In the following chapter I'll start a new use, that is, to pay a little homage to my favourite AARs and AARtists by using, with all due respect, one of his most popular chAARacters in a cameo here. Guess who's...
Chapter 3.
Second set - The Failure of a Republic.
Berlin, 18h November, 2003
A pile of books, a wilderness of sheets, booknotes and magazines, some boxes here and there, a picture of Sharon Tate hanging on the wall, and, lost among that bizarre mixture of chaos and order, good old Duckie, eyes closes, a hand on his cheeck, thinking about his new AAR.
Loving is fun when the dangers begun
And you're makin' me run again
Third set - The Brown Bolshevik.
Munich, August 9th, 1921
The young officer was sweating in the cold officer. Looking at the sacred face of his superior made him to feel uneasy and that morning was not an exception.
-Thus, what is it so odd with the last butch of prisioners returning to the fatherland, leutnant?
As usual, leutnant Baumer felt at a loss at word. Hauptmann Röhm had always that odd effect upon him.
-Well, erm... it's not the whole... erm...
-Well, leutenant?
-It's two of the fomer prisoners, her Hauptmann.
-And the problem is?
-There are two prisioners that, according to what his kameranden have told us about them, seem to be quite influenced by the Syndicalist disease, herr Hauptmann. It has been reported that they were talking openly about the... erm..., the "goodness" of the Syndicalist international brotherhood and the evil of the so-called Imperialist criminal regimes, herr Hauptmann.
Röhm, with an amused look on his eyes, watched carefully at the poor leutenant and, after some seconds of silence which just made the young officer more and more unconfortable, just asked:
-Do you know the names, I suppose?
-Schwartzman, Jakob and...
-Schwartzman? A Jew, perhaps?
-Yes, herr Hauptmann. From Berlin. Moabit.
-How amusing... and the other dangerous revolutionary's name?
-Hitler, Adolf Hitler.
Röhm kept his sickening smile on his cared faced for a second and then, with an unholy mirth dancing on his eyes, asked:
-Then we shall keep an eye on them, don't you think, leutnant Baumer?
When you're calling I'm climbing the wall
I know that I'm only to blame
Second set - The Failure of a Republic.
Duckie, still lost in thoughts, took a look on what he had just scribbled and, partially satisfied, he rose from the chair, wondering about what the heck would be doing his beloved Ashexee. Grinning broadly, he kept to himself the images that those thoughts have awoken in his mind and then he felt something approaching fast towards him.
He turned, ready to face his attacker.
But not too fast and then...
A furry being landed on his face, all purrrs and wet tongue.
-Little Bastard! Keep quiet, you mad cat!
Afeter a few seconds of figthing, Little Bastard, the pet of Duckie, returned with a happy snort to his sleeping place, leaving his master spitting cat hairs for a while.
-If you think that's the way to ask for your meal...
-Meow?
Duckie just looked at the face of the cat. He could have bet that his pet was broadly grinning at him.
-Little Bastard... I knew I was right when I named you like that...
Feels so divine when you're close to the line
And there's reason to run
Second set - The Failure of a Republic.
In Käthe's room
Käthe's eyes were lost among the black roads of words she had just thrown over the paper while the music flooded her ears and her fingers lingered over her sking, under her clothes.
Make me wait it's a beautiful ache
I know that it's part of the game
It is argued that Generaloberst Kurt Zeitzler was under the effects of a severe nervous breakdown -which would later be the official explanation from his removal of command hardly a few weeks later-, but this explanation does not seem to sustain when faced with the precise operation that Zeitzler executed on the following days. Until he moved on that fateful day of July 2th, 1944, nobody in the Reich had even an inkling of what was going on in his mind. On the morning of that day, he began by informing the Reich Chancellor, the prematurely aged Franz von Papen zu Köningen, through his liason officer, colonel Walther von Schrader, that the High Command had formed the opinion that a reconstruction of the Government or its extension on a broader base had become necessary. At the same time he ordered the Reich Chancellor to come at once to General Headquarters.
I've got mud on my face
From every thrill of the chase
But I'm fine
First set - The Failure of a Revolution.
Berlin, July 2th, 1944
Franz von Papen rose form his chair and called for his asistant. He couldn't hide his surprise at the unexpected turn of events which had, from one day to the next, made the High Command to embrace the cause of parliamentarianism to which they had not only never embraced but loathed with fierce resentment. And now that...
-Johann, arrange a meeting with Generaloberst Zeitzler for this very evening and call the Secretary of State to come with me.
Then, still wondering about what was Zeitzler having in mind, he turned hestiantly towards the window, too gaze at the empty sky of Berlin.
Never power did look so lonely and frightening, isn't it, Herr Chancellor?
Second set - The Failure of a Republic.
[...] Then, only late in the afternoon, did Zeitzler consider necessary to acquaint the Kaiser, his superior, of his intentions. He went down to Postdam and gave him an exposé of his thoughts about the need of offering peace and armistice [...]. The Kaiser listened to him deeply moved and shocked. He was not able to even reply and sunk to a complete silence. Just after a few moments the Kaiser rised his head and asked wether that steep was necesssary, and Zeitzler replied without hesitation. The fate of Germany looked sealed.
However, we do not still now for sure wether Generaloberst Zeitzler informed Wilhelm III his entire plan or -as it is more probable- he disclosed to him only the military side of it as he had earlier revealed the political side to the Chancellor.
Thus, with military precision, with the element of surprise playing a decisive role and using the old rule of "divide et impera", Generaloberst Zeitzler prepared himself to save the army and to betray Germany.
The pale face of the man told plainty of the disaster, but, nevertheless, it had to be asked again.
-Have you reported to the Black Room?
He nodded and gasped for air, but he couldn't find forces to articulate any coherent sound. Then he felt an invisible hand closing around his neck, pressing over and over again. But the man opposing him had not moved a finger and just looked coldly at him. The invisible hand kept pressing and, when the world was going to fade into a dark abyss, the pressure simply vanished and a calmed voice questioned again:
-Thus, do you really mean that the Timepiece is, simply, gone? Is that what you mean, Heinz?
-Ja, Brigadeführer. The Timepiece has vanished.
Helmuth Wolf just turned from the gasping officer and shuddered at the thought of having to report to the Reichsführer about what had just been told. Reinhard Heydrich was not known for his forgiveness.
lead the Internationale torwards worldwide Syndie domination or will gluttonous Herman Göring smash this Puny-upstard with his stalwart Askaris!
