1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 150 Not-So-New Newcomers

From the start of the morning, the atmosphere in the FBI office was tense, anxious, and uneasy.

This restless emotion stems from confusion and fear of the unknown.

The agents had no idea what technologies were needed to send a person into space and orbit the Earth, nor how far Emily's Mercury Project was from that goal.

Like most people, all they knew was that Emily was behind.

How far behind?

They don't know either.

But they will try their best to imagine it.

One sent people up, and the other just sent an orangutan up.

One is about to orbit the Earth, and the other is preparing for a suborbital flight.

It doesn't sound like we're lagging behind by just one or two steps, it sounds like we're far behind!
What are the consequences of falling behind?
The numerous wars that have erupted since the beginning of this century speak for themselves.

It's hard not to empathize with this, as if war is about to break out tomorrow and defeat is imminent the day after.

Suddenly, the competition for space, and winning the space race, has been upgraded from a purely geopolitical matter to a national survival mission.

Losing the space race felt like the sky was falling, like the end of the world was coming.

The immense pressure weighed on each agent, making them tense and anxious.

Worse still, as FBI agents, they couldn't even talk about it.

The office was like a powder keg; everyone was frowning, and it was so quiet it was as if Director Hoover were standing in the doorway supervising.

In fact, nobody cares about them at all.

From hearing the news through various channels, to walking into the Ministry of Justice building, and now...

The agents waited, hoping for action.

Every agent thought so.

They're the FBI!

With such a major event occurring, action is bound to be taken.

However, they were treated the same way as two guys who had been on standby since dawn—as if they had been forgotten.

Nobody asked them to cancel their vacations, nobody asked them to be on call at all times, nobody demanded that a state of emergency be declared.

Everything was the same as last week, the week before last, and countless other ordinary workdays.

Continue doing what you were doing before.

But the agents seemed to have suddenly forgotten everything.

Facing their familiar work, they had no interest whatsoever; their minds were filled with thoughts of the Soviets going to space and Emily falling behind.

Combined with their current reactions, this gives them the illusion that this is fake news.

But the overwhelming media reports, the colleagues' furrowed brows, and the oppressive atmosphere in the office—these were not fake.

They would rather have something more turbulent than this calm.

This calm is frightening.

Alex Rosen, head of the investigation department, appeared at the door of the main office.

The agents seemed to have found their pillar of support, and they all looked at him, with many even standing up.

Supervisor Rosen had just returned from the director's office, his gaze sweeping over the agents:

"Why are you looking at me?"

His voice was steady, even his tone remained the same:

"The case doesn't need to be solved?"

"So we don't need to catch the murderer?"

"You're on holiday?"

This familiar reprimand made the detectives feel somewhat at ease.

Supervisor Rosen, like a homeroom teacher supervising evening self-study, stood at the door, his gaze sweeping back and forth.

The oppressive atmosphere and restlessness in the office quickly dissipated under the deathly gaze of Supervisor Rosen.

Supervisor Rosen nodded in satisfaction, his gaze quickly scanning the large office before locking onto Agent Lombardi.

He pointed at Agent Lombardi:

"Vincent R. Lombardi".

Agent Lombardi looked up and then stood up.

Supervisor Rosen pointed in the direction of his office, indicating that he was about to receive a briefing from Agent Lombardi on the progress of the case investigation.

Agent Lombardi was a bit flustered, but with the help of the bald man and the curly-haired man, he pieced together the documents in his hand and hurriedly went into the supervisor's office.

Supervisor Rosen waved his hand at him and tossed him two documents:
“Go to the archives and get their complete files, then start monitoring them.”

Agent Lombardi was momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered, picked up the documents, and agreed.

He was skilled in surveillance and quickly understood Director Rosen's intentions.

Supervisor Rosen was very satisfied with his performance, gave him a few words of advice, and waved for him to call in the next agent.

Agent Lombardi was just the beginning.

One by one, senior agents were called out and walked into the supervisor's office with trepidation.

A few minutes later, they came out of the supervisor's office with serious expressions. Some silently gathered their respective investigation teams and went into the conference room for a meeting, while others, like Agent Lombardi, went to the archives to retrieve documents.

The fear of the unknown quickly dissipated, and the restlessness that had hung over the office dissipated just as fast.

The agents began nervously preparing for their report.

The new office is on the basement level.

Bernie was fully awake.

He washed his face, checked the time, and when he came back, asked Theodore:

"Are we just going to stay here and do nothing?"

Theodore looked up from his notebook at Bernie with obvious confusion.

He was organizing his thoughts, preparing to write the article he had conceived in Director Rosen's office and publish it in the FBI's internal publication.

From the early hours of the morning until now, he has read three psychology journals and magazines, sorted out the article structure, and organized the cases in his notes.

He did a lot of things.

Theodore pointed to Bernie's desk, then to his own: "I wasn't the one who did nothing."

Bernie glanced at Theodore's desk, which was piled high with magazines, many of which were open and had notes on them.

Looking at my desk again, I saw my notebook stacked on the front right.

Gone.

After a brief silence, Bernie changed the subject:
How much worse are we than them?

He pointed upwards and gestured with both hands:
"Didn't we send a gorilla up there in January?"

Bernie fought in World War II.

His understanding and perception of that country differed somewhat from the media portrayals and from those of most people, including Emily.

But that didn't work.

The reality was that the Cold War broke out, and the two countries were at odds.

The Soviet Union was the first to achieve the feat of sending a person into space, circling the Earth, and returning safely.

In Bernie's view, if they could make a person circle the earth and land at a designated location, it was equivalent to making anything do the same.

From his military perspective, if the conflict between the two countries escalates, the other side obviously won't send over a Christmas tree.

This anxiety had been troubling him ever since Theodore informed him of the news.

Theodore was not an aerospace technical expert and did not know the specific technical details.

However, from the most basic understanding of a layperson, the difference between the two is indeed quite large.

One sent a person flying around the Earth and back intact; the other sent a gorilla up and down.

He shook his head, indicating that he didn't know exactly how big the difference was.

Bernie sighed, started muttering to himself, and finally went to the training room to practice shooting.

The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the basement.

Theodore crumpled two pieces of paper, stuffed them into his ears, and continued working on his article. At noon, Ms. Gandy came to inform Theodore that he should have lunch with Chief Inspector Hoover.

Theodore arrived at the restaurant where he had lunch with Hoover and Thorson last time, and saw the two of them at the same spot.

Hoover didn't seem too keen on having him lunch, giving him a snort as soon as they met.

Theodore looked at him, puzzled, then turned to look at Thorson.

Thorson took a paper bag out of his bag and handed it to Hoover.

Hoover opened the paper bag, pulled out a document, and tossed it to Theodore.

It was an acquisition contract from some third-rate newspaper.

Shortly after Theodore proposed to acquire the newspaper, Hoover obtained complete information about the newspaper.

At the time, he and Tolson even did some research, trying to figure out what was so special about this newspaper that Theodore couldn't forget.

The acquisition of the Felton Star began around that time.

Later, due to changes in the international situation, Hoover became busy and the matter was forgotten.

The phone call Theodore made early this morning reminded Hoover of this incident.

However, Hoover did not intend to hand over a third-rate newspaper to Theodore; he simply informed Theodore that the Felton Star had been acquired.

This already satisfied Theodore greatly.

He doesn't care whether they manage him or not, as long as that third-rate newspaper stops publishing articles about his battles with aliens, werewolves, witches, demons, angels, and other strange and bizarre things.

Hoover did not ask Theodore how he knew about the Soviet Union's successful manned spaceflight before the FBI's professional spies.

He didn't even mention it.

Similarly, he made no mention of having sent people to the Georgetown apartment and turned it upside down.

Hoover did not see anything wrong with this.

Theodore had no intention of proactively telling Hoover about his sources, nor did he even consider making up a reason for it.

The two of them strangely and tacitly chose to avoid talking about it.

Theodore brought up another matter:

"I want someone."

"Billy Hawke, who participated in the selection training at the same time as me."

Theodore's fellow trainees undergo a four-week headquarters internship before being assigned to various departments to officially become FBI agents.

Today is their last day of internship at headquarters.

Hoover and Thorson exchanged a glance: "Anything else?"

Theodore shook his head.

Hoover: "Only one?!"

Theodore nodded.

A long silence fell over the dining table.

Hoover was very unhappy with Theodore's behavior.

It was the same when I returned from Felton, and it was the same when I participated in the selection training.

One at a time!
Theodore was completely unaware of this.

Just like last time, he ordered a lot of food and ate with great relish.

Hoover's eyes twitched as he watched.

Theodore had barely put down his knife when Hoover immediately shooed him away.

…………

Near the end of the workday, Billy Hawke was brought over by a senior agent whom Theodore didn't know but Bernie did.

The senior agent exchanged pleasantries with Bernie and repeatedly praised Billy Hawke.

Billy Hawke acted like a shy little girl, standing there with his head slightly bowed.

After the senior agent left, Billy Hawke pushed Bernie aside and cleared his throat with a serious expression:
"Introduce yourself."

“I am Billy Hawke, from the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.”

Billy Hawke rattled off a whole bunch of things before finally chuckling and relaxing.

Theodore stared at him for a while, puzzled.

He turned his gaze to Bernie, hesitating whether he should also introduce himself in the same manner.

Bernie pointed at Theodore: "This is our boss."

Billy Hawke grinned at Theodore and greeted him in a strange manner: "Boss!!"

Bernie helped Billy Hawke set up his desk and warmly introduced him to the place:
"There are only three of us in our group right now."

He pointed at Theodore, then at himself and Billy Hawke:
"We are under the direct leadership of Deputy Director Tolson."

“Deputy Director Thorson is usually very busy, so we usually report to Supervisor Rosen.”

Bernie paused, then continued:
“We are different from our colleagues in the investigation department.”

“Our team doesn’t focus on any single type of case; we take on all types of cases.”

At this point, he looked at Theodore.

Billy Hawke also looked over.

Theodore thought for a moment, then got up and pulled over a whiteboard:
"Our investigative methods differ from traditional case investigations."

"We employ an experimental, yet-to-be-widely-accepted investigative method: criminal personality profiling."

He started from the beginning, just like he had done with Bernie last time.

But Billy Hawke isn't Bernie; he doesn't have Bernie's experience solving so many cases alongside Theodore, and he's completely bewildered from the beginning.

Billy Hawke wasn't someone Theodore picked randomly.

Through observation during the selection and training period, Theodore discovered that Billy Hawke's learning ability was astonishing.

He was a Marine, and prior to his selection and training, his background had nothing to do with the case investigation.

It can be said that he was among the trainees who started from the lowest point.

That was indeed the case at the beginning.

He couldn't understand the legal procedures class, and the physical evidence class seemed like gibberish to him. He didn't even know how to extract fingerprints.

But his opinion soon changed.

Although his grades in legal procedures were only average, they were still far better than those of a certain student who could only write "consult the legal counsel's office".

During the case analysis assessment, Billy Hawke was the third person to leave the examination room.

His exceptional learning ability was exactly what Theodore valued.

Billy Hawke is trying, just like in the selection training class. He doesn't understand, but he tries his best to keep up and try to understand.

After Theodore finished explaining the special symbols and common practices, he asked him:

"You don't understand, do you?"

Billy Hawke's face tightened, and he instinctively stood up, nodding after a moment's hesitation.

His gaze was fixed intently on Theodore, his heart pounding with anxiety.

He knew very well how lucky he was to have been chosen by Theodore.

He didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Theodore nodded, ending his story.

He checked the time and told Bernie to go home after get off work.

Billy Hawke breathed a sigh of relief, took out his notebook, copied down what was on the whiteboard, and prepared to go to the library to look up information.

Theodore reminded him, "I came up with this research method. Currently, only Bernie and I are using it."

Billy Hawke's mouth dropped open as he turned to look at Bernie.

Bernie nodded in confirmation.

Billy Hawke's mind went blank: Can...can this really be done?

Thank you to the generous donor, "Too Lazy to Look Back"!
Thank you, boss~~（づ￣3￣）づ╭～

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(End of this chapter)