Chapter 56: Colonel Grudo's Move

“Did he really say that?” Fanny asked, putting down the documents in her hand and looking up at Krupp and her superior, Matthof, who were standing in front of her desk.

“Yes, Miss Fanny. We plan to appoint you as the Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Greater Germany Party. You will be responsible for the comprehensive propaganda work in the Greater Germany Party’s most active regions: Bavaria, the Ruhr industrial zone, and Berlin,” Matthof said.

“Mr. Krupp,” Fanny said, glancing at Krupp, a smile on her pretty face. She habitually twirled the fountain pen in her hand, called Krupp’s name, paused for a moment, and then asked, “Propaganda work requires a lot of support and funding. Can I get these things from you?”

Krupp nodded. “Of course. As long as it is for the propaganda of the Greater Germany Party, none of this will be a problem.”

“No, Mr. Krupp,” Fanny shook her head. “I will only be responsible for promoting Chairman Akado as an individual. I want to turn him into a national idol for Germany, into the one and only leader in the hearts of all the German people!”

Krupp was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Hahahaha, Miss Fanny, I think Chairman Akado has found us a very interesting Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department! I agree to fund all your activities to promote Akado! I want to see just how far you can go!”

Fanny raised her head with great confidence. “I am going to create a god!”

After Krupp and Matthof left, Fanny leaned back in her chair with a contented look and stretched. The bearded photographer came over from the side. “It seems he likes you too, so you got promoted, right?”

“No, he doesn’t like me. He likes anyone with ability,” Fanny said after finishing her stretch with a satisfied “hmm.” She then continued, “What he needs is wisdom, ability, and then, least importantly, beauty.”

“You seem to know him very well,” the bearded photographer remarked with a shrug.

“Jaeger! It’s not that I know him, it’s that I admire him!” Fanny said with a smile after some thought. “I’m going to make him a household name in Germany. To become the deity we pray to after dinner.”

Jaeger sighed and said helplessly, “Sigh… a woman in love is truly a fearsome thing. In any case, congratulations on becoming the Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Greater Germany Party.”

“Thank you! You’ve been promoted too, Mr. Hugo Jaeger! You will become his one and only personal photographer!” Fanny said excitedly. “You must help me capture his every moving moment!”

“Since our editor-in-chief, the beautiful Miss Fanny, has said so, of course I can only agree,” Jaeger said with a nod.

“I joined the Greater Germany Party a few days ago,” Fanny’s voice was extremely pleasant. “So I do not wish for the photographer my god uses to not be one of our own.”

“You mean?” Jaeger was stunned.

Fanny put down her fountain pen, looked at Jaeger, and said word by word, “You have no choice. You can only serve my god as your god. Who told me to be your superior? So you must join the Greater Germany Party.”

“I have no faith. Since you think this is fun, I don’t mind playing along with you,” Jaeger sighed.

“Is that a confession?” Fanny smiled.

Jaeger nodded. “En, yes it is, Miss Fanny.”

“How lame. I already have someone I like,” Fanny giggled. She knew Jaeger had a girlfriend; this person just liked to banter.

Jaeger pretended to be fierce and said, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll take ugly pictures of him?”

“Hahahaha. You won’t. After all, you rely on photography to eat. No one would desecrate their own rice bowl, especially the one that feeds them,” Fanny laughed heartily.

Has anyone ever told you that clever women generally don’t have good endings? Jaeger thought viciously.

“Yes! But I personally believe that’s because those women who think they’re clever are not as clever as I am,” Fanny said, pointing to her own head.

…

The river-like procession of people quickly dispersed. The streets and alleys of Berlin returned to calm. Apart from the photos of Akado and the slogans of the Greater Germany Party pasted on the walls, everything seemed to have returned to how it was a few days ago.

A farce about holding an early parliamentary election, which had been making a huge clamor, had ended so quietly. And in the end, the Reichswehr was dispatched, arresting the last 40 troublemakers who had gathered at the President’s office.

In a dim basement, a small, middle-aged man appeared somewhat anxious and also furious. He slammed the table in front of his guest and roared loudly, “He actually reacted and took action so quickly! He actually has such a great influence over that old fool Hindenburg! Bastard!”

“Mr. Goebbels, this is also the reason we must deal with him, isn’t it? If he weren’t so powerful, why would we go to such great lengths to bring him down?” his guest’s composure seemed much better than his; no ripples could be detected in his tone.

This small man was the head of the Nazi Party in Berlin, and also the top man in Nazi Party propaganda, Goebbels. Hearing his guest’s persuasion, Goebbels sat back down in his chair, sighed, and said, “No matter what we do, he just gets stronger and stronger. We know he is expanding the Reichswehr, we know he is secretly manufacturing and smuggling weapons, we even know he is actually an important leader of the Reichswehr. But we just don’t have any evidence.”

“Don’t be anxious. Any sneaky little move will leave a shadow. We just need to keep a close eye on this Akado. Then we will naturally discover the Reichswehr’s oversights. At that time, we will directly destroy his foundation, and even if he were Napoleon reincarnated, he wouldn’t be able to turn the tables,” the guest said, then chuckled.

“I just regret it! We’ve missed another chance to get rid of him! And this time, our Nazi Party might be exposed! His troops arrested 40 of our stormtroopers! They are not tough guys. They’ll confess everything in less than 2 minutes in an interrogation room,” Goebbels said, becoming annoyed again as he spoke. “How am I supposed to explain this to the party organization? Bastard!”

“A budget of 400,000 francs. How’s that for an explanation?” The man pressed a check onto the table and said with a smile, “Since this is a cooperation between our two sides, then we must naturally provide our ally with the most reliable support.”

Goebbels’s eyebrows shot up. He picked up the check and put it away before nodding. “Colonel Grudo, thank you for the support from Belgium and France. We will continue to monitor Akado. If there is any sign of trouble, we will notify you immediately.”

Only now could the guest’s face be seen clearly. It was none other than the Belgian colonel from the Allied Military Control Commission, Grudo. Grudo stood up, and as he was leaving, he said, “You’d better keep a close eye on him. Your party has a score to settle with your Führer, Adolf Hitler. I have an old score to settle with him for my four French colleagues. Now that we have cooperated, we must naturally be in the same boat.”

Goebbels nodded. “At least for now, we are allies in dealing with this bastard Akado!”

Having resolved the political problem and obtained a large sum of money, what Akado needed to do now was to race against time to spend this money to strengthen his own power.

“This afternoon, we are going to the Turkish restaurant on Bismarck Street to meet an important guest,” Akado ordered his life secretary, Anna. “Have Depp prepare the car! You will come with me. Bring your pistol. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

And so, after lunch, the two of them got into the car that Depp had already started and drove out of the gate of the Reichswehr High Command. The car sped along the wide avenue, and in no time, it arrived at the small Turkish restaurant Akado had mentioned.

“Mr. Enke! It’s a pleasure to see you in Berlin,” Akado said. He quickly spotted his guest in the nearly empty restaurant and went forward to greet him warmly. “It must have been a hard journey! Was it smooth?”

The middle-aged man named Enke nodded, took off his leather gloves, shook hands with Akado, and then said, “Mr. Clark sent me here to conduct regular communication with you on the cooperation project codenamed ‘U’.”

With that, he opened the briefcase he was carrying, spread the documents inside on the table, pointed to the text on them, and said, “As the first step of the cooperation plan, you have provided us with 20 secret weapons codenamed ‘U’. We will also secretly reserve 5 for you and provide free training on these secret weapons. This plan is now nearing completion. Subsequently, we will launch the follow-up additional plans.”

He then pointed to another document. “Mr. Clark is very satisfied with your improved shipbuilding plan, and he is also very interested in the shipbuilding technology you proposed. Here is his signed party membership certificate and his personal token of thanks to you.” With that, he pointed to a check for 500,000 US dollars clipped to the document.

“Please thank Mr. Clark for his generosity on my behalf,” Akado said with a smile, accepting the check. He then stood up, shook hands with Enke, and turned to leave the tavern. Not long after, Enke also left the tavern with his briefcase and got into another car parked in front of the tavern.

After the car drove away, from across the street from the Turkish restaurant, a young man lowered the camera in his hands, turned, and got into a car as well. The car then started up and drove off in the opposite direction.

The next day, a photo of Enke and his investigated personal file were placed on Colonel Grudo’s desk.

“This is a Dutch merchant, engaged in the shipbuilding industry. He is the head of a shipyard controlled by the major Dutch shipowner, Sir Clark,” a French officer said, looking at the file with a frown. “Adding the information we have on hand, we can be completely certain that the Germans have a large-scale secret shipbuilding base in the Netherlands.”

“Notify our respective governments. It’s time to give the Germans a reminder! Their endless expansion and development of the Reichswehr without asking the Allied Military Control Commission is not acceptable,” Colonel Grudo snorted coldly. “General Akado! It’s time for you to hand over your power and get out!”