Chapter 564: Chapter 564
Paris City Defense Command, within the officers’ club there was the sound of clinking glasses, cheerful laughter.
Officers spoke loudly under the dim lighting, occasionally someone would raise their cup and shout, "Long live France!"
People around would lift their glasses in response, "Long live France!"
Garell served drinks to the customers, and as he came back with the tray, he said to Lucia, who was busy at the bar, "I heard Shire got a vacation, when you see him, please convey my thanks."
"What?" Lucia was busy with her hands and didn’t understand why Garell wanted to thank Shire.
Garell glanced at the club, and said with a hint of emotion, "Can’t you see? The reason we haven’t been let go is because of Shire."
Lucia still didn’t understand, she passed the mixed drink to the customer and turned her head confusedly towards Garell.
"Come on, Lucia." Garell explained, "You know it’s a time of scarcity, many clubs have closed down!"
Indeed, it was true that fewer and fewer people could afford to drink, causing many bars to go out of business.
The reason the officers’ club still had so many customers was because Shire frequents here, officers feel discussing Shire’s achievements here has more atmosphere, like Shire is alongside them pointing out the country’s destiny.
So, it indeed seemed related to Shire.
Lucia tucked her hair, and with a somewhat cheeky expression leaned forward, "Garell, maybe you should be thanking someone else instead!"
"Oh?" Garell dramatically twisted his mouth, then flirtatiously flipped his hair, "That might not be it, Lucia, Shire coming here isn’t necessarily for you!"
"Get lost!" Lucia grabbed a cloth and threw it over, and the two laughed together.
Suddenly, Garell stopped laughing, and mischievously whispered to Lucia, "Do you need me to charm him?"
He nodded towards the door.
Lucia turned her head, seeing Shire in military uniform walking with his head down, seemingly deep in thought.
Lucia glared at Garell, about to grab her, but she smiled and deftly dodged away.
"A cup of coffee." Shire said, but quickly changed his mind, "No, just give me some water instead!"
"Alright." Lucia responded.
By then the officers had also noticed Shire and started to cheer:
"Look, General is here, how fortunate."
"Great to see you, General!"
"A splendid victory, you cleanly defeated the Germans!"
Someone raised a glass and shouted, "Gentlemen, a toast to France’s greatest General, cheers!"
Shire took the water Lucia handed him and turned to the officers with a smile and raised his hand, evoking another round of cheers.
A few improper officers seemed to want to approach Shire, but were immediately pulled back:
"Idiots, the General’s time is limited."
"The General isn’t here for you."
"You shouldn’t disturb him now!"
Shire ignored them, holding the cup of water, found an empty seat and sat down, took out the handkerchief Camille prepared for him and wiped his blocked nose, coughed lightly a few times.
"What’s wrong?" Lucia, holding a glass of water, sat opposite Shire, her eyes full of concern.
"Nothing much." Shire replied, "Maybe just caught a cold."
Shire was reluctant to talk about it further, he glanced around, leaned in and lowered his voice, "Can you get information about American merchant ships headed to Britain?"
Lucia nodded affirmatively, "We have someone working there."
"Good." Shire nodded, leaned into Lucia’s ear, "Check the situation and leak some information to the Germans."
Lucia didn’t think much and agreed readily, "No problem."
This surprised Shire a bit, he thought Lucia would at least ask a question, considering this was revealing merchant ship information to the Germans, essentially "colluding with the enemy" in a big way.
But Lucia not only did not ask, she didn’t even hesitate.
Lucia seemed to understand Shire’s expression, she smiled lightly and explained softly, "I know your ’Echo Detector’ has been equipped on the navy ships, and is currently under intense testing."
Shire responded with "Mm".
The "Lady in White" had some skills, she actually knew about the "Echo Detector", which was a high military secret under tight protection by the French and British navy.
But thinking about it, the "Echo Detector" was being installed at shipyards and undergoing testing and training, many people must know about it, keeping it secret was unrealistic.
"So?" Shire didn’t quite understand the connection between the two.
"Isn’t this a trap?" Lucia blew gently into Shire’s ear as if in admiration, "Leak the information to the Germans, make the German submarines attack, so they can be hunted down more effectively! You are very smart!"
Shire’s expression grew somewhat strange, he hesitated before replying, "Uh, yes, you’re right." Read complete versıon only at novel•fire.net
"I knew it." Lucia’s eyes showed some pride.
You’d best understand it that way, Shire thought.
This wasn’t actually a trap, Shire was thinking about the railway station incident.
At this time in France, even ammunition had to be imported from the United States via Britain.
If this situation didn’t change, the British could always exert some "privilege" over the French army through supplies.
Even Fuxu, the overall commander, had to bow to the British.
To break this situation, the German submarines had to play a role, and an important role.
Only if the German submarines played a role, the French "Echo Detector" would become indispensable.
Thus, the British "privilege" could be restrained.
Therefore, Shire leaking merchant ship information to the Germans wasn’t a trap but purely "screwing" the British.
But who knew about this?
In the end, the French Fleet would indeed rally with the "Echo Detector" to earn merit, so treat it as a "trap"!
Shire then hesitated a bit, "There’s another thing..."
"What?" Lucia found it strange, this was Shire’s first time displaying a troubled expression.
"It’s ." Shire said, "My parents want to meet you."
Lucia was puzzled, "Meet me?"
Lucia didn’t understand why Shire’s parents wanted to meet her.
But the next second she understood, she looked at Shire in shock, with a hint of joy in her eyes, "You mean, they know I exist?"
"Yes." Shire’s tone was full of helplessness, "They hope to have dinner with you tomorrow night, at my house."
Seeing Lucia dumbfounded, Shire added, "If you don’t want to, I can refuse them..."
"No, I would love to." Lucia unconsciously gripped Shire’s hand, and quickly released it after realizing her gaffe, "I’m just a bit nervous. Because I don’t know what they like, or what gift to bring them."
Saying this, she cast a pleading look at Shire.
Shire suddenly realized he had never considered what Dejoka and Camille might like.