Chapter 119:

Words : 1150 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Chapter 119: "It had made the silence impossible."It was still early when the headline hit Paris. "APPEASEMENT IS NOT PEACE. A FRENCH SOLDIER’S WARNING" The bold black type screamed across the front page of Le Figaro, delivered with the morning bread. It wasn’t an editorial, nor a leaked intelligence memo. It was something rarer, an open letter to the Republic, written not by a politician or pundit, but by a serving officer. By noon, it had crossed cafés, barracks, ministries, and classrooms. By night, it was burning like a signal fire across Europe. But it hit hardest at home. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Laval stood at his window overlooking the Seine. A folded copy of the newspaper rested on his desk, the final paragraph underlined in pencil: "We are not witnessing peace. We are witnessing preparation." His aide hovered in the doorway, uncertain whether to speak. Laval waved him in. "He signed it?" "Yes, sir. In full. Rank and name." Laval gave a soft chuckle, not quite amused. "He always does what others won’t." The aide frowned. "Should we reply? Publicly?" "No," Laval said. "Let it stand. The words are heavier because I didn’t order them. He said what I cannot. Not yet." He tapped the paper. "But now that it’s said, I suspect the silence will be very loud." At Site A–23, the article made its way through the morning stew line, passed hand to hand like contraband. Chauvet read the final lines twice before folding it back up. "Well," he muttered. "That’ll piss someone off." Loren wiped his hands on a rag, eyes narrowed at the last paragraph. "You think he knew it’d go this far?" "He always knows," Chauvet said. One corporal, leaning over the article, murmured, "Feels like we just fired the first shot." Another muttered, "Feels like someone finally pulled the pin." Moreau, in his office, said nothing when he was handed the copy. He read it quietly, checked for errors, then tucked it in the drawer beside the old doctrine report from 1934, the one they’d ignored back then too. He made no speech to the men. But his silence was noted. In London, at the Foreign Office, Sir Samuel Hoare read the English translation in cold silence. Vansittart stood behind him, arms crossed. "He names the naval treaty, line by line." "He doesn’t just name it," Hoare said. "He dissects it." "He says what half of Whitehall believes but won’t admit." Hoare set the paper down. "And he’s French. Which makes it land harder." In Parliament, the article was already being passed across benches. Baldwin was unmoved. But in a quiet corner of the chamber, Churchill slapped it flat against his desk. "Print it," he told a Daily Mail correspondent. "Verbatim. France has found its Cassandra." The journalist blinked. "No commentary?" "No need. This man just said what I’ve been yelling for five years only with clarity and a pen sharper than any saber." "You know him?" "By reputation," Churchill said. "And if I’m right, he’s just begun." In Berlin, the Chancellery read the piece before noon. Ribbentrop dropped the translation on Hitler’s desk. "Until now, every ship laid down in a German yard was a violation... today, they can be built under British recognition." Hitler’s eyes traced every sentence. Slowly. Quietly. At one point, he said: "He is dangerous." "Moreau?" Ribbentrop asked. Hitler nodded. "I read a report by him in ’34. Dismissed by his superiors. And now? He is the voice France has tried to silence, and now cannot ignore." Raeder joined them minutes later, holding the naval agreement text. "The man understands exactly what this treaty implies." "He’s a threat?" Ribbentrop asked. "No," Hitler replied. "He is a mirror. And France will hate what it sees." He stood and closed the paper. "Find out who surrounds him. Command, friends, routines. Watch him. Closely." Ribbentrop asked quietly, "And if we cannot isolate him?" "Then we isolate what he builds." At Saint-Cyr, the French military academy, cadets had already tacked the article to the hallway board. By mid-afternoon, three instructors had requested copies for lecture. "Doctrine’s shifting," one captain said. "No," replied another. "The dam’s cracking." In a remote garrison near the Belgian border, an infantry sergeant read the article aloud to his platoon. When he finished, one soldier asked: "Sir... is he right?" The sergeant folded the paper, looked them over, and answered: "I think he’s more right than anyone wants to admit." By evening, the Élysée had received five memos urging censorship, five warning against it, and one suggesting promotion. President Lebrun didn’t reply to any. But he asked for the article to be read aloud in full during his private briefing. S~eaʀᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Twice. In Reims, inside Moreau’s quarters, Chauvet finally broke the silence. "You stirred every pot in Europe." Moreau was still staring at the map of Europe. Pins, lines, theater colors. "I didn’t write it for them," he said at last. "Who then?" "The man who still thinks treaties mean peace. Who thinks Versailles was a conclusion, not a pause." Chauvet stepped closer. "They’ll try to clip you. Politically. Maybe worse." Moreau looked at him. "I’m not afraid of a pen." "They’ll bring more than pens." There was a long pause. Then Moreau said quietly, "Then they’ll find we’ve been preparing for them too." Back in Le Figaro’s offices, letters poured in. Some called Moreau a hero. Others called him a traitor. Some accused him of inciting panic. Others of saying what generals were too weak to. One letter from Lyon read. "He said what we scream at the walls when the children sleep." Another from Marseille. "If this is alarmism, give me more of it." And one, unsigned, postmarked from Arras: "We knew the fire was coming. Now someone’s told the village." By midnight, British journalists were dissecting the piece live on BBC radio. Across the Atlantic, an American columnist reprinted it with a single-word headline. "Listen." Even Mussolini’s staff in Rome passed the translated version to Duce, who read it and scoffed. "If France had a dozen of him, they wouldn’t be crawling to Geneva." And in Paris, deep in the Ministry of War, a quiet meeting took place between General Beauchamp and two senior ministers. They didn’t speak loudly. They didn’t threaten. But one leaned over the table and said, "If you cannot contain him, you may be held responsible for what follows." Beauchamp said nothing. When the meeting ended, he returned to his office and lit a cigarette with shaking fingers. Then, he pulled out a folder marked: Project A-23. And began writing down names. Not to arrest. But to protect. Because Moreau’s article had done what drills and memos and classified reports could not. It had made the silence impossible.

Chapter 119:

Comments (0)