Chapter 82: Doing Business

For once, Akado had a peaceful night’s sleep. He had been too busy with too many things recently, on one hand dealing with the diplomatic pressure exerted on Germany by countries like Britain and France, and on the other, needing to stabilize the emotions of the domestic populace to build as much momentum as possible for the Greater Germany Party.

“Anna, what’s the schedule for today?” Akado asked his life secretary as he stretched, just as she walked in with breakfast.

“In the morning, there is a Greater Germany Party internal meeting to attend. But based on my personal analysis, this meeting is just to discuss some product raw material allocation issues. There is no need for you to personally attend. It’s enough to just pay attention to the results afterward,” Anna reported as she placed the breakfast on Akado’s table.

She glanced at Akado. “However, I haven’t noticed you going out for any secret dates recently. Can you tell me how you came to know a British female diplomat named Aisha?”

“Aisha? I don’t know her. Where did you hear that from?” Akado was taken aback, then asked while biting into a slice of bread.

“She’s downstairs. I told her you hadn’t gotten up yet, and she’s waiting downstairs. She also asked me to pass on a message to you, that she’s fallen in love with you!” Anna said, teasingly recounting the gossip she had heard.

“What a joke. I’ve never even met her,” Akado said with a wave of his hand. “Don’t pay any attention to her. Let her wait.”

“Last night, the home of a lieutenant colonel from the navy who was studying the Soviet problem was burgled. A set of blueprints related to a Soviet battleship was stolen,” Anna said with a smile, mentioning the incident from the previous night. “This morning, both the Gestapo and the police were mobilized. They arrested a high-level British intelligence agent who had been undercover for a long time.”

“I think I’ve guessed why the British diplomat has fallen in love with me!” Akado said, rubbing his chin with a smile. “It seems it’s because they got what we wanted them to get.”

“We did it on purpose?” Anna was taken aback. She looked at Akado in complete shock and couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course. Selling out intelligence on the Soviets to alleviate our current crisis, is there any business more profitable than this? Now they don’t have the energy to pester us. On the contrary, they have a favor to ask of us. Tell the people at the interrogation department to delay their work! I need to have a talk with the British side,” Akado said after some thought, then ordered, “Get ready. We’re going to meet this British diplomat who has ‘fallen in love’ with me!”

“Speak! What do you want from me?” Akado asked as he chewed his bread and cut his fried egg with a knife and fork. “My time is limited. Get to the important points quickly.”

“Colonel Smith wants to see you,” the female diplomat said. “He requests that you please go to the embassy once this morning.”

“If he has business, he can come to me. Colonel Smith and I are friends. We’ve always had the habit of whoever has business goes to find the other. This habit is very polite, isn’t it?” Akado asked with a smile.

“I’m begging you!” The female diplomat was on the verge of tears. She couldn’t really sleep with a German, could she? Although this man was quite handsome and young, but… what on earth was she thinking! After struggling internally for a long time, as if by some divine intervention, the female diplomat said something that made Akado spit out his food. “As long as you agree to my request, I will come again tonight.”

“Alright! Alright!” Akado waved his hand in resignation. “I’ll go after I finish breakfast! Just don’t you do anything that makes me feel helpless.”

What do you mean, something that makes you feel helpless? Are you saying you’d be at a disadvantage if a beautiful woman like me spent the night with you? The female diplomat was clearly somewhat angry, and also a little regretful. But she was still very grateful for Akado’s help. “Thank you.”

Soon, Akado’s car drove out of the Reichswehr High Command and headed towards the British embassy, which was already surrounded by the Reichswehr.

…

“Everyone, back off a bit! It is a very impolite act to surround the embassy of our British friends! We in Germany are a peace-loving nation!” Akado said to the Reichswehr colonel who came to open the car door for him as he got out.

“Long live the Greater Germany Party! As you command, General, sir!” The colonel stood at attention and saluted, then gave an order to the battalion commander behind him. “Have your men fall back 5 meters!”

“Akado! My dear friend! I am so happy that you could come,” Smith said, as excited as if he had just seen his own father, upon seeing Akado get out of the car.

Because at this very moment, surrounding the British embassy, hundreds of German soldiers were enforcing martial law. Barbed wire had even been set up at the main gate. They were just waiting for a single command to rush into the British embassy and search for the suspect they were to arrest. After receiving the order, they neatly stepped back, which made the few British soldiers responsible for the embassy’s security let out a sigh of relief.

“Colonel Smith! My friend! It’s not that I want to criticize you, but what you British have done this time is really too much!” Akado said in a low voice after getting close to Colonel Smith.

“I think everything has a price. I believe that as a friend, the British Empire will not disappoint you,” Smith replied in a whisper.

“Colonel Guff, have your men stand by on the spot. Colonel Smith and I are going upstairs to have a talk,” Akado said, turning his head and ordering loudly.

“Colonel Smith! You must give me a reasonable explanation,” Akado said, sitting down on the sofa as soon as he entered the room. “This is no small matter. A lieutenant colonel and two generals are still in the Reichswehr’s interrogation department, and a certain master thief is hiding right here with you!—Of course, you don’t have to admit this last part. But we have indeed lost an important intelligence document, a document that is very important to Germany.”

“How important?” Colonel Smith asked back. “I can’t give you a reasonable explanation. I can only pay a reasonable price. I admit that we have engaged in espionage activities in Germany, but I would like to bring our people back to Britain safely.”

“This intelligence is very important,” Akado said, his eyes narrowing. “It took us a great deal of effort to place this anti-communist person in Soviet Factory 189. If these blueprints are discovered by Soviet intelligence personnel, then my man will be in great danger.”

“If he can continue to send back intelligence, he can be a target protected by both Britain and Germany! We will pay 500,000 pounds for each piece of intelligence,” Smith said. “I will guarantee that his intelligence will only be seen by the Prime Minister and the First Sea Lord. The security classification will be the highest.”

“Forget it! Your highest-security-level intelligence officer is currently drinking coffee in my interrogation department!” Akado smiled. “But if you can guarantee the security of this intelligence to the greatest extent, I am still willing to believe in the sincerity of the British side.”

“Thank you,” Smith said, letting out a breath. He sat down on the sofa opposite Akado. “In addition, can you tell me about this ship? There are many things I’m interested in.”

“Of course. You’ve guessed correctly. Because the naval shipyard at Kiel is almost at a standstill, we have so far let about half of our engineers go on leave,” Akado said helplessly. “Among the engineers on leave, about 30 have been invited by the Soviet regime to Leningrad. Intelligence shows they are building a powerful battleship for the Soviet Union.”

“My God!” Smith lamented with a frown. British intelligence knew that Germany was helping the Soviet Union build up its industrial system, and that a large number of German engineers were still working for the red regime within Soviet territory. But he never imagined that the military cooperation between the two sides had already reached such an incredible stage.

“How can we terminate the cooperation between you? Simply put, if Germany does not stop its assistance to the Soviet red regime, then Britain will regard Germany as the most dangerous country in the world,” Smith said, looking at Akado and choosing his words carefully.

“I think you’ve misunderstood!” Akado said, a very serious expression on his face. “The cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union is on a civilian level. It is not led by us!”

He said with a sigh, “Our industry, especially our military industry, has been suppressed since the war. You know this. So we cannot keep those truly capable senior engineers. The factories, in order to make a profit, sometimes also secretly send talent to countries and regions like the Netherlands and Slovakia.”

“I hope the Reichswehr and the Greater Germany Party can help Britain stop this from continuing to happen,” Smith said after some thought, nodding in agreement with Akado’s words. “The British Empire will repay you.”

“I think, if the shipyard at Kiel could be commissioned to build two super-battleships for Britain, then these engineers would have sufficient reason to stay in Germany,” Akado said after a long period of contemplation with his eyes closed. “We will only charge for the workers’ wages and the raw material funds.”

“No problem,” Smith nodded and said, but his heart was bleeding—the mighty British Empire actually had to have its old rival Germany’s shipyard steal the jobs of its own shipwrights. It was a shameful thing to even say out loud!

“Germany wants to record the files of all the spies involved in this British crime and secretly deport two of them back to Britain,” Akado demanded again. “I’m not asking for them to be hanged. Keeping their files is just to ensure they don’t enter German territory again. You won’t refuse this request, will you?”

“No problem,” Smith said with a sigh. To be able to save his men’s lives was already more than he had hoped for. Compared to the Soviet shipbuilding plan, the Germans’ request was not excessive. It could even be said that they had given the British plenty of face.

“Mr. Smith is truly reasonable and understanding,” Akado laughed, then stood up and said, “Compared to these conditions, what I’m about to say now is the foundation of our future cooperation.”

He put on his military cap and pulled on his black leather gloves. “I think the British government should step forward and give the Greater Germany Party, and the Reichswehr’s non-existent Operation Pluto—that is, to give this whole storm, a perfect ending. Correct?”

“Akado! I knew you would bring this up,” Smith said, standing up helplessly. “For the sake of our future cooperation, let me buy you a drink!”