Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon
The I-Cops will start out with basic intelligence gathering. This shouldn't attract attention as they'll initially be looking at open source information. They'll be looking for specifics that will tell them a lot about 'our man.' Making heavier tanks with thicker armour and bigger guns says one thing; getting better guns on tanks mounting reactive armour and replacing diesel engines with gas turbine engines says an altogether different thing.
Getting to Paris in a little over three weeks from D-Day implies not just better tanks but different tactics. Getting to Berlin by 1 Dec. implies much better logistics.
Flying jets, of any sort, implies that 'our man' has gotten not just access to, but the willing ears of, very powerful figures among those responsible for defense and procurement and further that he's convinced them that this needs to be tooled up at a time when the U.S. is still pursuing an isolationist policy.
He has to work carefully enough that the U.S. doesn't decide to enter the war while it's still leaning towards the Axis. [IRL, jet aircraft were flown experimentally before WWII, but the war put a hold on their further development in favour of tried and proven technologies.]
Dismantling the Jim Crow laws is going to require a number of changes to enable it. "Our man' has to develop a plan that allows the returning soldiers to integrate back into the economy with minimal disruption [returning G.I.'s were largely pressured to not take up their old jobs when they returned home and housing was a problem in some states such as California]. Additionally, he needs to have found a way to minimize the impact that having women work during the war had. If he can overcome the social disruption caused by those two events, he has a fighting chance at dismantling the Jim Crow laws.
'Our man' needed to decide how he could affect America's attitudes at the grassroots level, so that politicians weren't running the risk of being tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail if they supported equality.
Once the I-Cops have located the actual changes made, they'll start looking for one or more new figures who show up in the background at Washington society parties (whether through guest lists or photographs) and they'll have an idea of when they should be seeing his first appearance.
If he was being subtle, they may not find him in the immediate circle of the movers and shakers. Then, the I-Cops move out and start examining the circle of acquaintances of the advisors to the movers and shakers. If 'our man' was really, really careful, they'll move out to the acquaintances of the acquaintances and see who shows up in multiple circles. (If this sounds like six degrees of separation, it is. Mind you, 'our man' is unlikely to have more than two intermediaries between himself and the real movers and shakers otherwise his message is likely to get lost in the background noise.)
Getting satellites built may not be a huge technological problem but getting a rocket to launch successfully is. This adds another ring of figures where 'our man' is going to turn up.
OTOH, he may not being hiding at all. He may have decided early on that subtlety isn't going to produce what he needs, so he's now the President. Maybe he's even arranged matters so that everyone is of the opinion that he is 'just the frontman' for the real mastermind and the I-Cops waste time looking for 'the man behind the curtain.'
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If 'our man' is, or was, in the Cabal, wouldn't this all be an onion-layered monster hunt? You wouldn't necessarily be able to find just one man making a lot of influential conversations and decisions - if he is a very high powered Adept he might just be a reclusive millionaire living somewhere in the D.C. area. He is using his powers of magic and psi to influence key people, maybe with only meeting them once or not at all.
He could be doing this from a network of tunnels and chambers beneath Washington, built by monsterous minions of course, to get close enough to the Rich and Powerful while keeping his own hand out of direct actions.
He mind-controls some, gives bad or insight dreams to others, sending out the occasional 'monster' to carry out more direct actions (Joseph McCarthy dies in a 'freak accident' in basic training in 1941 for example, Truman desegregating the military at the start of the war after a vivid dream). The I-Cops will be able to track these changes back only as far as an area of D.C.
Finding the warrens under D.C and the ley lines linking the various landmarks in the Masonic layout of the Capital Mall is just the start of the endgame for ferreting out this guy.
And who knows? Maybe the warrens are there, but the main section is under the White House and President X is down there.