Bruno sat in his office, cutting through paperwork like a knife through butter. His efficiency in administration was almost as impressive as his ability to coordinate grand strategy.
Currently, he was half-way through dissecting a law, where the Reichstag had sent it to the Bundesrat for review, and the Bundesrat had sent it to him for approval. One that had been heavily bloated with unnecessary additions, tacked on provisions that were completely unrelated, and other hidden nonsense with unforeseen but foreboding future repercussions.
Bruno wasn’t going to lie, after cutting the fat off so many other bills like this and sending it back to Parliant. He was just about to apply the full weight of his leverage to ensure that such bills no longer ended up on the Chancellor’s desk.
The sheer disdain on his face at the attempt to pass things through that were completely unrelated to the main stipulation was enough to crack a mirror it was so monstrous.
"It would appear that it is the sa in every system, isn’t it? Very well... If they insist on corrupting the legislative process, then I will reform it.""
Bruno was spiraling deep into German legal theory and governnt structure, searching for a way to ensure that bills could only be related to a single topic or structurally relevant addendum.
But the idea of a bill being intended for funding public parks, and then adding on sothing obscene like a beard tax. It was simply inexcusable, and Bruno wasn’t having it.
He was mid-way through pulling out every stop to ensure that this kind of backdoor legal nonsense was banned once and for all when he received a call on his office phone.
Clearly Bruno had been hard at work, because when he answered the call he was far from cordial as he normally would be.
"You have thirty seconds to explain to why you’re wasting my ti starting now."
The voice was taken aback, but it was one that Bruno was deeply familiar with. And when he heard the man’s tone he quietly cald himself and shifted his tie.
"I’m sorry for the interruption, Herr Rei... Chancellor. But we have important developnts from Zurich that require your imdiate attention."
Bruno set the pen down and opened a nearby drawer. He asured a single finger of brandy, no more and no less, before pouring it into a glass. Taking a sip before relaxing back in his seat.
"Continue..."
Bruno was quickly brought up to speed on what was happening in Switzerland by the Director of the Reich Intelligence Service.
And after everything was said Bruno responded with one single question.
"Are the assets being targeted owned or operated by our own citizens?"
The director remained silent for a few seconds, clearly checking the files in front of him on the other end of the line.
"A few of them are, but most seem to be owned and operated by Swiss-Germans. This seems to be an indiscriminate attack against ethnic Germans in general, rather than simply those who have official or unofficial ties to the Reich."
Bruno paused for a mont and shook his head. Reaching into a desk drawer, he pulled out a folder nad Operation Helvetia. Inside the folder was a list of nas and photographs of n and won confird to be mbers of the French nationalist foreign terrorist organization known as Réveil de France.
He scoffed at the idea that de Gaulle, despite having chosen the easy way out after provoking a war with Germany, one that ended horribly for him, had beco a martyr towards French extremists in Switzerland.
The Kingdom of France had suffered from similar elents early on, with organizations similar to Réveil de France popping up imdiately after the House of Orleans was crowned with the Reich’s backing.
But they had quickly been rooted out, tried, and executed en masse as terrorists, traitors, and enemies of the state.
Switzerland had not been capable of following such an example. And now those extremists, especially those who had fled the borders of France before the last Republic fell, were tastasizing into a cancer.
Bruno closed the folder and returned to the phone call.
"If that’s the case, use whatever leverage you can to evacuate the buildings. Make sure nobody is present for the attack. We want Réveil de France to think they were successful. But to give us cause to pressure the Swiss governnt into allowing joint-security operations now that their inability to properly police their nation is affecting our own bottom line. As for those involved in the attacks, have them eliminated silently after their usefulness cos to an end. Discreet removals, no public spectacle, and no martyrs; understand?"
The director of the Reich Intelligence Service did not hesitate to respond.
"Yes, sir. It will be done."
Bruno didn’t wait for a response after this. He hung up imdiately and returned to his political objective of killing the ability for officials to intentionally disrupt the process of governance.
All the while he thought back to de Gaulle. He had taken every step in his life to prevent a second World War.
The way he had treated prisoners of war during the Great War bordered on luxury. He had quickly and decisively ended the war and exposed the failures of the French Republic and its leadership.
And yet it had not been enough, when Paris surrendered, when Bruno had rewritten the sins of Versailles in blood and ink, they demanded Germany’s imdiate withdrawal. And Bruno had conceded.
The result was civil war, and de Gaulle’s eventual rise to power. Where his revanchism and irredentism had forced France to provoke another war with the Reich.
It had been nearly thirty years since the Great War began, and he was still cleaning up its aftermath.
Réveil de France had a use for now... They were needed to force Switzerland to accept the idea of referendum and integration.
But once that use was gone, Bruno would hunt them to extinction, like the rats they were. There was no room left in this world for a France that had the will and spirit to challenge the German Reich.
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