Chapter 81: Intelligence

A strangeness that could not be penetrated in the silent night. The bustling street was now empty of pedestrians. In a deep alley, a black shadow moved slowly, and in the blink of an eye, it slipped into the doorway of a nearby building.

The black-clad shadow walked lightly up the stairs. The slightly aged wooden staircase did not make a single sound, making the shadow seem even more like a phantom. The shadow gradually approached a large door, crouched down in front of it, and after a few soft clicks, the door was pushed open by the shadow with a gentle creak.

By the bright and clean moonlight, the shadow slowly walked into the room. The sound of drunken snores came from the bedroom. The corners of the mouth of the shadow, dressed in night-prowling clothes, lifted slightly. Clearly, the owner of this room had not discovered this uninvited guest. He cautiously observed his surroundings and saw a new-style German naval uniform hanging on a coat rack in the corner.

The shadow walked lightly over to the uniform, reached out and felt the pockets, took out the wallet inside, and pulled out all the banknotes. Then he looked at the owner’s officer ID, saw that his position was an operations staff officer in the naval intelligence department. The shadow smiled smugly, then casually tossed the small booklet aside.

He then rummaged through a nearby bookshelf, taking out several older books and tossing them on the sofa. He patiently flipped through them one by one, but apart from the bookmarks tucked inside, he found nothing useful. The owner of this room seemed to be fluent in Russian; there were many Russian books in his room, and the documents on his desk also showed that he was participating in a re-evaluation of the Soviet Navy.

He searched the living room and found a pocket watch and several thousand Marks in cash. The shadow, seeming not yet satisfied with his haul, actually pushed open the door to the owner’s bedroom with great care.

On the bedside table in the bedroom, a large file folder caught the shadow’s attention. He tiptoed over, picked up the file folder, and as it left the bedside table, a fountain pen that had been held down by it rolled off, fell to the floor with a clatter, and rolled far away. The sound was extremely piercing in the silent night. The snoring of the room’s owner also stopped.

The shadow was clearly startled. His hand went to his waist, where the faint outline of a pistol could be seen. But the person on the bed did not get up, but just turned over and went back to sleep without moving.

“Phew.” The shadow let out a long breath, relaxing the right hand that had already touched the gun. He then slowly retreated from the bedroom, came to the living room, and opened the file folder by the moonlight. Inside was a stack of blueprints and several sheets of evaluation data.

He opened the blueprints, and seeing the lines on them, he couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. This was actually a super-battleship named the Soviet Union-class, equipped with terrifying 406mm main guns, its performance exceeding that of all existing British battleships.

The shadow, without a second thought, stuffed this intelligence directly into the bag he had brought. He did not stay for even a second longer, quickly retreating to the door, closing it behind him, and disappearing at the end of the stairs.

This shadow’s name was Paul. And this Paul was a habitual thief. He grew up in London, England, and later, due to a police warrant, he smuggled himself to the European continent. He had been active in France for these years and had only recently made his way to the German capital, Berlin. Of course, this was his official British resume. In fact, he had another unknown identity: he was a spy for the British naval intelligence department.

He had a superior, that is, a commander who provided him with targets. He and his commander were responsible for investigating Germany’s true shipbuilding plans. After his commander had investigated who had taken documents home, he would have Paul go and steal them. Although he had failed several times, this time he had succeeded.

Although Akado had provided Britain with an incomplete version of Operation Pluto, the British government never believed that Germany would so easily give up its ambitions for hegemony—even if the Operation Pluto provided by Akado was real, this plan could definitely spawn subsequent plans. So the British intelligence department was operating at high speed, hoping to obtain the most authentic or a follow-up version of Operation Pluto.

But this time, by a fluke, the British had clearly discovered an even bigger secret. The Soviet Union, which they had for a time overlooked or had no way of penetrating, was actually carrying out a massive plan. The ultimate goal of this plan was actually to challenge the most important lifeline of the British Empire—Britain’s “sea power.”

He took the documents and quickly returned to his own residence. He emptied the contents of the file folder onto his single bed, found a brown leather bag, and placed the documents inside. Then he took off his black night-prowling clothes, hid them in a hidden compartment of a cabinet, changed into a clean set of clothes, chose a thick grey trench coat, picked up the leather bag, and prepared to go out.

Walking to the door, he felt something was wrong. He walked back to the cabinet, took out the pistol from his night-prowling clothes, stuffed it into his coat pocket, and only then, looking at the sky that was already beginning to lighten, did he walk out of his apartment.

He knew he couldn’t go to his commander, because once the documents were discovered to be missing, the Germans would immediately think of his superior. Perhaps in a few hours, Reichswehr trucks would be parked downstairs from that person’s building. To go there now was undoubtedly to seek death, so his only option was to slip into the British embassy.

“Knock, knock, knock.” The sky was not yet bright when the knocking sounded. Disturbing someone’s sleep is not a polite thing to do. The British military attaché to Germany, Colonel Smith, groggily got up and mumbled as he walked to his door.

“Paul! What are you doing here? Don’t you know this puts us in great danger! The Germans are watching this place twenty-four hours a day!” Smith was greatly shocked when he saw who it was. His sleepiness vanished instantly. He stepped aside to let Paul in. “Quick, come in!”

“I, I didn’t know this place was being watched! I’ll give you the intelligence and leave!” Paul also panicked when he heard the place was under surveillance. But he still asked, “How do you know this place is being watched?”

“You idiot! Because we also watch the German consulates twenty-four hours a day!” Smith felt that using people from the criminal underworld as intelligence personnel was a disaster. These people had no espionage experience at all and were useless except for getting their colleagues and superiors killed.

“I’ve obtained important intelligence! My superior may have already been exposed! I could only come to you,” Paul said. “I don’t want to die!”

“What? You exposed ‘Six of Hearts’? Are you trying to get me to bury you alive?” Smith was taken aback, then flew into a rage. “Do you have any idea how many years the British intelligence department spent planting a mole like that?”

“I got a set of blueprints, written in Russian! I can’t read what’s on them, but I’ve been trained. I can confirm it’s a ship, a very dangerous ship!” Paul said, opening his leather bag and emptying out the blueprints.

Smith frowned. He could indeed see important intelligence from those blueprints, because he saw a massive hull, thick armor, and one after another, super-large-caliber cannons. Because this ship was too large, the blueprint was divided into more than a dozen pieces, but each piece shocked him, an expert, to the core.

The life or death of the Six of Hearts seemed unimportant now. He picked up the documents from the floor, placed them on his bed, and pieced them together one by one, finally forming a huge battleship blueprint. In the top left corner, the name of this warship was written in Russian—”Sovyetsky Soyuz.”

With Smith’s professional eye, he knew that this super-battleship being developed by the Soviet Union was enough to challenge any model of warship in the British Navy. Its terrifying 406mm caliber main guns could easily destroy a British battleship, while its armor protection was sufficient to defend against the cannons of British battleships. The enemy the British Navy was about to face would soon possess this kind of battleship. This intelligence was worth any sacrifice.

“My God! Where did you get these blueprints?” Smith looked at Paul in utter shock, only able to ask the question after a long pause.

“‘Six of Hearts’ had me steal them from a German officer! That’s why I said he might have been exposed! I didn’t dare to take a risk with such important intelligence, so I brought it here!” Paul said hastily. “I’ll go out now! I’ll climb over the wall! They won’t find me!”

“Don’t go! Just stay in my room! We will find a way to protect your safety! The British Empire will not treat any friend poorly!” Smith said, his eyes narrowing. “I think, in a little while, the Germans will come knocking.”

He put on his white British naval colonel’s uniform, packed the documents into a folder, tucked it under his arm, and said to Paul, “The maid will come up to clean later. You can ask her for breakfast! You can just shout to her from the bedroom! Don’t show your face! Remember! Stay here and don’t wander around! Don’t let anyone see you again!”

“I, I understand!” Paul said.

Going out and downstairs, through the courtyard, Smith walked into the office building of the British embassy. He looked at his adjutant who had rushed over and hastily gave an order, “Get the Ambassador! I have urgent intelligence that needs to be sent back to Britain! Use the latest code! Get the micro-camera! Hurry up! Are you waiting for me to buy you a coffee?”

He then turned his head and instructed a female diplomat, “You take some people and find a way to delay the Germans! If they want to search, you must hold them off for me! Call General Akado Rudolph! Tell him I have an important matter and request a meeting with him!”

“What happened, Colonel?” the female diplomat asked in shock.

“What happened? We are going to abandon our diplomatic pressure on Germany and temporarily halt our suppression of the Greater Germany Party and the Reichswehr. We have a favor to ask this time and have no choice but to compromise!” Smith said, leaning close to the female diplomat’s ear. “Go and find Akado now! If he won’t come, then you strip naked and beg him to come! Quick! Quick!”