“Sit down. We may have a fairly long talk.”
In the dark study room, only a few oil lamps provided lighting. I sat down on the chair in front of the old general. He immediately put on his glasses and got some documents out. He pushed the Thai King’s head out of the way as he did so.
“We have some official business here first. Your five-year contract with the legion is finished. You have the choice of leaving as a French Citizen or continue to serve in the legion. What is your choice?”
“I’ll continue to serve.” I said firmly without hesitation.
“As expected from you. We now have some documents to fill in. Your full name, please.”
“Erwin Rommel.”
“Age?”
“Thirty-five.”
“Nationality?”
“German.”
“Let’s see your past records … ex-artillery officer in the German Army. Charged with murder, arson, assault and various other crimes before serving in the Legion. Anything more you want to add?”
“No. That’s all I have.”
“Good. Your second registration as a legionnaire will be officially done in a few days. When you receive your registration papers, you will also be promoted as major and in command of a battalion.”
“Understood, mon General.”
“Now, back to some business of the Republic’s current situation.” The general put a pile of documents in front of me.
“At the start of the year. The Legions were deployed at Marsailles. The second time that the Legions were deployed in Metropolitan France. The country was almost in completely chaos due to that scum Dreyfus and his troubles. Fortunately we had him and those corrupted dissentients “disappeared” before any more trouble can be caused.”
“Shortly after that, the German Emperor paid us a visit. Perhaps he knew of our internal problems and wanted to demand something out of us when we appear weak. We taught him a lesson that the Republic is never weak, and never will be. Did you use that rifle to deliver the bullet?”
The general pointed at my Mauser G98 rifle. It is scheduled to be the standard rifle for the German Army next year. However, the Legion somehow smuggled some prototypes out and distributed it to us in small quantities.
“No, mon General, I did what you told me to: use a Luger to do the job.”
I took out my special custom long-barrel Luger carbine. The Luger is still in its prototype phase. However we also got our hands on some of it.
“I was surprised when the German Emperor used a Luger in front of us. Looks like he got some pre-production models, too. Isn’t it a nice surprise for the Emperor to found out his guards had been shot by the same type of pistol as his?”
“Certainly, mon General.”
“Now for the things that happened in the past few months. First of all I’m most pleased with the Legion’s latest performance. Only a little over three months was required to make Siam part of our colonial empire. Quite impressive, I’d say. Do you have any comment on that?”
“We should worry about the British’s reactions, shouldn’t we?”
“Yes, certainly. But we will have further discussions about them later. Look at these papers.”
I glanced through the papers the general handed me quickly and then set them on the table.
“According to these papers, the German problem really is something we should worry about.”
“Yes, indeed” said the general, resetting his spectacles, “it is certainly disturbing.” The general then marked a particular spot on one of the papers.