temper. But nothing happened. The colonel’s face turned a ghostly pale as he got up and picked up the special red phone.

“Get me the president,” the Colonel said with clenched teeth.

March 27, 1942

The White House

Washington D.C

FDR was known as a calm person, a man who kept calm in extreme duress, but now he was angry. His wheelchair squeaked heavily as he wheeled over to the meeting room in the west wing of the White House. He cursed lightly as he entered the room and saw every single yes man in his arsenal, the secretary of state being at the top.

“Now tell me some good news,” the president said as he leaned over the table to retrieve papers. All of the people started to talk at once but Roosevelt held his hand up for silence. The room became instantly quiet. Rage seemed to radiate from the president, even though his face showed no signs of it.

“Please debrief me on the situation at hand,” Roosevelt said as he looked over the papers in his hand. The Secretary of Defense was the first to speak over the mounting amount suspense.

“I am afraid that I have no good news to tell, Mr. President. Our intelligence in Berlin confirms our most grave reservations that in fact the Germans plan to…” The Secretary of Defense said to the crowd of people. Everyone turned to the President to see his reaction at the news. For the first time ever his face registered an angry beet red. This struck fear into the hearts of everyone in the room, never before had their leader shown this type of emotion so vividly.

“SOLUTIONS,” FDR said with clenched teeth and all the control he could muster. A silence filled the room in an eerie and tense way. Unexpectedly, the doors to meeting room opened and a tall man walked into the room. Everyone stared at the tall, lanky man in the trench coat and small round sunglasses. A look of confusion went across the faces of the men in the room, except for the president, who actually looked content to see the mysterious man.

“Everyone, meet the director of the newly formed OSS, Philip Donovan,” the president said with a sigh of relief. The man just stood in the room, unspeaking, while looking as if he was staring at something in the distance. A disapproving Secretary of State stood up and looked towards to the OSS man.

“So you are the one who took my intelligence office away from me,” the Secretary frowned at the tall man.

“I did nothing of such thing; I was just assigned to the newly formed office. I am sorry if intelligence was taken from the state department but that was not my doing. If anything it is your fault for losing your own office,” the man said crisply. The Secretary literally dropped his jaw and immediately ran towards the Donovan as if he were going to tackle him.

“Now listen here, no one insults me like that and gets away with it,” the secretary said pointing his finger in Donovan’s face. FDR wheeled his chair over to the struggle in order to stop the squabble. Donovan's raised fist was already turning white when he lowered it to his side. The secretary backed off as FDR came close to both men.

“Now boys, do play nice before tempers flair into rage. We do need to concentrate at the difficulty at hand. Please sit in the chair next to me, Philip,” FDR said as he wheeled his chair back to the table. Everyone looked down at their papers as Donovan sat down in the chair next to the president. Roosevelt cleared his throat to indicate he was about to speak. Everyone looked up and looked towards the president.

“Now this problem can be solved in the best manner possible only of we listen to Mr. Donovan here. Understand that he is a new kind of man, not a yes man or anyone in that category. He is a man of honor and respect, as well as one who has faults… In other words he is human. We need this kind of man in this room to bring new life and ideas. Recently I have talked to Donovan over our Nazi question and it seems he has come up with a solution,” Roosevelt said as he pointed his finger to Donovan.

“Gentleman, I have a plan…” Donovan said with a dark smile.