3rd February 1942
"Sir, you have the appointment with Mr Benedict coming up in ten minutes." Reminded my new personal secretary Emily Gardner. The distinctive English accent of the woman gave away her nationality but for me, that was hardly noteworthy. But what was noteworthy was the face staring at me from my slightly ajar office door. It was the face of Natalie Dormer facing me and that alone was enough to freeze my brain.
I gave a slow nod of acknowledgement and Emily went back to her post. I let out a relieved sigh when that happened. It was extremely difficult to look at the face of what I knew to be Natalie Dormer's face and call her Emily Gardner. It was exceedingly weird to have that same woman work as my personal secretary delivering me mail and schedules on a daily basis. I hoped I would learn to roll with the punches because Emily would be staying by my side for quite some time.
While it was curious to find someone from British intelligence in the US he gathered it had to do with resource allocation. The US was still gearing up for a full-scale war. Recruitment was picking up the pace but the enemy was not waiting for the US to respond. Just recently the battle of Bataan was fought in the Philippines. From that, he knew it was only a matter of time before the Japanese army took the Philippines out of the war. While public sentiment was in the flux with all the propaganda being dumped into mainstream media the fear of invasion was still eminent.
The recent setbacks in the Pacific aside the battle of Bataan provided an excellent opportunity for me to intervene in Mark14 torpedoes. While the Bureau of Ordnance was not going to take up my warnings of the defects that plagued the torpedo, at the very least I managed to acquire permission to test the bloody thing. I managed to pressure SSR into having access to some of the Mark14 torpedoes on the account of the recent reports submitted by captains of USS Stingray, USS Saury and USS Salmon.
Those three submarines had engaged a large convoy with escort ships led by General Homma. The three submarines converged on the convoy thanks to the timely spotting and actions of USS Stingray. The convoy was a landing force intending to land on Manila Bay. The three submarines could have dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invasion force but the faulty torpedoes betrayed them in the time of their need. With three US submarines firing a whole salvo of torpedoes at the Japanese invasion force that was caught off guard managed to sink just two troopships. To my mind, that would be one of the worst submarine exchanges considering the element of surprise involved.
From what I knew this was just the start of the disaster that was about to follow. I know I won't be able to change the stubborn dolts in the Bureau of Ordnance much less can I make them accept that there is a problem to the Mark14. But that doesn't mean I can't push the right buttons especially with the formation of the SSR. The SSR had placed me into a research wing for special weapons development. While at the moment I was overseeing the development of a device capable of being a game-changer in signal intelligence I do have some inroads to get permission for testing the Mark14. The main obstacle was that the stupid thing came under severe security restrictions. Even the crewmen of the ships and submarines don't know jack about them.
And it all comes down to the stupid magnetic influence exploder and the nature of its secrecy. The bloody thing was not tested ever against a live target because of the budget cuts on the navy and then the bloody thing was supposed to be a secret weapon. The sad fact was that the same magnetic influence exploder was used in the Mark 16 torpedo used by US Navy Destroyers. This more than anything was a disaster waiting to happen especially when there was a need for escorts for convoys leaving to Britain to support the war effort. With faulty mechanisms and untested technology, the US was bound to lose some of its good men needlessly all the while stubborn bureaucrats sat back in their seats twiddling their thumbs far away from the war.
So for the sake of some good men I was going to try my best to shake up the chambers of power in the Bureau of Ordnance. But first I need to generate good results for the SSR to take me seriously. To that end, I had cracked open one of the most advanced projects that I had been going through even before the war. This was something that I kept strictly to myself and even far away from my company. But now it was time to set up the shop so to speak as this would revolutionize signal intelligence. While the device itself was interesting I am sure that the technology used to craft the device would be more interesting to signal intelligence.
I took the briefcase by my side and opened it. Inside was a file with all the papers that I had worked on in this project. All the detailed work and design was there and a copy has already been handed over to Thomas Benedict who was one of the best electrical engineers in Price Industries. The door to my office opened and Emily was there at the door.
"Sir, Mr Benedict is here." She said
"Send him in and please don't let anyone through for the duration of this meeting."
"Yes sir." Emily nodded and let Thomas inside.
"Take a seat, Tom. I take it you have some good news on that project we discussed?" I asked as I leaned forward in interest.
"Yes sir. We have succeeded in PROSIG pending some small issues." said Tom and at my worried look, he added hastily… "Nothing to worry about. We just need a few more days to calibrate the machine."
"Good. I hope you don't disappoint because our British friends were an enormous help in perfecting my design. I would hate it to let their hard work go to waste if we can't deliver what we promised."
"All I ask is two weeks to perfect the machine. By then it will be ready for a demonstration." said Tom confidently.
"Are you sure, Tom? You know how important this is to the government. This project is classified and its success will change the course of this war."
"It will be ready in two weeks sir." Tom promised
"Good. Now walk me through what your team did and explain what changes you made to my original design." I asked eagerly
"Well, sir, your idea of printed circuits and minimizing the size of some of the components and antennas were instrumental in strengthening PROSIG. Then we…." Tom launched into an explanation that enthralled me. What I was learning was the intricate workings of the new Cypher Machine that was going to be employed by the SSR. With HYDRA as the elephant in the room, I was all too happy to learn that the SSR was taking every precaution to combat the Red Skull.
A while later I was sitting under a tree leafing through some of the latest developments with Storm and Pheonix. Work was still going on but without the kind of automation that I was familiar with the work was being delayed. Comparatively Project Storm was seeing more success than Phoneix.
I was not exactly a pioneer in Jet propulsion and most of my ideas were theories. I had to depend on other people for Jet engine development but Storm was something right up my ally. The only thing that was holding me back from launching a full-fledged helicopter was the delay with rotor blade design. I could have gone with laminated wood and fabric but I wanted my design to be better than that. To that end, I have been trying to come up with three designs. One was made of steel, another was made of aluminium and the third was supposed to be made of composite materials.
I knew steel and aluminium would be cheaper to build and long-lasting than the wooden blades. They won't absorb moisture as wood does but there were disadvantages. However, they have a poor strength to density ratio and has poor fatigue resistance. I was still hoping for somehow coming up with a composite material but I would soon have to decide on steel or aluminium. Besides, there will be time for further development in the future.
Speaking of the future my mind wandered to some of the plans I have concocted. At first, I wanted to expose some of the spies infiltrating the US like Pavel Sudoplatov, Harold Glasser, Harry Dexter White, Nathan Gregory Silvermaster and many other German spies. With Emily's appointment as my personal secretary, those plans were put on hold for the moment. Even then I was a little apprehensive in driving a wedge between the allies as I also knew the names of soviet agents in Britain.
I feared that a permanent wedge between the Western allies and the USSR would be catastrophic to the overall war effort. Hitler was making Germany commit suicide by attacking the USSR. With Nazi-Germany forced to allocate its resources to the Eastern front it would keep Germany weak. If Hitler comes to a separate peace with the USSR then the Western front may grind to a halt and that can't be allowed. I would wait and plan for the best moment to reveal the spies in the US and hand over the spies in Britain as well. But I knew that sort of thinking was arrogant. It is not as if the higher-ups in the federal government to forget this fact if they are informed of the spy rings. They had to know that acting prematurely would make the USSR pull out of the war altogether. Hitler might be a moron and pursue war with the Soviets but depending on such a chance was dangerous.
Either way, I had to figure out a way to safely deliver this information. Until I find a safe way that can't be traced back to me in any way this information was going to be safely stored in my mind. And right now that was the only safe place I could trust with this information.
I was taken back when I saw Emily rushing towards me and I knew it must be something urgent. My free time was above reproach as it was something that I jealously guarded from being disturbed.
"Sorry to interrupt but there is a gentleman from California here to see you." said Emily
"Whoever it is can wait for half an hour." I said not at all happy for being disturbed in my free time which I consistently used for self-reflection in the past few years. It had served me well to flush out ideas and inspirations that I later developed over time. So it was an important aspect of my daily routine.
"Colonel Philips sent this man over here sir. This is an SSR asset we are talking about." said Emily with a frown.
"What's his name?" I asked with a sigh.
"He wouldn't give me the name. He was also rude and misogynistic most of the time." commented Emily which was a surprise for me. A month of working with Emily let me know that she was hardly someone who made accusations without any merit.
"If he didn't even give you a name how did you gather he is with the SSR?" I asked curiously avoiding the misogynistic comment altogether. There was no point in fixating on that one as that description could fit pretty much the entire male population of the planet in one way or the other.
"An SSR operative escorted the gentlemen towards your office and that's how I know this man is with the SSR."
"Very well then. Let's see who this gentleman is shall we." I said as I stood up from under the shade of my thinking tree.
"What did he say to you to make you think he is misogynistic?" I asked Emily on the way back to my office.
"He is a womanizer that devalues woman. I can tell the type." said Emily
"Oho! That's an interesting skill to have. What do you think of me then?" I asked amused.
"An idealist with as little ego as possible compared to others which is a rare combination."
"I don't know whether to be offended or to take it as a compliment."
"My advice would be to do neither."
"No matter which day and age women cannot be understood." I said shaking my head.
"Men don't understand women because they refuse to listen." said Emily with a smirk.
I struggled for a comeback but settled for "Now I know why SSR recruited you."
"I take that as a compliment." said Emily with a smile in victory.
"Of course you would." I said but as I turned a corner towards my office the rest of the argument died in my throat as I found myself face to face with Dominic Cooper.
"I am Howard. Howard Stark. Nice to meet you."
I cursed the universe in my mind for treating me with regular shock treatments even as I shook hands with Howard Stark.
AN: I hope you guys enjoyed it. I am not that much satisfied. I had hoped to flush out more details of Emily's character but then I thought this would be a better time to introduce Howard Stark. If anyone has any suggestion on how to out the soviet spies please do tell me.
The Lion's Pride, welcome007: I have a serious job which is now eating up my free time. So I will be tardy on updates. Thisis why my xhapter lengths have shrunken considerably.
Zoom99: Patriotism is a good thing to have pal. Not blind patriotism but some is good for helath. This is WW2 and the Anerican Dream is still alive here.
eaglepirate: Taking this story to the Endgame would be a challenge. I can try but a definite yes I can't say.