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Thread: Swords Made of Letters

  1. #81
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Like Caillagh, I see the list of characters, with a bit of information about each, as a useful addition.

  2. #82
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Ladies & gentlemen, I hope you are doing excellent.
    A little update on our beautiful, atmospheric 1938 story.


    Chapter XVIII - Battle Plans

    Presenting Richard Elbe's perspective, the chapter focuses on the building tension between the espionage of the two countries... and some twists as well.

    ----

    9:15 PM
    14th of December 1938
    Oberkommando HQ
    Aachen outskirts
    Germany

    Inside his office the only sound was the constant humming of the typewriters in the headquarters, the clicks and clacks reverberating all the way to the upper floor into his study.

    Elbe paused for a moment. A slow, meticulous and calligraphic movement stopped in mid-word, rendering the informative document only half complete and with a sudden ink blotch on the side. He heard footsteps on the metallic staircase that led to his study and soon enough, Wilhelm, dressed in the customary brown shirt and the tie knot a bit too tight around his neck, gave two rasping knocks on the open door. Without as much as a moment of hesitation he leaped forwards and thrust in front of Elbe's face a yellowy envelope. Rather irritated by the lack of elegance in Wilhelm's movement, Elbe rose his eyes slowly and ripped apart the envelope with a dissatisfied smirk. The hard paper was tough to open, and quite unpleasant to touch even, but it made for sturdy documents. Elbe's eyes glanced over the small note inside.

    "What happened now? asked Elbe.

    Wilhelm straightened his posture. "The farm has been attacked by someone. One of our men even reported gunshots and we've sent men to investigate."

    "The farm? What farm?"

    "The farm where we captured the informant three days ago. Just outside Aachen, heading towards the border."

    Elbe nodded slowly. "When did this happen?"

    "45 minutes ago."

    Elbe's eyes narrowed. 45 minutes ago, he thought, this was quite a brazen attempt. They went straight for the informant they had captured a couple of days ago who had been feeding information about the troops to the French intelligence services. The informant refused to talk but the trove of documents they found on him was more than enough to land him in the harshest prison in the land. Elbe rose slowly from his seat and nodded to Wilhelm.

    "Get the car ready, get a team of 8 men ready and let's go."

    They grabbed their coats and existed the headquarters in haste, linking up quickly with 8 other men and Elbe's personal bodyguards. Three BMW limousines rushed outside the small iron gate and revved into the night, rushing through the streets of Aachen to the other side of the town. It took them only a meagre twenty odd minutes to arrive at the farm, drenched in utter silence and with only a flicker of a flashlight circling around the entrance. Elbe and his men exited their cars and quickly huddled inside the farm for some warmth and light, followed by the three men who investigated the incident. In the corner of the hall of the farm stood the boy Reythier had attacked, smiling slightly to the medic who took care of his rather superficial arm wound.

    Elbe saluted the men and paced around the farm, looking around for clues of the fight.

    "So? What happened here?"

    Alexander, a tall and rather stocky Swabian cleared his throat. "We came here after one of the neighbours informed us of gunshots. According to what the boy told us, a foreign man, tall and with an overcoat and a top hat came inside the farm and started asking questions."

    Elbe drew up to the boy.

    "What questions?"

    The question was not adressed to Alexander or the boy in particular, but it became clear the boy would not be able to answer that too clearly.

    ALexaner cleared his throat again. "He was searching for the owner of the farm."

    "Herr Alofs?"

    "Correct."

    "Did he tell him what happened to Alofs?"

    "He did."

    "Good. That should put him off for the moment."

    "The man left immediately after, stealing the Opel Blitz truck that was just outside the farm."

    Elbe narrowed his eyes. "He's close then. That truck is far too slow. Let's leave, we have to find him."

    Leaving the injured boy behind, Elbe and his men paced back to their cars and returned to the road, heading southwards into the dense forest that covered the area towards the border. The bright headlamps of the three cars did not make much inroad in the thicket of darkness that was made all the worse by the dense forest. The cars trudged forwards, eating up the paved kilometers for a good half an hour at least until one of the men spotted a dark shadow on the side of the road. Elbe's car, the leader of the pack, reduced the speed to a slow trot until the three cars created a formation that directed the headlamps to the blocky shadow at the edge of a small hill. The shadow was the Opel truck, abandoned in soft mud at the base of the hill, hidden from plain view by the trees that made up the thick forest. Their flashlights focused on the cabin of the truck, the door of it wide open but to their dismay the truck was empty. Someone had abandoned it and left by foot.

    Elbe cursed.

    "Find the tracks. He shouldn't be far away."

    Just as they were about to leave, two shots rang out in the distance.

    ----
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  3. #83
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Great update! I really like the way that your words conjure up a visual image of the scene, in the paragraph which begins "Elbe paused for a moment". Intead of telling us that "Elbe's eyes glanced over the small note inside.", I wonder if you'd like to tell the reader something that Elbe noticed about the note (even if you don't want to tell us what it says yet), or something about his reaction to it. You've got me on the edge of my seat with the ending, wondering what happened to the truck's driver and what is the significance of the sounds that Elbe hears in the distance.

  4. #84
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Chapter XIX - Silence of the Forest

    More intrigue, more questions to be asked by Elbe's team.

    Thank you everyone for reading Swords Made of Letters in 2018!


    ----
    10:20 PM
    14th of December 1938
    Ardennes Forest
    Near the border of Belgium
    Reich Germany

    Wisps of steam flowed through the darkness.

    Elbe panted slightly, knelt and tilted at the base of a tree. It did not take long for the Opel Blitz truck stolen from the farm to sputter in the silent night, a hoarse engine crackling underneath the cabin, leaving the driver stranded by the edge of the forest with an empty fuel tank. Elbe and his party stopped by the truck at the edge of a hill and quickly scurried away in the darkness of the forest, close enough to the edge of the forest to catch glimpses of the road. Judging by the heavy boot tracks, the driver fled through the forest in pitch black darkness. Elbe sighed and shook his head towards Wilhelm and the rest of the party. The driver knew there was a search party for him. The farm was under surveillance after all.

    10:08 showed the clock when the driver left the truck. The man had an almost fifteen minute advantage. Elbe motioned to this men.

    "Let's go, back in our cars. We will advance slowly with the car and look down the road."

    Wilhelm tapped on Elbe's shoulder. "Are you sure, Herr Elbe? Our headlights are not standard lights, we have our military cars."

    "We don't have any other choice, do we Wilhelm?"

    "We can go back, Herr Elbe."

    "Absolutely not. Time is something we do not have. Find the driver, let's go."

    With obscured headlights, and not even very bright ones as well, finding the driver of the Opel truck would have been quite a useless endeavour but they persisted in Elbe's order.

    Despite Elbe's order for time, the 2 groups lost precious seconds as they extracted their cars from the soft mud at the base of the hill. Worse, the two gun shots they had heard in the distance only added to their curiosity but they had to wait until they would reach either Aachen or the first police post to get some information. A dim noise hummed around them as they went inside the forest, a low speed cylinder hum amplified in the night by the silence around them, scaring two wandering animals that happened to scamper around the edge of the forest. As was expected, the obscured, military headlights pierced only specific lines in the darkness, creating pockets of light in an otherwise impenetrable darkness that was only engulfed by the cloudy sky above. Wilhelm stood beside Elbe on the backbench of the limousine, clutching an MP-40 submachine gun on the edge of the window. The second group followed suit with small lanterns and their guns clutched tightly around them, the cold barrel aimed at the pitch black forest around them. They were slow, methodical even, stopping at regular intervals to twist the cars sideways to the headlights could illuminate the trees but there was little they could effectively do.

    Sighing, Elbe tapped the driver of the lead car to stop. The car stopped and Elbe went to the second car, closely followed by Wilhelm.

    "Where is the nearest police post?" asked Elbe.

    Wilhelm intervened. "Two kilometres from here. It's a police post at the edge of Aachen."

    "So you're saying he's close enough to Aachen?"

    "Probably in the city already."

    "Follow us. We need to get to the police post, we need information."

    Less than ten minutes later, a policeman saluted with the customary hand gesture and welcomed Elbe and Wilhelm inside the post. Elbe nodded and pointed to a map of the Reich in the entry hall.

    "Richard Elbe, counterintelligence. We are looking for a potential spy, possibly of French origin, who has made contacts with a local farm north of Aachen to supply them with information. The farmer has been captured but the spy has not. Has anything

    The policeman, a rather tall, serious looking man in his early 30's nodded. "Herr Elbe, two gunshots were heard on the outskirts of Aachen. A quick police escort was sent there, we found a man who had been beaten unconscious by the side of the road."

    "What was he?"

    "German. But that's all we know about him, he was taken to the hospital."

    Elbe frowned. "That's all you know?"

    "We found some documents on him and a set of his car keys. But he could not talk yet, he is still unconscious."

    "Any witnesses?"

    "We are questioning 2 men now, they said someone quickly left with a car from the direction they heard the gunshots from."

    Elbe glanced at Wilhelm, who narrowed his eyes. "How far away is the border with France from here?" Wilhelm and the policeman approached the map. "It seems it is less than forty five minutes away."

    The policeman nodded. "Quite so, yes."

    Elbe patted Wilhelm on the shoulder. "Go, we need to reach the border right now."

    With a quick signal of the hand, the two limousines revved up their engines and zig-zagged around the cobbled streets of Aachen, empty and desolate at this late hour and on a cold winter day, darting for the exit that led southwards towards the border with France. The low hums of the BMW engines were replaced by high revving cylinders, blasting through the exhaust crackles and guttural noises that broke the customary countryside silence. Elbe's driver feathered the throttle gently on the tighter bends, opening up the valves completely whenever they could to reach the border point before their man would. The second car followed quickly behind, leading a small pack of 8 men to a possible confrontation based on Elbe's hunches.

    They reached a small thicker of trees less than twenty odd minutes later, stopping to a halt the groveling of the engines that whirled in neutral gear. Two border guards jumped out of their post and aimed their machine guns directly at the windows of cars.

    "Stop! Identify yourself!"

    With rather ferm movements, Elbe rose out of the car.

    "Halt! Richard Elbe, counterintelligence!"

    The two border guards drew closer to the car, their machineguns pointed directly at Elbe's head.

    "Elbe, counterintelligence." Rather displeased, Elbe took the badge of his pocket. "Take it and examine it, gentlemen."

    Satisfied with the badge, the two border guards saluted Elbe.

    "We are sorry, Herr Elbe. We were doing our job."

    "And you did very well. Tell me," said Elbe as his men drew closer "has there been anyone who has left through this border post in the past hour?"

    Both border guards shook their head. "None, Herr Elbe. We have been alone even before dinner."

    Elbe smirked.

    "Curious. We were expecting an unwelcome guest to dart for the border and leave, but apparently he did not."

    "No Sir, he did not."

    Elbe turned to Wilhelm, tapping the wheel arch of the car, rather lost in thought.

    "He's still here. Find him."
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  5. #85
    Swaeft's Avatar Drama King
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Hello Basileos,

    Dropping by to say that I will read this, but not in the near future as unfortunately I'm a little swamped. Just know that the premise intrigues me enough that I promise to return, though I must admit you fooled me with the title (which was very eye catching and flows nicely), I expected a medieval style diary entry thingy, but this is good as well. As I have never been to Europe I imagine that will make reading this CW all the more interesting.

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  6. #86
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Thank you very much Swaeft - I am eagerly waiting for your comments!
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  7. #87
    Swaeft's Avatar Drama King
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    No problem, but it might take a while for me to get to this, because I don't want to read too many stories at once. Cheers!

    Swaeft's Scribblings (Library)| Swaeft's Snaps (Gallery)| My Blog (The Lensation)

  8. #88
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Chapter XXI - Dossiers and letters

    In espionage, information is everything.

    -----
    10:30 PM
    14th of December 1938
    Tottenham Court Road
    London
    Great Britain

    The old chair creaked under his weight.

    It was rather annoying, he thought to himself, but he couldn't complain about the little apartment he owned. A small desk light flickered intermittently above his head, illuminating the yellow dossier on the desk in front of him, switching from light to darkness until he adjusted the electrical cable. Horace grabbed a small flask on the edge of his apartment desk and took a swig. The cool, exquisite cognac erupted in a flurry of warmth inside his stomach. The cognac woke him up ever so slightly, his eyes now turned to the dossier in front of him. He opened the dossier and dumped the contents on the table, a sheaf of classified documents, unclear photographs, medical analysis documents and old letters sprawled all over his desk. Horace sifted through the documents, classifying them in small heaps until he managed to make some ends of them. Most of them focused on his allies but he had quite the comprehensive report on the men he was about to tackle, courtesy of Lord Howe. He took the main report and the adjoining photographs and started reading.

    "Alexandre Gaston Reythier. Quite the long name."

    According to the information offered to his colleagues by the Deuxieme Bureau, the French intelligence service, Alexandre Reythier was born on the 8th of July in the year of 1910, shortly before the outbreak of the war. His father had been a WW1 war veteran and soon enough, not for a lack of better opportunities but because of his military inclinations, the young Reythier joined the Saint Cyr academy. He distinguished himself soon enough and the Deuxieme Bureau took him with both hands, employing him in both field work and desk work, something that the intelligence officers noted that he did not like the latter at all. Reythier was now assigned to the Alsace region, right on the border, tasked with gathering information and exchanging it with the allies of the French Republic.

    "Fairly straightforward. Should be a good chap to work with," said Horace to himself.

    He slid Reythier's documents to one side of the desk, right underneath the pillar of the desk light and glanced at the white dossier with a clear red stamp on it. Highly classified. He snatched the smaller dossier and opened the first page, revealing a full photograph of Richard Elbe, dressed in a ceremonial military uniform of that of a Prussian junker. Odd, thought Horace, the old Prussian junker military class was no longer welcomed in the new commandments. The photograph looked very similar to that of a painting and soon enough he realised the photograph was actually a coloured stencil of a painting, illustrating Elbe in an official portrait. Horace flipped the portrait, noticing a small writing on the corner of the stencil. One of the counterespionage agents of the Deuxieme Bureau had seen the portrait and drew it himself. Horace widened his eyes in surprise.

    Leaving the stenciled portrait to one side, Horace glanced over two written reports. Richard Elbe was indeed apparently of the old Prussian military class but he quickly threw in his support with the new leaders as early as 1931, quickly becoming one of the top military commanders around the contested Saarland. With the Saarland recovered and attached back to the Reich, Elbe became the top espionage officer. Fair enough and straightforward, thought Horace. What did catch his attention was the second report which confirmed what he had seen in the last couple of days.

    Elbe had a brother, a Luftwaffe captain, the brother he had fought with after entering Mathilda's apartment. Not only was Elbe's brother also an espionage agent but he had been infiltrated with important political figures for quite some time, as early as 1933. Five years he had gone unhindered. Five years he had supplied secrets to the Reich, clearly undermining the security of Great Britain. And nobody had discovered it until now, since the report was from 1934 and only had a minor impact.

    "1934. 1935. 1936. 1937. 1938. Five years."

    Horace shook his head as he contemplated the amount of information that may have leaked. Mathilda was just a pawn in the game and Lord Beckett as well.

    "Five years nobody did anything about this. Why?"

    Horace cursed. Somebody enabled Elbe's brother. There was a mole in the government, in the Parliament and in the Royal Family. Lord Beckett was only a back-bencher, someone up the chain had enabled him.

    Within the dossier there were multiple notes, a couple of random assorted bits of information and surprisingly, a list of people that Elbe interacted with back in 1933. The list was five years old and unsurprisingly, Lord Beckett was on the list over there. The list featured four other people he recognised, two of them members of the House of Parliament, one of them a member of the military branches and a prominent businessman. But there were sixteen other people on the list and four different ambassadors. Elbe's brother was very well connected for some reason. And this was a serious danger.

    Horace cursed again. He slid the documents back in the dossiers, grabbed them from his desk and left the apartment down to street.

    He did not manage to reach his car.

    ----

    Thank you for reading SMoL in 2018!
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  9. #89
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Thank you for posting SMoL oin 2018, I enjoyed it and I'm continuing to enjoy the continuing tale! This does sound like a serious danger, an espionage agent protected by powerful connections.

  10. #90
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Thank you very much Alwyn.

    I aim to finish the first 25% of the book by the end of this year.
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  11. #91
    Caillagh de Bodemloze's Avatar to rede I me delyte
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    That's excellent news!






  12. #92
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    I never got to do the website either, so that's in the plan as well. Found a couple of very nice WW2 themes for the website but I need way more historical photographs to capture the "feel" of the era, not just my writing.

    To be completed!
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  13. #93
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Chapter XXII - First Escape

    ------------

    10:45 PM
    Ardennes Forest
    Border with Belgium
    Germany


    For the moment he escaped.

    Reythier was grateful to the old Opel truck as it hurred slowly towards the French border. He was even more grateful for the narrow military headlights it had, allowing him to blend in the night with ease after he darted from the farm. The truck followed a sinewy hillside road, turning left and right in a successive manner, until the heavy truck slowed down to a crawl that made it counterproductive for him to continue. A casual purr went out in the silence of the trees as the engine stopped in a muddy trail by the edge of a small, dense pack of trees that linked to the forests lining up the Belgian - German border in the Ardennes region. Fifteen minutes at most was the advantage he had, maybe not even. Reythier had to move.

    The Frenchman dumped the truck and churned his way through the mud, guided by a small, scratched out silver naval compass he kept in his pocket. Shone in the narrow headlights of the derelict truck, the compass indicated south-west, which meant he was slightly off track. Hurtling towards the Belgian border through the trees was only possible by going west so after a quick adjustment, he lapped westwards on the soft earth, angling to reach the relative safety of neutral Belgium. Step by step he inched closer to the border, crackling the dried twigs underneath his leather boots, dodging pieces of cracked wood creeping dangerously close to his eyes. Before leaving his post near Colmar he studied the local geography, making a mental note of the four miles between the border and the farm. Shaving off a mile after driving the truck, he estimated he had about 3 miles left, maybe a bit more.

    Reythier panted. He had walked maybe five or six minutes, ticking away another twenty seconds as he put the wristwatch to his ear until he heard the hum of an engine echoing in the distance. Shouts and orders followed. Small echoes darted through the trees right to him but the men were not close enough to be of any danger. With the wristwatch to his ear and the other ear honed in on the sounds, Reythier waited for the tick of another fifteen seconds. The wristwatch mechanism gave off a pleasant, soothing sound, enabling him to focus on the cacophonic bustle in the distance. Fifteen seconds more. The orders grew in length and volume, the engine had been shut down but the men were not gaining any ground on him. Ten more seconds passed until the sounds slowly drifted into the mist of the midnight, leaving Reythier alone with his thoughts and the sound of a solitary owl humming peacefully in the night air. Less than three miles to safety, Reythier thought.

    With one last look behind him, he resumed his steady pace through the forest and the crackle of twigs underneath his feet as he advanced towards the border. There was no full moon in this dark December evening, maybe a faint half-moon loitering lazily above the treeline, but it was cloudless and there was enough light to guide him through the thickets. He had no doubt the German search troops would return and start searching for him but a solid head start would make him almost impossible to catch.

    "As long as I don't end up in another German town", Reythier said out loud.

    Somehow, the sound of his voice made him more comfortable, relaxed even, the words reverberating a slight echo through the forest. He adjusted his step over the thickets and twigs as he advanced, in tune with the imaginary sound of a second hand from his wristwatch turning inside his head. Three miles became two, then one and a half and then the trail broke into a wide-open valley flanked by the same forest edging to the outskirts of a small village. Out in the valley, he pulled out the scratched compass and glanced at the black marker. He deviated slightly, perhaps even south-west towards France, but this should be Belgium, he thought. With measured steps he descended within the town, his nervousness turning into relief as he darted past a police post sporting a sign written in Flemish. He was in Belgium.

    Reythier checked into a shoddy, downtrodden local hotel, paying double to the innkeeper to not ask any questions. The man duly obliged, handing him a scratched gilded room key inscribed 412. Cabin 412 was a creaking, wooden mess of a lodging room but at least it had a small fireplace where the orange embers happily danced over a small log. Reythier fell asleep as quick as he came.

    The wristwatch mechanism clicked 6:15 AM. But it was not the lack of sleep that bothered Reythier, no, it was the black limousine with a familiar face that stood just outside the hotel that bothered him.

    "Get in." said the driver, pointing towards the passenger door.

    "What are you doing?" asked Reythier. He stood pinned to his spot, right outside the door of the hotel.

    "Trying to make amends. For the record, I have not betrayed Mr. Alofs, who I learned is your contact at the border with Germany, and that has been nothing more than slander to me. It did not take me long to find you if you're asking that as well, Mr. Reythier. "

    "You have explanations to give, Mr. Henri. You've been appointed as a source."

    "I am willing to drive back to the base in Colmar, Mr. Reythier. Under your orders."

    Reythier approached the car. "Everything you know about Mr. Alofs and the rest of the shenanigans that happened at the border, I need to know."

    "It started with Richard Elbe, Mr. Reythier."

    "Good. Long way to go to Colmar, so I'm all ears."

    The old Citroen limousine hummed with a low growl as it departed from the hotel.
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  14. #94
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    And another year, another nomination for which I am very grateful for. Take a look at the Creative Writing Writers' Study Yearly Awards!

    https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...ar-VOTE-THREAD!
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  15. #95
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    It sounds like Reythier has found a valuable source. Congratulations on your nomination and good luck in the Yearly Awards!

  16. #96
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Thank you Alwyn!

    You will see as the story unfolds that also the other characters will get into the action, forming a wide story arc.
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

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    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

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  17. #97
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Chapter XXII - Sabotage

    15th of December 1938
    1:45 AM
    Colmar Railway Junction
    France

    -----

    Fury was useless at this moment.

    For hours on end, Elbe berated his men for the escape of the foreign spy, aiding and abetting a counterespionage mission that had evaded their information networks. Much to his chagrin, only the jammed Opel truck and some muddy footprints were all that was left. Despite their efforts, the tracks stopped within the edges of the forest as the pine foliage protected the soil from snow and water, hardening the earth strong enough to prevent the imprint of any boots that might have wandered through it. It took the better part of twenty minutes until they stopped searching, winding down the night with their portable lamps hoisted from the back of their car. Elbe ordered a swift return to the car and with deft moves he directed the driver to march onwards to the border. A quick salute fifteen minutes later with the guard, they dropped the car at the side of the border post and took off by foot, trailing through the forest in the guidance of a dim moonlight peeping through the cracks left by the empty tree branches. Elbe took point, a leather gloved hand firmly clutching his Walther pistol, followed by the driver, Wilhelm and another soldier whom he forgot his name in less than two minutes after meeting him.

    A quick reconnaissance at the border post gave them what they needed. West of the post, as the dimly lit, tattered map in the border soldier's guard tower indicated, was a railway junction that connected the lines between Strasbourg, north towards Metz and slightly westwards to the small town of Colmar. From the border they had a walk of four kilometers to reach the first train tracks and northwards another one and a half to reach a small train station post, reserved only for train engineers, which coordinated the junction they searched for.

    Two and a half kilometers in, stooping low to avoid some fallen branches, the ragtag group broke into a small open area within the trees, a forest eye of sorts, lightning them fully as they advanced. Elbe turned his head to his men.

    "This should leave us another kilometer or so left to reach the tracks. It's the open area we saw on the map." Elbe panted. "Is the dynamite ready?" asked Elbe, poking forwards with his pistol to indicate the direction.

    Wilhelm nodded. "Yes. We have about three packs with us, so it should be enough to destroy the junction and the tracks around it."

    Elbe panted. "How long will the train tracks be out?"

    "About a week at most."

    "Enough to send a message."

    Wilhelm nodded. "Should be enough. A week if they repair it normally, but they can do it even in 3 days."

    "That's enough for us. Next time we'll have more messages to send."

    Wilhelm shook his head. "We should be more men next time, Herr Elbe."

    "This will do. Now shut up and move faster."

    Wilhelm bowed his head. "Yes, Herr Elbe."

    With measured steps, they pushed forwards, small crackles pinging in their ears and in the silence of the forests as the thawed soil cracked under the boot soles. Once they were back in the forest Elbe urged them to up their pace, turning the zigzag between the trees into a slalom race to reach the tracks faster. To Elbe's satisfaction, there had been no one following them, no border guards to avoid, no soldiers to carefully study and perhaps shoot. Nightfall was their cover and their accelerated pace gave them more time to return under the cover of the same moon. But by now, all of them started to pant ever so slightly, the forest an unwieldy friend to rely on, the tree branches and roots tripping, scratching and hitting them whenever the light that broke through was not enough to guide their race forwards. For the better part of two hours, the moonlight guided them until they finally reached a brook between the trees, a brook piercing through the heart of the forest with a long metallic line in it's midst.

    Elbe pointed with his pistol.

    "There's the railway track. North we go to Metz and Sedan, somewhere we loved to be some years ago, south we go to Strasbourg." Elbe straightened to catch his breath. "Now onwards, we have that junction to reach."

    Four men jostled northwards by the side of the railway, their soles now crackling with the sounds of small pebbles instead of thawed soil. The track was flanked by forest and by nothing else, making it another solitary road for the next forty five minutes until the track twisted to the left, leading to a wide opening that connected multiple tracks that bended from all directions. The forest ended there, replaced by a junction of three railway tracks and two side tracks leading to nowhere, housing various empty train carriages. Idle, silent and illuminated only by the moon, the junction was a rather strange place, with a small wooden post placed in the very midst of it that seemed to guard nothing but the junction. The post seemed empty, desolate and upon further inspection, with the door blown off. Elbe motioned to his men.

    "Halt. We take the sides, let's not go directly there."

    Elbe pointed to the side of the tracks and they approached the post crouched and with their pistols and machineguns drawn, eyeing in every corner for any potential guards. But there seemed to be none so Elbe motioned forwards to Wilhelm and the other soldier. Taking a shovel from the driver, they placed the dynamite in four different points, placed at the links between the tracks, with fuses long enough for them to use without getting hurt. One hundred and sixty seconds was all it took, Elbe calculated. With a thumbs up, they left from their place beside the guard post and dragged the fuse with them.

    As they turned to reach back to the forest, six shots rang from the tracks.

    ----

    Thank you for reading Swords Made of Letters in 2019!
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

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    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  18. #98
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Chapter XXIII - Surprises, Surprises

    09:30 AM
    15th of December 1938
    Colmar Railway Junction
    Alsace
    France


    -----

    "Here is the report, Monsieur Reythier."

    Hurried, Reythier grabbed the folded dossier from the secret service lieutenant's hands and opened it. Six files were nestled within the rough paper dossier, detailing the four men who sabotaged the railway junction, their movements along the border and the personal effects they had on them. Three of them had escaped back in the forest as soon as the border forces opened fire, back over the border most likely, but the driver tripped soon after the bomb planting, leaving him at the mercy of the soldiers who stopped firing after the other three fled between the trees. Reythier was soon called back to Colmar, spending less than two hours back in Strasbourg after his own mission, and also told to expect a special guest that would arrive in Strasbourg in the next hours. He sifted through the personal files of the four, throwing away the last vestige of the Turkish cigarette into the soft snow around his boots. Most of the files were rather empty, with only a blurry clipped photograph attached to them. Nothing of real value, Reythier thought.

    He turned his back to the broken railway lines, unexploded fortunately but clipped in the portions were the bombs had been placed. Reythier walked to the little guard post, broken and desolate as it was, motioning to his companion Klaus who was searching around for any further bits and clues. Klaus shook his head.

    "Nothing."

    Reythier held up the dossier. "Nothing here either." Reythier sighed. "We don't have any information about them, anything of real value. Some names, some dates of birth, some ideas of who they work with and how they work, but nothing tangible."

    "The dynamite they used is standard Heer army explosives, nothing of note. Something you could probably steal from a military warehouse."

    "You're saying these are amateurs?" asked Reythier.

    Klaus shook his head. "Not quite. But I highly doubt they are some specialised spying or sabotage team sent out to judge our reactions and see where it takes them."

    "You know something, Klaus."

    "The driver is not even a military designated driver, he's a civilian who joined the Border Force about two weeks ago." Klaus pointed in the distance towards the side of the road that led to the junction. Four limousines and two trucks were posted by the end of the gravel road that led to the railway tracks, six soldiers with their rifles posted around the perimeter to guard both the prisoner and the special interrogators. "They've questioned him briefly. He doesn't know much except their first names, which we have already, and that they went through a border post close to the city of Aachen." Klaus paused. "Something you might know."

    Reythier nodded. "Most probably the same group who followed me."

    "As expected."

    "We're working in the blind here, we need more information otherwise it's just guesswork."

    "They left behind some bits of info which probably dropped from their pockets. Two Luger pistols engraved with Polizei markings, a map of the area including the border of Germany and two small bags of explosives which they discarded down the road. Same ordnance, standard military grade."

    Reythier despaired. "That's still nothing."

    "Correct. Which is why we're meeting, wait a minute let me check my paper, a certain Mr. Horace Benningham from the Foreign Services of the United Kingdom. He's coming down here in Strasbourg later today to meet with us."

    "Who's this?"

    "Foreign services. Counterintelligence. Apparently they want to follow the same ends as we do."

    ----

    Nestled within the back of a small Alsatian cafe was a private room with two tables, opening up within the courtyard of a traditional timbered-framed house that was oh so common in the Alsace-Lorraine region and also in neighbouring Baden-Wurttemberg region. A dark red, burgundy like colour adorned the wooden structure inside the room, giving off a certain kind of warmth that was needed in this near freezing temperature outside. Reythier and Klaus barged inside as quick as they could, giving a quick salute to Horace Cunningham who had been there for almost an hour, waiting in silence. Dressed in a black overcoat with a black hat, Cunningham wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible, his chiselled features hidden by the of the collar of overcoat turned upwards to disguise him in the crowds. They sat down at the table closest to the windows, the other table hosting a couple of hastily thrown about papers scribbled in pen.

    Reythier saluted once again as he stood down, introducing himself and his companion. Horace smiled to them and took out two dossiers which we placed beside him on the table.

    "Gentlemen, I will be as brief as I possibly can. I've been instructed by the head of the foreign intelligence service of my nation, Lord Howe, to work with you on a possible investigation that could aid our efforts into discovering what is the Reich doing in our neck of the woods in terms of espionage. I understood that you are interested in a certain man, named Richard Elbe, who also happens to be of a certain point of interest for us in aiding a Parliamentary investigation that is currently under secrecy. In short, Mr. Elbe is of interest to us as we believe he is very active in espionage within the United Kingdom." Horace lifted a dossier from his side of the table and handed it over to Reythier. "You will find all of the information that we have within these two dossiers that we have prepared for you to use."

    It all seemed the same to Reythier, the same information they had the English had too, except one detail. Elbe had a brother. Reythier folded the dossier and turned to Horace, placing his finger under the name of Thomas Elbe.

    "He has a brother."

    Horace nodded. "Indeed." Horace lifted the other dossier. "This is about his brother."

    Reythier took the dossier, flipped through the pages and put it down. "How does this impact our work, Mr. Horace?"

    "From what intelligence was shared with us, you have an interest in Mr. Richard Elbe who is running a counterespionage and espionage division in the western side of Germany. Our belief is that he operates within an Oberkommando in Aachen, close to the military installations of the city and close enough to the border with Luxembourg and Belgium to roam freely without being noticed. His espionage efforts translate to his brother, who is a military attache to the German embassy in London. Thomas is listed as a Luftwaffe officer but we have received reports of him being sighted at various points of interest in the south of the country, particularly around civil power stations." Horace cleared his throat. "Worse, he is married to an English lady who happens to be the mistress of a Member of Parliament. Unfortunately some of our secrets have leaked over to him."

    Reythier suppressed a laugh but kept a wry smile. "One of your members of Parliament is supplying information?"

    "Unwillingly and also unwittingly. However, we can now control the flow of information and we can supply planted information which should help us discover their intentions."

    Reythier raised an eyebrow. "Is Thomas still in your country?"

    "He will be expelled in the next 48 hours, since this is considered a national security threat. From what I understood from his wife, whom we turned into an information source, he will be posted as an attache in the Netherlands."

    "That's not really helping our cause."

    "Correct." Horace leaned forwards. "We also have other information, pertaining to both Netherlands and Belgium, that the Heer will plan military exercises to replicate the Schlieffen Plan of 1914."

    A stunned silence soon fell on the room, Reythier's eyes transfixed on Horace's words, Klaus to his side slowly bowing his head to digest the heavy information that was passed on.

    "How fast can we obtain more information on this?" asked Reythier.

    "You will need to develop your own network of sources on the western side of Germany. With my government I will be able to extract information from the Belgian foreign services, but we will have to keep watch on Thomas Elbe whilst he is in the Netherlands. My source of information, so in other words his wife, will keep me updated on any developments but any direct action on him is more or less out of the scope for us now that he has moved to the Netherlands."

    "Which leaves Richard Elbe for the taking."

    "Correct. But you will need to assess him first and to judge his intentions, Mr. Reythier."

    Reythier paused for a moment. "Mr. Horace, how long are you here?"

    "As long as I am needed, Mr. Reythier. Why?"

    "Have you ever visited Germany?"

    Horace shook his head. "Never. Why?"

    "I think we can arrange a trip. Very soon."

    -

    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

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    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  19. #99
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    A small update - for those of you who read on Wattpad often, you can check out the first five chapters of Swords Made of Letters over there as well. More to come, and of course, all of the chapters will be available there as well.

    https://www.wattpad.com/story/210140...ade-of-letters
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

  20. #100
    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Swords Made of Letters

    Chapter XXIV - Evaluations of No Laughing Matter

    22:20 PM
    15th of December 1938
    Oberkommando HQ
    Aachen
    Reich Germany

    -----

    They failed.

    That was as obvious as one could note but what irked Elbe was the abject failure that the whole operation had been, with a particular highlight being their disjointed plight from the railroad tracks back into the cover of the thick forest. With the exception of the captured driver, all of them escaped and yet they escaped with injuries and a gunshot wound inflicted in the upper right arm of Wilhelm. Poor fellow had to discharged for a while until he recovered which also meant that his trusted man who carried out his orders was not available for a while. Failure, failure, an abject failure, and a dismal retreat to top it all off that gave the enemy an upper hand which he did not expect he would concede so easy. Elbe had tried to rally the two men in the forest, away from the shots of the border guards, but neither of them had the courage to go back and finish the mission. Sticks of dynamite, pistols, even maps were all thrown away and left to the French to peruse at their own discretion. At least the French did not follow them back to the border which gave Elbe and his men some respite. Six hours later he was back at the grey warehouse of the Oberkommando, shutting himself in the commander's room to compose a report which he threw away after three lines.

    Elbe stood up from his chair, leaned over and grabbed three maps of the border which he duly imposed over each other to form a three-way map of Western Germany and Eastern France. The map highlighted all of the railway junctions and put a special emphasis on railway connections rather than roads, highlighted by the arrows to and from Paris and some of the military bases around it. Elbe's orders were as clear as they could be - strike at the French key junctions, be they railways, roads, fortifications or cities to impede them in the case of a German attack. Within the officer circles a war with France had become inevitable but when that would be taken up on was anyone's guess. Remilitarised Rheinland was the sole indicator of a possible war but until then it was Elbe's job to coordinate. He sighed as he remembered the morning. Their first attempt was an utter shambles and he had to explain to his superiors what had happened. He had to save his skin first and foremost and only then he could think of some excuses.

    "Get Reinhard in here, please."

    A slight knock, almost imperceptible even, slid over the metallic door that barred the entrance to his command office. Middle height, wiry, dressed in the same grey uniform as everyone else, Reinhard Brunnenfeld was one of the counter-espionage military advisers, a rather too serious Prussian fellow who grew up in old Konigsberg back when Chancellor Bismarck had just departed the leadership. Elbe motioned to him with two fingers to approach and survey the maps laid out on the table. Brunnenfeld saluted, nodded and gave a glance over the maps, noting the overimposed layout that covered some details but highlighted others.

    "Yes, Herr Elbe, what would you need my advice on?"

    Elbe studied Reinhard's implacable expression. "I need your help Reinhard. Our mission this morning to enact a first sabotage on the French railway lines was a disaster. We were chased away by the French border guards who fired at us right back to the border. Yes, it was an exploratory mission to see their reaction, but it was a failure. I need to save my skin and propose an alternate battleplan that would cover our strategic mission of taking out the French defences in the case of our planned invasion." Elbe pointed at the sides of the maps. "These maps show all of the links of the railway lines and the roads that lead from Paris to the border with France, border with Luxembourg and border with Belgium."

    "No Switzerland?" asked Reinhard.

    "Not of interest for us. The Swiss will remain neutral as expected." Elbe pointed to Luxembourg. "This should be a focal point to drive our attack through, at least to mirror the Schlieffen Plan. But what would you do in our espionage and sabotage case, Reinhard? Are the railways crucial to our attack?"

    Reinhard cleared his throat. "Small junctions such as the ones near Lille in the north or near Metz near the border post with us should not be considered, Herr Elbe. They are inconsequential to our plans."

    "You're asking to strike bigger?" Elbe raised his eyebrows in surprise.

    "Perhaps that would be of more use." Reinhard pointed at four lines that drew away from Paris. "You see, most of the heavy railways would carry tanks, guns and support equipment and not necessarily troops. Most of the troops would already be stationed by the border once the idea of immediate conflict would be noted down."

    "So where's our element of surprise then?"

    "Our commanders have tested out various tactics in the Spanish Civil War. General Guderian and his men are advising the usage of fast, mobile tank battalions that would be hard to counter unless it would be by other tanks and artillery."

    Elbe pointed to a line in the south of the map. "Maginot line?"

    "We have to go around it. And it does not cover the whole defence line of the French army as you can see. A simple strike through the Ardennes forest, a strike through Belgium and one through Luxembourg and we have successfully bypassed them."

    Elbe circled the Ardennes forest with a pen. "How do you want tanks to go through here, Reinhard?"

    "Roads, Herr Elbe. And plus, we have the element of surprise so they do not have a clear counter to our battalions."

    Elbe put his hands on the maps. "We, and I mean our Oberkommando, has to destroy certain railway links to limit the resupply and supply of tanks and artillery."

    "Reaction is not useful, Herr Elbe. Take action I would say. My advice would be to form a swarm of small attacks that impact directly the bigger lines." Reinhard pointed to small cities around the border but also well inside the French topography. "Focus on small junctions, with multiple links, while at the same time gathering information from local sources that would give us a very clear understanding of how to proceed when we do attack."

    "Such as?"

    "Strike near Strasbourg, near Metz, near that city of today of Colmar, near Reims, near Lille. Small attacks but multiple, to disrupt the entire flow."

    "Multiple attacks you say." Elbe motioned with his fingers. "How many men do you usually need for a small blocking of a road, let's say? As a military advisor."

    "Ten to twenty five men, I would say. With the equipment."

    Elbe made some calculations on the side of the map. "In our case, five to eight men per sabotage mission would be enough. But this would mean that a concentrated attack would require fifty to eighty attacks once our invasion is launched."

    Reinhard nodded. "Most likely, Herr Elbe. Resources will be required."

    "Reinhard, prepare yourself with these maps and conduct a clear battleplan. We would need to liaise with our military commanders to review the invasion plans and to integrate our sabotage movements into them."

    "Will do, Herr Elbe. I do have one suggestion though."

    "What is that?"

    "Any possible invasion is still a year away at the very least." Reinhard flashed a quick, mischievous smile. "But, unburdened by the shackles of the military, you can act from now Sir."

    Elbe smiled. "I'll take that into account. Thank you Reinhard."
    Ja mata, TosaInu. Forever remembered.

    Total War Org - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

    Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming over France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A finished novel, published on TWC.

    Visit ROMANIA! A land of beauty and culture!

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