Arc of Gunfire

Colonel Berg paced back and forth in his office, smoking one puff after another.

His orderly opened the door and came in, glanced around the office, and asked: "Can I empty the ashtray for you?"

"Ah?" Colonel Berg was stunned for a moment, looked down at the table, and found that the ashtray was full, "Please empty it, please."

The orderly walked to the table and emptied the ashtray neatly without spilling any ash.

After doing this, he looked at Colonel Berg with concern.

The colonel noticed his gaze: "What's wrong? Did I forget to shave again?"

"No, it's just that when you are worried, you will call me 'you'." The orderly replied.

"Everyone can see that I am worried, right?" Colonel Berg smiled bitterly.

The orderly: "But the Office of Reserve Affairs is a clean office, especially now that there are no reserves."

Since the general mobilization began, all the reserves of the Plosson Empire have been transferred to active service, and the youth leagues and labor camps in various places that were originally managed by the Reserve Office have also been incorporated into the empire's logistics system.

So the Reserve Office, which was originally a clean office, is now even cleaner.

No wonder the orderly has this question.

Colonel Berg: "I am worried about the future of the Plosson Empire. As a Plosson soldier, no matter where I am, I will worry about the future of the Plosson Empire."

He did not lie. At this moment, he was indeed worried about this matter, but there was also a little worry about his personal destiny.

The Office of Reserve Soldiers, a clean office, still retains the functions of the reserve system.

For example, it can issue officer certificates and temporary passes to reserve officers. This is one of the countless small loopholes in the sophisticated war machine of the Plosson Empire. Because it is not fatal, no one cares about it at all.

Colonel Berg had used this loophole not long ago to issue a temporary pass, which allowed people with the pass to enter the logistics line of the Eagle's Nest and go upstairs from the freight elevator there.

This freight elevator usually only transports the goods listed on the list, and before each shift, three groups of people who do not know each other will check the contents of the transportation.

In addition, after the goods are moved into the elevator, the porters will not take the elevator upstairs. The elevator will arrive inside the Eagle's Nest under the control of external commands, and then another group of porters will take over the goods.

This system is perfect, with only one problem. If someone enters the elevator and starts the elevator to go upstairs, he does not need to go through any body search.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the person who enters the elevator cannot operate the elevator inside the elevator. He must have an insider in the operation room to manually start the elevator.

And there will always be a Taibao from the Imperial Household Department on duty in the operation room.

However, the rigorous and smart Proson engineer has responded to all possible situations, so there is a control panel used in emergency situations inside the elevator, and the cover of the control panel can be opened without special tools.

The engineers did not tell the officers who made the security plan about the existence of this control panel, but only wrote it in the engineering maintenance manual.

Obviously, the rigorous engineers assumed that the equally rigorous officer Plosson would read all the maintenance manuals before making any plans.

So, another loophole appeared in the sophisticated Plosson tank.

Colonel Berg, who was also rigorous and smart, discovered this loophole, and today was the day to put this loophole into practice.

The pass carried by the assassin was issued by Berg. Once the matter was exposed, he would not be able to escape death.

Colonel Berg had prepared cyanide.

He was supposed to wear special dentures, and the cyanide capsule was placed inside the dentures. As long as he bit hard, the dentures would break, and the cyanide would leak out.

But he was afraid, afraid that there would be a hole in the capsule, afraid that he would suddenly bite the dentures when he had a seizure, and afraid of various accidents.

So he put the special dentures in his pocket, and still had the dentures he had worn for more than ten years in his mouth.

Of course, in addition to taking poison, Colonel Berg also prepared a second plan. He placed a loaded Luger pistol with the safety off in the first drawer of his desk.

However, as long as the assassination is successful, all these backup plans will not be used.

At that time, he will become one of the heroes who saved Plosson.

Colonel Berg continued to pace back and forth in the office, even forgetting that his orderly was still in the room, and did not notice the change in the orderly's expression.

————

The orderly quietly left the office, left the door ajar, turned around and walked quickly, and stopped next to the vase in the corner.

After confirming that there was no one around, he turned the vase.

The eyes of the relief on the wall suddenly opened, revealing the "cat's eye" hidden inside.

Orderly: "Colonel Berg is not in a good condition today. Maybe they have taken action. The colonel is very careful and has not allowed me to touch his documents. I don't know what he did. Please hurry up."

The eyes of the relief closed.

The orderly let out a long breath.

At this time, two female clerks were chatting with documents in their arms and walked in front of the vase.

The two cast curious glances at the orderly.

The orderly pretended to hide and smoke quietly.

One of the female clerks said, "Don't throw your cigarette butts in the vase, sir. There's a trash can fifteen meters ahead."

"Ah? Oh, okay." After saying that, the orderly put the cigarette in the vase, and then reacted, "Oh no! Wait a minute, I'll take it out right away!"

Female clerk: "Really, sir, just because there are too many people like you, the vases are full of cigarette butts! This is not what should happen in the heart of the empire."

"Sorry, sorry." The orderly took out the cigarette butt covered with dirt and put it directly into his pocket.

"I didn't ask you to put it in your pocket. Come on, take this handkerchief and wrap it up -"

"No, no need, I -"

At this moment, three gunshots were heard from nowhere.

The orderly was excited.

The female clerk was still wondering: "What is the sound?"

Before he finished speaking, there was an explosion at the end of the passage.

The next moment, a piercing siren sounded throughout the Eagle's Nest.

The female clerk holding the handkerchief was stunned: "What happened? The enemy plane finally dropped bombs on us? Should we go to the air-raid shelter?"

The orderly ignored her and ran towards Colonel Berg's office, trying to block him in. As a result, he ran into a group of palace guards running wildly.

The major leading the team yelled: "Everyone running could be an assassin! If you haven't read about it in the newspaper, shoot!"

The orderly braked to a sudden stop and lay on the ground with his head in his hands.

Gunshots were heard in the distance, and it was unknown whether the guards were shooting at the running people or the assassins were firing at His Majesty the Emperor.

————

Colonel Berg threw away the cigarette butt and rushed out of the office without caring about stamping it out. He grabbed the passing guard and asked, "What's going on?"

Guard: "I don't know. I see everyone is running, so I'll follow suit!"

Colonel Berg let go of the guard's shoulders and looked for someone of higher rank.

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand, who was very familiar with him, came over: "Colonel, please come into the office and stay there. The guard is very nervous right now and may accidentally shoot."

Colonel Berg: "What happened?" Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand looked around, leaned over and whispered: "I heard that there was an explosion in His Majesty's conference room. I don't know the specific situation. The bomb was very powerful. The people attending the meeting were very Death means injury.”

Berg breathed a sigh of relief, then realized something was wrong and quickly looked at Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand.

The lieutenant colonel looked at him with an expression that said, "I knew your kid was going to do bad things." "Okay, stay in the office. If you leave the Eagle's Nest now, you will definitely be beaten as an accomplice."

Colonel Berg nodded, turned and entered the office, but did not close the door immediately. Instead, he held the door handle and looked back at Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand.

"Close the door, you and I can't affect what happens next," the lieutenant colonel said.

Colonel Berg then closed the door.

————

Five minutes ago, Eagle's Nest, War Room.

"The people want to see us make new progress," the Imperial Propaganda Minister said loudly.

This meeting was not a purely military meeting, so it involved the Minister of Propaganda, heads of various internal affairs departments, and many advisers to the emperor.

The participants also brought their own attachés, so all the maps in the war room have been replaced. Even if the attachés relied on their super memory to copy the maps outside, they would only get wrong information.

"All the time, the front lines have been retreating, and some people have doubted our propaganda." The propaganda minister continued, "There must be something that can excite the masses."

The emperor raised his right hand and circled it near his temple: "We can let the Imperial Science Department display some new weapons. Aren't our jets ready for actual combat? And our V2 rockets."

Propaganda photo: "Showing these is not enough. What the masses care about is actual things."

Emperor: "How about a free champagne ration? Open all of your wine cellars, and you should be able to give every citizen of the Prosin Empire a bottle of champagne, right?"

The marshals and generals looked at each other.

Promotional photo: "So, we can't achieve some more 'miracles' in the military? Miracles like the Carolingians! Or more recently, the miracle of the Kingdom of Sardinia will do!"

Emperor: "The miracle of the Kingdom of Sardinia has been less than half a year, has it already lost its publicity effect?"

"Unless we transfer Erwin Rommel to the Eastern Front now and let him fight against Rokossov," the propaganda minister said, "then we can divert the public's attention from more and more until the outcome of the duel. The low vegetable ration will be transferred away.”

Emperor: "No, no, now I can safely draw troops from the Western Front to supplement the Eastern Front, because Erwin is sitting in the Western Front Command. I am using his reputation to intimidate the United Kingdom and the United States! After all, they are his The general is defeated!

"Our biggest concern is always the Western Front, Ant is just an inferior race——"

Suddenly, the emperor stopped.

The entire conference room fell silent.

"Damn it." The emperor looked at his hands dejectedly, "It was obviously what I said, but it felt so strange to say it again."

At this time, the door opened and a colonel entered the room.

"Sorry, I'm late."

After saying that, he entered the room under the gaze of everyone, walked around the right side of the long conference table, and walked towards Emperor Prosen.

Because everyone brought their own attachés to this meeting, everyone thought that the colonel belonged to someone else, and no one stopped him for a while.

Suddenly, Giles shouted: "Whose attendant are you? Stop!"

The colonel immediately threw the briefcase in his hand towards the emperor: "The glory of the Prosen Empire will last forever!"

Giles jumped onto the conference table, grabbed the briefcase in the air, and then rushed to the window with the briefcase in his arms.

Almost at the same time, the assassin drew his pistol and aimed it at the emperor.

However, he was surprised to see that the Emperor had pointed his gun at him.

The Emperor fired three shots.

The assassin fell backwards, blood gushing out of the bullet hole on his forehead, forming a literal fountain of blood.

The Emperor was overjoyed and said to the Minister of Propaganda: "Is the news that I personally shot the assassin enough to inspire the people?"

Then he remembered that there was a handbag.

He turned his head to look at Gil Ace, only to see Gil Ace rushing towards the tempered glass window.

Gil Ace hit the glass with a bang.

The glass did not move at all.

Obviously, the tempered glass of industrial products cannot be broken by the flesh.

Then the explosion occurred, and the blazing light engulfed everything at the scene.

Seven or eight guards threw the emperor to the ground and protected him with their flesh.

…

I don't know how long it took, but the emperor was pulled out of the crowd.

His brain was still in a trance, and his ears destroyed by the overpressure could not hear anything.

He looked at the window and found that the tempered glass was finally shattered. All the windows on the west side of the conference room were broken. The wall between the windows was still there, but the surface was completely opened, revealing the steel bars underneath.

Obviously, considering the size of the briefcase, the bomb was incredibly powerful.

The emperor saw Marshal Celtic being dragged out from under the conference table, his upper body covered in blood. If it was his blood, the old marshal would probably be dead.

Marshal Rundstedt was gone. He was opposite Marshal Celtic, with his back to the explosion point.

The Imperial Propaganda Minister saved his life, half of his face was covered in blood, and the medical soldier was bandaging him.

Dr. Porsche and other scientists were at the farthest place, so it looked okay - fortunately the conference room was big enough and the conference table was long enough.

The "Imperial Treasures" were safe, which made the emperor feel relieved -

Fortunately, the loss was not big -

No!

The emperor's scalp was numb.

He looked at the explosion again.

The window was broken, even the window frame was gone, and outside was a towering snow-capped mountain - the Eagle's Nest was built on the top of the mountain, just as its name suggests.

The emperor pushed away the people who wanted to check him and tried to step towards the window, but was caught by more people.

Although he couldn't hear, he still shouted: "Don't stop me! Giles! Giles!"

————

Souza Palace.

Emperor Prosen's sister was reading a book, and suddenly she raised her head and looked at the flowers Giles gave her.

It was Edelweiss, which was said to come from the top of the Alps.

The pure white petals withered silently.