1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 149 Someone Went to Heaven!

Chapter 149 Someone Went to Heaven!
There is no problem with the director of the General Affairs Bureau.

However, Rosen's supervisor still followed procedure and convened communications experts to evaluate the communications security report.

Security has always been a key area of focus for the FBI. When it comes to security, no amount of attention is too much.

What's more, it was Theodore who handed it in.

This assessment may take a week or even longer, and the experts will eventually produce an assessment report that even laypeople can understand.

This assessment report will first be given to Director Rosen, then polished and revised before being forwarded to the Director's office. Director Hoover will personally approve it, deciding whether to take targeted measures, what measures to take, and to what extent.

Not everyone is like Theodore, who has the time to research a completely unrelated field just to write a report and "lecture" his boss.

After Theodore handed the communications security report to Rosen's supervisor, he stopped paying attention to it.

He is now focusing all his energy on his newly conceived article.

Therefore, he did not even proactively apply for a case with Supervisor Rosen.

Bernie was puzzled by this choice.

However, he happened to be busy moving recently and didn't have any cases on his hands, so he could devote more energy to handling the moving matters.

Mrs. Sullivan has already found a buyer and will sell their property in Felton at the end of April.

This means Bernie must resolve things with DC by May.

He has already confirmed with the renovation company that the renovation will be completed by the end of April.

Besides the renovation, another important thing was Sullivan's transfer to another school.

If this were done according to the proper procedure, he would first need to submit an application to the Education Committee, then wait ten days to half a month to receive a reply, and then wait another three to five months before the committee would send a specialist to conduct an evaluation.

By the time we get the evaluation results and confirm whether I can transfer schools, Sullivan will probably have already graduated.

Bernie got in touch with an acquaintance on the education committee through a colleague in the bureau.

The speed at which acquaintances made progress was astonishing.

I submitted my application yesterday, and today I was notified to prepare materials and wait for evaluation.

This caught Bernie off guard.

Sullivan's academic records and other materials are still en route by express delivery.

…………

September 4, early morning.

Inside the White House, Jack was fast asleep, cuddling his wife and children.

Throughout North America, countless people, like President Jack, were embracing their wives and children, drifting into sweet dreams.

This does not include Theodore.

Theodore went to bed early yesterday afternoon after returning to his apartment.

He also advised Bernie to get some rest, but Bernie refused.

1:20 a.m.

Theodore had woken up and was standing at the window looking out.

The sky over DC was overcast tonight, and a light drizzle was falling.

Theodore was somewhat disappointed by the weather.

He went back to bed, turned on the radio, and started changing the channel.

The radio crackled and sputtered, broadcasting something the FBI agents shouldn't have heard.

Meanwhile, the NORAD's Kriel radar station in Alaska had just detected an unusual rocket trajectory at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The radar station immediately reported to the CIA duty center, marking it as "suspected major space operation".

Ten minutes later, the National Security Advisor was awakened by a CIA call and immediately called President Jack's bedroom:

"Mr. President, we have highly credible signals indicating that the Soviet Union has just launched some kind of space vehicle—possibly a manned mission."

President Jack, who had just been woken up by a phone call, sat up in bed, his face ashen.

He wanted to get angry, but he quickly held back.

President Jack hung up the phone, put on his clothes, left the bedroom, and summoned his staff.

2:10 in the morning.

Moscow's TASS news agency released an official announcement to the world that Yuri Gagarin had successfully entered orbit.

At this time, it was still late at night on the East Coast of America, and most media outlets did not respond in real time.

Theodore heard the news on the radio.

The announcer's voice was filled with excitement and joy, which was very infectious.

He listened silently for a while, then turned off the radio and dialed the number for the apartment at 4132 Q Street, Washington, D.C.

Theodore waited less than a minute before the call was answered.

Hoover's voice came from the other end: "Theodore, what's wrong?"

Theodore repeated the news he had heard on the radio.

Silence fell over the receiver.

About ten seconds later, Hoover's voice came again:

"understood."

"You and that Irishman, go to headquarters immediately and be on standby."

The call was hung up.

Theodore hung up the phone and went into Bernie's bedroom.

He had only taken two steps inside when he saw a dark figure leap up from the bed and pounce straight at him.

Theodore retreated to the doorway, dodging the flying blanket and ducking to avoid a punch.

Bernie, who was charging forward, stopped his attack, his voice filled with deep doubt: "Theodore?"

He checked the time and became even more puzzled.

It's not even two o'clock yet!

Theodore nodded to him, reminding him to get dressed and prepare to work overtime.

Bernie took two steps back, staring warily at Theodore.

At that moment, his brain was racing, and all sorts of plots from the Star newspaper he had read the night before came flooding back.

Aliens, consciousness swapping, mind manipulation, demonic possession...

Theodore glanced at the time: "Seven minutes ago, the Soviet Union launched a manned spacecraft, completing its first manned spaceflight."

Bernie's eyes widened.

For some reason, at that moment, the Star News article about aliens popped into his head.

After a long pause, Bernie muttered "fxxk" under his breath and hurriedly scrambled into the bedroom to get dressed.

Previously, Emily's Mercury program sent the chimpanzee "Ham" into suborbital space in January for a test flight, but the first manned flight, originally scheduled for March, was postponed due to technical problems.

To this day, NASA's "technical problems" remain unresolved, while the other side has already achieved manned flight.

In the current world order, the achievement of the first manned spaceflight is not only a technological victory, but also a major blow to ideology and propaganda.

This is a truly big deal for the FBI.

This time, Bernie didn't try to take the car keys from Theodore.

If not now, when?
…………

Apartment at 4132 Q Street, Washington, D.C.

Hoover put down the phone and turned to look at Tolson.

Not far from him, Thorsen was still on the phone.

During this period, telephone receivers had very poor sound reception; anyone in the same room could clearly hear what was being said on the phone.

Almost a minute after Theodore made that call, Thorson also received a report from the agent.

They are talking about the same thing.

Hoover nodded to Tolson, then turned and walked into the bedroom.
"Notify Alex Rosen and the others to assemble at headquarters."

Thorson held the phone further away and covered the receiver to remind him:
"Shouldn't we notify the White House?"

Hoover's voice came from the bedroom:
"Need not."

Thorson said nothing more, quickly ended the call, dialed Ms. Gandy's number, and relayed Hoover's instructions.

Hoover neither notified the White House, nor contacted Congress, nor informed the Department of Justice or the Supreme Court to apply for an action order.

He didn't even hold a large-scale mobilization of agents or order all FBI agents to cancel their vacations and be on standby at any time.

In fact, he only summoned a few high-ranking FBI officials, including Alex Rosen.

Hoover instructed them to keep a low profile, prioritizing the verification of the accuracy and authenticity of the information, and focusing on preventing potential risks.

Under these two requirements, most FBI agents remained asleep, with only a small number of unnamed agents belonging to the National Security Division or not on any roster being activated and secretly put into operation.

They began a round-the-clock surveillance operation on hundreds of targets, including NASA partners and the Soviet embassy.

The files of dozens of aerospace experts were retrieved and re-examined.

More than a dozen universities have been included in the investigation list.

The FBI has launched a series of major operations and plans, but they remain silent, like a shadow.

They seem to operate only internally, completely ignoring the outside world.

Given this ambiguous stance, at 3 a.m., the Associated Press issued its first English-language news flash:
"Moscow announced that the Soviet Union has sent a cosmonaut into Earth orbit and returned him safely."

United Press International followed up with confirmation:

"Humanity's first foray into space—Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completes his orbit around the Earth."

CBS reacted immediately, with radio hosts interrupting their regular programming to broadcast an emergency announcement:
"We have received an urgent message: the Soviet Union claims to have sent humans into space..."

Various media outlets began to react and report on the incident.

The press was already in an uproar.

Countless reporters were woken up by the editor-in-chief, and without even bothering to put on their clothes, they scrambled to the White House to wait for interviews.

Given the magnitude of this incident, the White House will inevitably hold a press conference to respond.

The entire top echelon in DC was already in an uproar. NASA headquarters had long been in a state of collective shock.

They couldn't believe it was true.

After realizing what had happened, the engineers began to reassess the Mercury project timeline.

The NASA administrator rushed into his office with sleep still in his eyes and began drafting a request for additional funding.

The Ministry of National Defense immediately convened a secret meeting to assess its rocket delivery capabilities and threat level, and unanimously approved accelerating the preliminary feasibility study of the "Apollo program" and promoting lunar landing as a strategic goal.

One by one, important figures and ordinary people alike were awakened; meetings were held in different departments; and phone calls crisscrossed the city.

At this moment, only ordinary people are still fast asleep, completely unaware of what has happened.

At five o'clock in the morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

The rain hasn't stopped yet.

Pennsylvania Avenue was already teeming with traffic.

Theodore and Bernie arrived at the Department of Justice building before 2:30 p.m. and have been waiting ever since, but no one has assigned them any tasks or questioned them.

They seemed to have been forgotten.

Bernie was already snoring on the table.

Theodore was engrossed in reading a newly arrived psychology journal.

Upstairs, in the director's office.

The lighting here was dim, and Deputy Director Thorson was working on an action plan.

The plan aimed to expand the FBI's surveillance capabilities, allowing the FBI to adopt a "listen first, apply later" approach to monitor and surveillance a wider range of suspicious individuals in response to the impact of the Soviet Union's pioneering achievement of manned spaceflight.

This action plan will be submitted to Attorney General Robert later.

Director Hoover occupied another desk, reviewing intelligence summaries from various sources.

He had just put down the last document, taken off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes.

Ms. Gandy came in and reported to him that Agent Blake had returned.

Hoover put his glasses back on and asked her to invite Agent Black in.

A moment later, Agent Blake appeared before him with a serious expression.

Upon arriving at headquarters, Hoover instructed Tolson to have someone inspect Theodore's apartment.

He summoned Theodore and Bernie to headquarters not because he had any mission for them, but simply to transfer them away for easier inspection.

Agent Black was the person Tolson brought in to conduct the investigation.

Agent Blake meticulously reported the findings of his investigation to Hoover.

No eavesdropping devices were found.

No suspicious letters were found.

No suspicious persons were found.

Hoover was not satisfied with the result.

He was convinced that someone was after Theodore.

Otherwise, how could Theodore have known about the Soviet Union's successful manned spaceflight earlier than his own professional spies?

There must be something wrong!

Someone must be trying to harm Theodore!

Hoover pondered, already beginning to sift through suspicious individuals in his mind.

This kind of thing doesn't require solid evidence; a mere suspicion is enough.

The first to be affected were Attorney General Robert and his good friend, the pretty boy President Jack.

Last time, it was those two idiotic brothers who tried to harm Theodore.

He transferred Theodore back to DC, and the two of them quieted down for a while, but now they're starting to stir again.

Hoover quickly locked onto his target.

He was furious at the two brothers' disregard for the bigger picture.

Amidst the tense international situation at the time, he set aside his precepts and chose to cooperate with the two brothers.

He assumed the brothers were the same way.

It turned out that they were only pretending to be honest; in reality, they were always up to no good behind the scenes.

Hoover summoned Ms. Gandy and instructed her to send a gift to the Jack brothers.

The gift contained evidence of the two brothers' collusion with the Chicago mob.

During the election, the two brothers promised to reduce the sentences of allies of a high-ranking Chicago gang in exchange for union support.

A week ago, that gang leader's ally was released from prison.

Like the most rigid nun, Ms. Gandy listened attentively to Hoover's orders, calmly agreed, and then went out to prepare.

Thorsen looked up at the proposal twice, then buried himself back into it.

He knew exactly what Hoover was thinking.

However, he felt that this matter might have nothing to do with the Jack brothers.

Thinking this to himself, Thorsen did not intend to say it aloud.

Knowing Hoover's temperament as he did, there was no point in saying anything.

…………

Hoover appeared in Robert's office with the proposal drafted by Deputy Director Tolson and personally handed it to Robert.

Deputy Director Thorson, knowing the urgency of the situation, thoughtfully included a summary on the first page, outlining the plan's contents.

After reading the summary, Robert looked at Hoover, his expression becoming extremely interesting.

He suspected that Hoover had gone mad.

This is not an action plan.

This is a bill!
Once the bill passes, the FBI will have the power to act arbitrarily.

They can monitor whomever they want, and eavesdrop on whomever they want, without having to explain themselves to anyone.

Even if he had always been at odds with Hoover, and even if he were in cahoots with Hoover, this bill would still not pass.

Hoover looked at Robert calmly and spoke eloquently:

“Your Excellency Minister, we received the intelligence at 2:10 a.m., but we have been unable to contact you.”

"Without your authorization, we cannot carry out any work."

"Six hours have passed since we received the tip. All we can do is repeatedly verify the authenticity of the information."

“In those six hours, we could have monitored suspicious targets and caught the mole who leaked classified technology.”

"But because we can't get authorization and we can't contact you, we can't do anything but watch the mole destroy the evidence."

After a pause, Hoover gave an example:
“Our agents found a document that had not been completely destroyed in the embassy’s trash, which confirmed that there was indeed an insider who leaked secrets.”

He shoved the proposal into Robert's hands:

"If it were here, we wouldn't be in such a passive position."

Hoover pointed outside: "Your Excellency, you should put down your books, get out of the White House, get out of your office, go out into the streets, and see for yourself what the people are saying."

"This is not child's play!"

Robert's face turned pale and then purple from what he said, and he felt completely bewildered.

Weren't the two sides cooperating well before? Why did they suddenly change their minds?

Robert even felt a little wronged.

Hoover didn't care whether Robert felt wronged or not.

He watched Robert's change of expression with a cold eye and reminded Robert that he should go to Congress to ask for a budget.

The FBI is under the Department of Justice, and Robert is nominally Hoover's superior. In theory, the FBI's budget needs to be requested by Robert from Congress.

Hoover should write up the budget proposal and submit it to the Attorney General, who will then submit it to the Congressional Budget Committee for review.

This process is usually just a formality.

The FBI's budgets are approved as long as the reasons for the application are valid.

Now that such a major event has occurred, all parties will certainly resubmit their budget requests and increase the budget amount.

The FBI, of course, couldn't lag behind.

Robert's face grew even uglier.

He clutched the proposal Hoover had submitted, wanting nothing more than to throw it in Hoover's face.

But he still held back.

He thought of the file folder he had received that morning.

Robert pointed to the door: "Get out!"

Hoover stood up, gave Robert a slight nod, and walked out of the office.

Before the office door was even closed, a loud bang was heard from inside.

Something hit the door.