Chapter 284 The Spy
The reason why various countries dispatch intelligence agencies to investigate the whereabouts of the manuscript is not entirely to know the content of the manuscript.
The content of the manuscript is not a secret, and the manuscript of "The Strange Man of the High Castle" has been read by many people.
The assistant editors and editors of major publishing houses, as well as the typesetting workers in printing factories, and even the translators in Shanghai Commercial Press are all aware of the storyline of the manuscript.
As long as you catch these people, you can obtain the content of the manuscript.
Of course, many years have passed, some of them have not finished reading the manuscript at all, and some of them have not had such good memory.
The details in the book may be biased, but the general background setting is still known.
Therefore, these people became the first targets to be arrested by intelligence agencies in various countries. Even countries that own manuscripts do not want all countries to know the story of manuscripts.
This is undoubtedly a bloody storm.
The people caught were better and could be protected, but more people died in the battle between spies from several countries.
These countries are not tracing manuscripts for what they already have, but to find what they don't know yet.
What is written in "The Strange Man of the High Castle" is just a major historical event, or the two worlds are intertwined, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
They first need to figure out whether the content of the manuscript sent to each country is the same and whether there will be differences.
Just like a treasure map, a complete world will appear if thirty manuscripts are put together.
They also have to start from the manuscript to find the person who mailed the manuscript, or the person who wrote the manuscript.
How did this man know about the major events that happened in the following years in 1925?
For example, Hitler controlled Germany, Roosevelt became the president of the United States, and the later World War II.
One thing that prophecies is correct may be a coincidence, two things that prophecies are correct are miracles, and the three things that prophecies are correct may only be able to do it.
What they are looking for is this prophet.
It was not the United States who first sent people to track down the manuscripts, but Britain, one of the most powerful countries of this era.
On May 4, 1926, a nationwide general strike began.
The total strike lasted for 9 days, and at high a total of nearly 6 million people. Except for the coal mine industry, workers in the electrical, steel, railway, construction and printing industries all participated in the strike.
All large industrial centers are paralyzed.
In this chaos, the British government sent people to search the printing factory of a radical organization and confiscate a batch of manuscripts.
The manuscripts were piled up in a government office and were accidentally discovered by Churchill, then the British Finance Minister.
The manuscript of "The Strange Man of the High Castle" is an ordinary science fiction novel in the eyes of ordinary people. This is because ordinary people have limited vision, are not very sensitive to politics, and do not know people in the political circle.
But Churchill is different. He is a high-ranking politician.
At the beginning, he also read manuscripts as ordinary novels. He himself is also a writer. He likes reading books.
He kept deducing the development of the plot in his mind, and finally found that this novel was interesting. The writer who wrote this novel had strong logical thinking ability, and the world he inferred could actually be realized.
Churchill did not pay attention to the manuscript at this time, and it was not until 1929 that he realized the importance of "The Strange Man of the High Castle".
Since then, he has visited the United States twice to visit people from all walks of life and political leaders in the United States.
The purpose was to investigate the origin of "The Strange Man of the High Castle". The British spies with him arrested several Americans related to the manuscript and interrogated them.
In December 1931, he was in a car accident during Churchill's second trip to the United States. If it were not for the timely rescue, he might have died of a life-threatening death.
This is a counterattack from the US intelligence service.
At this time, the US government had realized the existence of manuscripts and conducted a large-scale search across the country.
Colle was earlier than the U.S. government.
After Roosevelt was re-elected as governor of New York in 1930, he used Roosevelt's relationship to investigate the manuscript.
Cole knew how the publisher would deal with scrap manuscripts, either to send them to the garbage station or to the publisher's utility room.
He first found out the whereabouts of the manuscript through the California postal system.
Then they searched for the scrap manuscripts of 18 publishing houses across the United States in turn. Five years have passed, and most of the scrap manuscripts of the publishing houses have long been sent to the garbage station, and only two large publishing houses still retain the scrap manuscripts.
In the end, he found two manuscripts of "The Strange Man of the High Castle" among the mountains of abandoned manuscripts.
After finding the manuscript, Cole pondered for a long time and decided to believe Roosevelt and gave the manuscript to Roosevelt.
That's why Cole is Roosevelt's most trustworthy person.
At this time, Roosevelt had plans to run for the next president, but he had to face the current President Edgar Hoover.
Hoover is not just the president of the United States. He is also the director of the FBI and the highest officer of the U.S. intelligence department.
In 1924, Hoover, who was then a young Justice Department lawyer, was appointed director of the FBI.
In the following 48 years, the United States changed eight presidents and 16 attorneys, but the director of the FBI was always called Edgar Hoover. He can be said to be the most powerful person in the United States.
In 1931, Roosevelt had a secret meeting with Hoover before announcing his election for president.
No one knew what they were talking about. Not long after, the FBI reorganized and established a special department, which had extremely high authority and was directly responsible to the director and president of the FBI.
It was this department that planned the car accident against Churchill in New York.
This was a harsh warning, and Churchill did not pursue the matter afterwards, but returned to the UK.
Due to the advantage of geographical advantages, the US intelligence agencies first launched a search in Los Angeles. They wanted to find the person who mailed the manuscript, the legendary "Gao Castle Strange Man".
A country has extremely powerful power, but they found the wrong direction at the beginning.
Because the manuscript is written in English, the lines reveal deep feelings of worrying about Americans. After the experts analyzed it, they felt that the author should be an American and had a low level of education, otherwise the writing style would not be so bad.
From the envelopes and stamps, we can see that this person is in Los Angeles, and it is very likely that he is a native of California.
Judging from the paper of the manuscript, this person may work in a printing factory and can access printing equipment.
It also takes time to check the model of the printing press and the origin of the ink used.
Therefore, the US intelligence department targeted white Americans living in Los Angeles, who were about eighteen to forty years old, could use typewriters, had printing experience, etc.
Even so, finding someone is like finding a needle in a haystack.
There is no airtight wall in this world. Other countries have spies in the United States and Britain. The news that these two countries are looking for a manuscript spreads wildly and has attracted the attention of all countries.
The spies obtained thirty copies of "The Strange Man of the High Castle" mailed to publishers from various countries through bribery or questioning.
Chapter completed!