Chapter 2-

March 30/31, 1942

Office of Strategic Services

Chicago, Illinois

“Hothead” Becket was in his mood again, in fact for the second time today. This time it was not because of those “fucking auto-disasters” but because of one of the most difficult freelancing agent ever in the history of the Intelligence Division of the State Department (which now was now in the hands of the OSS) was coming to his office in a few short hours. Becket stormed around the decryption division, unleashing his wrath onto unsuspecting personal. Since many of the workers are veterans of Becket’s command, they knew well enough to avoid his hawk-like gaze when he trampled around in a rogue rage. But of course, there are those few who don’t know the complete wrath of Colonel.

One man, a lowly Corporal, on his first day managed to cross path’s with Colonel on one of his less angry moods. During lunch, the Corporal made the mistake of dropping his food on the floor onto the feet of his commanding officer, Becket. It is said that the incident was not the first time in the history of the OSS that Hothead made one of his lowly peons cry.

Now Becket was watching out for any violations of Intelligence Law, which were Becket’s personal rules, when his gaze fell on one man struggling to translate one of the paper reels of the German decrypted messages. Paper was collecting into a small mound beside the small wooden desk. A look of struggle and worry was on his face when he looked up and saw his fellow co-workers translating without hesitation. After looking around one last time he went back to work in hopes of catching up, in hopes he could finish his quota, but he knew deep down he wouldn’t. When he was in intelligence school, he was one of the lowest ranking and worst translators in class. Now that he transferred to Becket’s command, he was suffering as a translator. As studious as he seemed, he knew he was in deep water when he hear the telltale sound of heavy army boots heading for his desk area. The shadow of the six foot Arnold Becket fell ominously on him. Perry looked up to see the steel gray eyes of his menacing commanding officer staring down onto him. As true as to his interoffice name, Hothead spoke in a deep yet shrill voice to the now scared Perry. The sound of Becket’s voice reminded Perry of a swooping Hawk, ready to devoir its prey.

“Corporal, what the fuck are you doing? Are lounging around?” Becket said to the small Perry.

“No, um sir, I, um trying my best sir. It’s just that…” Perry said nervously. Becket let a pause past before he continued his fury.

“Oh your best, eh? Well, golly! I didn’t know!” Becket said sarcastically, “It just seemed that the work was getting done… OH WAIT IT ISNT!” Becket grabbed the huge mound of paper and was about to throw them into his face when a large, strong hand landed on his shoulder. The room became silent when Jake came through the departmental door and landed his hand on Hothead Becket. If even possible, it became even quieter than before when Becket turned around and faced Jake.

“My, My Hothead calm down before you burst a blood vessel. We all have work to do,” Jake said as he patted Becket’s shoulder and walked into his large office. Becket reluctantly followed, with his tail between his legs. All of the office staff looked on with amazement; they had never seen such a site before. Jake had diffused the Hothead bomb with just a few words that didn’t seem to matter much anyway. Every staff member, especially poor Perry, will always remember Jake. At that moment of thought, the second in command Major McDougal walked in and passed by the workers. Just before he went into the office, he looked around the office and ordered everyone back to work. Just as the hum of the office started to come back, Francis smiled as he remembered the first time Jake had silenced both Hothead and the office workers back at the State Department.

2 hours later…

A cart full of food was wheeled into the office and left there while three men watched a presentation of some sort. The staff member who wheeled in the cart knew better than to wonder what sort of presentation the high level staff members were looking at. He quickly left without a word.

A projector was at the far side of the deep mahogany-paneled room. Darkness ruled the room at the moment but the office was clearly luxurious in decoration and manner. Jake fidgeted in his large chair while Becket sipped some Earl Gray Tea. Major McDougal looked bored at best. The movie/presentation was far from boring; it was actually quite amazing. It was just the fact that Francis had seen this ten times already in the past week. In short the film described the situation that was currently going on in Germany.

The movie starts out at the chronological point of December 7, 1941, when the United States was bombed at Pearl Harbor. Germany initialized Plan 6-A when word of the sneak attack came from Japan via telegraph. Troop movement and the further mobilization of industry was the focal point of the plan. But secret devices were also activated when word of the bombing reached Germany, the most notable and by far the largest is Operation Spore. Word of this super secret plan leaked out only by a fluke, a plane loaded with military supplies dropped a small box by accident in the middle of a raid by British marines in a sea port in the German empire. The location is not privy to American eyes and was mentioned so in the movie. Though the contents of the box were revealed in the movie. In the box there were several files citing massive movements of supplies, equipment, scientists and troops to Japan and Italy as well as the movement of several key items to unknown locations. Though the authentication of the documents is impossible, it is believed that these files are reliable. After the box’s discovery, Operation Spore’s movements disappeared and fell of the grid, so to speak. But in recent weeks, however, a large number of German coded messages were sent on March 20, as discovered by the OSS decryption department. Many of the messages were cryptic at best. But from what could be made out by the experts at the bureau, it seemed that the city port of Hamburg, Germany was at the center of the activity of the Operation.

At that moment in the movie, Becket stood up and turned off the movie. Francis stood up as well and helped himself to some food in the cart. Jake sat still while he contemplated about the information presented to him. The Pearl Harbor bombing was still fresh on his mind. He himself had been at Hawaii when the bombing started. In fact, he was in Honolulu when the bombings started. Even more interesting, Jake was planning to visit his uncle, Rear Admiral Hebert Vern at his office in Pearl Harbor HQ. Though his uncle was safe (he was playing golf with the admiralty), the horrendous events still played out in his mind. The aftermath was even worse, the sight of so many bodies… The thought made Jake shiver.

“Now this is where you come in Jake,” Becket said, “Your mission, if you chose to accept, is to infiltrate Hamburg, Germany as well as the Port Authority offices. Now if do accept we will give you Clearance Alpha Iota and reveal the rest of the details but otherwise I cannot reveal the rest of the mission.”

Jake stood up and grabbed a soda from the cart of food. He drank silently as Becket watched and waited for an answer. Francis sat down with a large plate of food and ate silently, but with a crazed hunger on his face. He had not eaten in two days, since he had to travel to San Francisco to retrieve Jake as well as to ferry Jake from San Francisco to Chicago. He clearly ignored the conversation between Becket and Jake.

“I’ll do it Becket. Even though I vowed to never do this again, I will participate in this mission. I know you need my expertise and I will give it. Consider me hired,” Jake said as he sat down, unsmiling. Becket equally shared the cold feelings that he sensed coming from Jake. The last time Jake was seen by Becket, Jake had spitted on Becket’s face in disgust after the Italian incident. Afterwards, Jake had vowed to never ever work under Becket again. A practical slap in the face in Becket’s part, especially since he had to go back to Jake for help, but nonetheless necessary.

“Good, now that the formalities have been cleared it is time for a real debriefing. Follow me Jake,” Becket said as he motioned for Jake to leave the office. Jake got up silently and walked out. Becket nodded slowly but surely as he walked out the door. A slam insured that Major McDougal was alone. The Major pushed his plate aside as he reached for the film in the projector. A few moments later the film burst into a fine powder as McDougal applied a special acid to a piece of the film. There was no more evidence of Operation Spore other than the enemy and in the hands of the most powerful person in the world, President Roosevelt.