Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 941: The Death of a Dream
Chapter 941: The Death of a Dream
German Feldgendarmerie arrived in Switzerland immediately after the agreement had been signed between the Swiss President and Berlin.
The first wave was sent via railway and showed up in Bern in mere hours. They unloaded their equipment, their MRAPs, and began securing critical areas of transportation and infrastructure within the capital.
And in the weeks that followed tens of thousands of German Feldgendarmerie deployed into Swiss cities.
German intelligence networks also linked up with the Swiss Federal Police, and within a single month, three entire cells from Réveil de France had been rounded up and removed.
Some were killed in shootouts that were entirely one sided massacres, others came quietly and were now awaiting trial.
Raids occurred in neighborhoods that were otherwise to have been believed normal, flashbangs and gunfire awaking residents to find that their neighbors were terrorists.
It was a brutal time for Switzerland. But it was a necessary one. In allowing German troops onto their soil as more than just a railway joint security agreement, Switzerland had effectively sold out its sovereignty.
The people didn’t realize it yet, and most didn’t care to. They were enjoying the removal of subversive elements that had been causing violence and destruction for too long.
And it wasn’t just political extremists who were being rounded up and thrown in prison. It wasn’t just political extremists. Anyone who contributed to the decay of society, criminal or otherwise, was swept up in the purge.
Germany came in with sweeping punitive measures against crime, and for the first time in a decade the streets of Switzerland’s major cities began to feel like they once more than they had been a century prior.
Even the French-speaking portions of Switzerland now saw Germany in a far greater light than their own French revanchist radicals had once led them to believe.
Swiss flags continued to fly, yet it was men in uniforms with the Reichsbanner clearly emblazoned on their biceps that enforced the law.
However, not all were ecstatic about the ongoing changes in Switzerland. Today, Pierre was sitting at the same cafe he had met Annemarie so many times before. He sipped his cup of coffee while looking at his watch every thirty seconds.
The time for their meeting arrived. And still she wasn’t there. A minute passed, then five, ten, fifteen, thirty…
It was not until she was a full hour late that Pierre began to panic internally. If they had gotten Marianne. If they had gotten Conférencière… It was over… For all of them. She knew everything. She was the only one who knew everything.
Even he didn’t know the exact identities and whereabouts of every cell in the movement. Every leader’s identity, or that of their soldiers. But Conférencière, more importantly, she knew where the son of de Gaulle was.
If the Germans and their Swiss “puppets” had captured her. They were all as good as dead. Once that thought had settled in his mind, Pierre paid his bill, leaving cash on the table, and walked off.
He returned to his house, packed up a bag with only the bare essentials, and all the spare cash he still had on him. Before walking out the door and taking a cab to the Geneva rail station.
It was risky going to such a place… But Switzerland’s borders were officially under lockdown after what happened in Bern. And the only way to truly escape the country was through the rails.
He approached the desk and handed his passport over.
“One ticket to Constanța, please…”
The document had his full legal name printed on it, which read AndréMoreau. Despite being a true believer in the movement, Pierre, or Andre, had always taken certain precautions.
He had prepared a fake identity for joining the movement in case a day where his identity was burned ever came to reality. And today that day had actually come.
The clerk looked over the passport and stamped the ticket before handing it back to him.
“Platform three, however you should know there was a derailment, and it is going to be a few more hours before we can get any trains out of Geneva. You might have to stay the night.”
André’s eyes opened wide in rage, but he took a deep breath and forcefully calmed himself, knowing that drawing unnecessary attention to himself was the last thing he needed.
“I understand… thank you.”
He then walked off and found his way to the platform where many others like himself were sitting, waiting endlessly for the trains to arrive.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips, followed by a bittersweet smile.
“Bon voyage, Geneva….”
As he said these things, he heard a voice behind him that caused him to seize up and freeze in place.
“André Moreau… You are under arrest for crimes constituting high treason against the Swiss Confederation. Resist and you will be fired upon!”
André looked around and saw her standing there. Marianne… as he had always called her for her striking resemblance to the personification of France.
But today she didn’t look like Lady Liberty… She was not draped in the colors of the republic.
Rather, she wore the feldgrau uniform of the German Feldgendarmerie. An officer’s cap topped her fine raven hair, which was perfectly fashioned into a neat bun.
There was a pistol holstered on her waistline, across her epaulettes. He stared in astonishment at the woman he had once known and romanticized, staring coldly at him while surrounded by heavily armed German military police.
“I suggest you come quietly, Pierre. It would truly be a pity if our little dance ended this way, don’t you think?”
André was utterly defeated… Even if he had the will to fight, he could not do so. He was surrounded by men with assault rifles. And he was utterly unarmed.
He simply hung his head in resignation and raised his wrists forward in submission. Annemarie nodded, and André was carried off in handcuffs, transported to the nearest station.
There he would face a swift trial and be found guilty on all accounts, just like the rest of his co-conspirators.
The sentence was death… and the dream that was Réveil de France died with them.
