army would contact him. That had been six weeks
16
ago and no one had done so. Not that the Corps wasn’t interested; it was.
The word from the Roosevelt men was that the draft law would be passed by
Congress any day now, and the projected expansion of the army camps was so
enormous, so incredibly massive, that an engineer – especially a
construction engineer of Spaulding’s qualifications – was target material.
. But those high up in the Corps of Engineers were aware of the search being
conducted by the Intelligence Division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
War Department.
Quietly, slowly. No mistakes could be made.
So they passed along David Spaulding’s forms to G-2 and were told in turn
to stay away from him.
The man ID was seeking had to have three basic qualifications. Once these
were established, the rest of the portrait could be microscopically
scrutinized to see if the whole being possessed the other desirable
requirements. The three basics were difficult enough in themselves: the
first was fluency in the Portuguese language; the second, an equal mastery
of German; the third, sufficient professional experience in structural
engineering to enable swift and accurate understanding of blueprints,
photographs – even verbal descriptions – of the widest variety of in-
dustrial designs. From bridges and factories to warehousing and railroad
complexes.
The man in Lisbon would need each of these basic requirements. He would
employ them throughout the war that was to be; the war that the United
States inevitably would have to fight.
The man in Lisbon would be responsible for developing an Intelligence
network primarily concerned with the destruction of the enemy’s
installations deep within its own territories.
Certain men – and women – traveled back and forth through hostile
territories, basing their undefined activities in neutral countries. These
were the people the man in Lisbon would use … before others used them.
These plus those he would train for infiltration. Espionage units. Teams of
bi- and trilingual agents he would send up through France into the borders
of Germany. To bring back their observations; eventually to inflict
destruction themselves.
The English agreed that such an American was needed in Lisbon. British
Intelligence admitted its Portuguese weakness-, they had simply been around
too long, too obviously. And there were current, very serious lapses of
security in London. MI-5 had
17
been infiltrated.
Lisbon would become an American project.
If such an American could be found.
David Spaulding’s preapplication forms listed the primary requisites. He
spoke three languages, had spoken them since he was a child. His parents,
the renowned Richard and Margo Spaulding, maintained three residences: a
small, elegant Belgravia flat in London; a winter retreat in Germany’s
BadenBaden; and a sprawling oceanside house in the artists’ colony of Costa
del Santiago in Portugal. Spaulding had grown up in these environs. When he
was sixteen, his father – over the objections of his mother – insisted that
he complete his secondary education in the United States and enter an
American university.
Andover in Massachusetts; Dartmouth in New Hampshire; finally Carnegie
Institute in Pennsylvania.
Of course, the Intelligence Division hadn’t discovered all of the above
information from Spaulding’s application forms. These supplementary facts.-
and a great deal more – were revealed by a man named Aaron Mandel in New
York.
Pace, his eyes still riveted on the tall, lean man who had put down his
newspaper and was now watching the actors around the microphones with
detached amusement, recalled his single meeting with Mandel. Again, he
matched Mandel’s information with the man he saw before him.
Mandel had been listed on the application under ‘References.’
Power-of-attorney, parents’ concert manager. An address was given: a suite
of rooms in the Chrysler Building. Mandel was a very successful artists’
representative, a Russian Jew who rivaled Sol Hurok for clients, though not
as prone to attract attention or as desirous of it.
‘David has been as a son to me,’ Mandel told Pace. ‘But I must presume you
know that.’
‘Why must you? I know only what I’ve read on his application forms. And
some scattered information; academic records, employment references.’ –
‘Let’s say I’ve been expecting you. Or someone like you.’
‘I beg your pardonT
‘Oh, come. David spent a great many years in Germany; you might say he
almost grew up there.’
‘His application’. . . as a matter of fact his passport information, also
includes family residences in London and a place called
18
Costa del Santiago in Portugal!
‘I said almost. He converses easily in the German language!
‘Also Portuguese, I understand.’
‘Equally so. And its sister tongue, Spanish…. I wasn’t aware that a man’s
enlistment in the army engineers called for a full colonel’s interest. And
passport research! Mandel, the flesh creased around his eyes, smiled.
‘I wasn’t prepared for you.’ The colonel’s reply had been stated simply.
‘Most people take this sort of thing as routine. Or they convince
themselves it’s routine … with a little help.’
‘Most people did not live as Jews in tsarist Kiev…. What do you want from
me?’
‘To begin with, did you tell Spaulding you expected us? Or someone. . . .’
‘Of course not,’ Mandel interrupted gently. ‘I told you, he is as a son to
me. I wouldn’t care to give him such ideas.’
‘I’m relieved. Nothing may come of it anyway.’
‘However, you hope it will.’
‘Frankly, yes. But there are questions we need answered. His background
isn’t just unusual, it seems filled with contradictions. To begin with, you
don’t expect the son of well-known musicians … Imean…’
‘Concert artists! Mandel had supplied the term Pace sought.
‘Yes, concert artists. You don’t expect the children of such people to
become engineers. Or accountants, if you know what I mean. And then – and
I’m sure you’ll understand this – it seems highly illogical that once that
fact is accepted, the son is an engineer, we find that the major portion of
his income is currently earned as a … as a radio performer. The pattern.
indicates a degree of instability. Perhaps more than a degree.’
‘You suffer from the American mania for consistency. I don’t say this
unkindly. I would be less than adequate as a neurosurgeon; you may play the
piano quite well, but I doubt that I’d represent you at Covent Garden….
The questions you raise are easily answered. And, perhaps, the word
stability can be found at the core…. Have you any idea, any conception,
of what the world of the concert stage is like? Madness …. David lived in
this world for nearly twenty years; I suspect . . . no, I don’t suspect, I
know … he found it quite distasteful … And so often people overlook
certain fundamental characteristics of musicianship. Characteristics easily
inherited. A great musician is often,
19
in his own way, an exceptional mathematician. Take Bach. A genius at
mathematics. . . .’
According to Aaron Mandel, David Spaulding found his future profession
while in his second year in,college. The solidity, the permanence of
structural creation combined with the precision of engineering detail were
at once his answer to and escape from the mercurial world of the ‘concert
stage.’ But there were other inherited characteristics equally at work
inside him. Spaulding had an ego, a sense of independence. He needed
approval, wanted recognition. And such rewards were not easily come by for
a junior engineer, just out of graduate school, in a large New York firm
during the late thirties. There simply wasn’t that much’to do; or the
capital to do it with.
‘He left the New York firm,’ Mandel continued, ‘to accept a number of
individual construction projects where he believed the money would grow
faster, the jobs be his own. He had no ties; he could travel. Several in
the Midwest, one … no, two, in Central America; four in Canada, I think.
He got the first few right out of the newspapers; they led to the others.
He returned to New York about eighteen months ago. The money didn’t really
grow, as I told him it wouldn’t. The projects were not his own; provincial
… local interference.’
‘And somehow this led to the radio work?’
Mandel had laughed and leaned back in his chair. ‘As you may know, Colonel
Pace, I’ve diversified. The concert stage and a European war – soon to
reach these shores, as we all realize – do not go well together. These last
few years my clients have gone into other performing areas, including the
highly paid radio field. David quickly saw opportunities for himself and I
agreed. He’s done-extremely well, you know.’
‘But he’s not at rained professional.’
‘No, he’s not. He has something else, however… Think. Most children of
well-known performers, or leading politicians, or the immensely rich, for
that matter, have it. It’s a public confidence, an assurance, if you will;
no matter their private hisecurities. After all, they’ve generally been on
display since the time they could walk and talk. David certainly has it.