Red Rainbow by G Johanson (top books of all time TXT) 📗

and made up the discrepancy may well have died since, neither Hector or César able to find this out, but César couldn’t find a credible motive for why the Gestapo would lie to Patience about this. It meant nothing that they were looking to punish 87 as reprisals were often inequitable – that the Germans were attacked would be enough to doom their people. The plot alone even if not carried out would see French men and women lined up against a wall.

“Triple figures now. It was before, in fact. I was the only one to walk out of that theatre. I won’t tell you how many. I doubt you could take it. Me and Hilaire could be in the thousands if we wanted to because we’re the next strata. She can move mountains. I can drain nations. You?”

“Activity is the relevant issue here, not ability.”

“That’s an answer in itself. You should surpass both of us, Love Phantom. The power of love is supreme, after all. I did you guys a favour. I did the country a favour. I deserve your gratitude. I demand your respect. I will not tolerate your whiny bitching.”

“We didn’t ask you to do this.”

“Of course you didn’t. You’re no Resistance group because you don’t resist. You’re an Endurance group.” Florence laughed at her own dig here. “This is no Civil War – their boot is on the nation’s collective throat. It should never have been allowed to get this far.”

“And you could have stopped it if you’d been here?” He had served during the Battle of France and could say hand on heart that they had tried their best to stop them and held out as long as they could. Even she couldn’t have turned the tide.

“Who can say? We’d be no worse off, I can say that.”

“The reality that you refuse to accept is that we are worse off, that the Germans will punish innocent people for what you did. I have a problem with that.”

“Take it up with them. Confront them, do something. Don’t blame the hero of the hour for her triumph upsetting the villains.”

“You caught them off guard and slaughtered them through sorcery. I wouldn’t go holding out for any medals.” There were many things about the whole affair that left him with a bad taste in his mouth. The hero worship that she thought she deserved for this inglorious act... she would not find it in him. César’s objections were not just about the reprisals; this act would rightly be viewed as an atrocity if perpetrated against French soldiers, British soldiers, Russian soldiers. What she’d done would have been welcome on the battlefield even at triple the death toll. The way she went about it... The Germans were the ones with the Vandal and Visigoth backgrounds; the French were not barbarians. The moral bar had been lowered enough times already in this damned war.

“I picked a side. Try it. Or have you already? Anything you want to confess? I may go easier on you if you do. Feel safe in the knowledge that I won’t kill you whatever you’ve done – the wave of suicides that would cause would put all of my previous tallies to shame. We know that I don’t take prisoners either, so that means you get to leave here a free man whatever you say, so speak freely.”

“I am speaking freely, I don’t need your permission.”

“What a pompous ass you are. I don’t throw out many lifelines...”

“You’re expecting gratitude from me for getting to walk out of here a free man?”

“Forget that for now, we’ll come back to that. You can’t deny you love yourself. ‘Call me Love Phantom, ladies’,” Florence said in a deep voice, an impersonation of him as the lamest of roués with delusions of being a smooth operator.

“The Love Phantom. If you’re going to mock me, get the words right. And I never said there was a king under the mask.” He never claimed to be perfect. Other people chose to cast him in that role; he just chose not to abdicate.

“Indeed not. You’re not even the best-looking man in this room. Him at the table one from the door beats you.”

César saw who she was referring to and nodded, “Yes, he’s up there. You only had to go eight tables away to find someone in my league.”

“I said better,” she said sharply.

“You didn’t, but you said close enough to it. Do you not see how things like that boost the ego? Constant praise and encouragement from before I could walk. Any job I want, I can have. Any woman. Any friend. The whole world has been laid out on a plate for me.”

“That can be said more for me.”

“The reference was intentional...”

“Stop!” The condescension made her renege on her promise of amnesty, Florence staring hard at him as she said softly, “I may have said speak freely, but I expect a certain level of respect. Don’t throw stones at a dragon flying overhead unless you want to get burnt or bitten.”

“Good advice. Here’s some from me to you. Don’t use the war as an excuse to kill with impun...”

“You don’t know what stop means? Maybe I won’t know either, Phantom. So watch what you say or I’ll move onto my second starter, and I don’t mean the cold soup.”

“An honest dialogue is what we need.”

“You can’t achieve that without being rude to me?”

“You made out I was a traitor – as pissed as that makes me, I’d rather you said it if that’s what you think. It gives me a chance to know what you’re thinking and explain why you’re wrong. And vice versa for you. I don’t know you properly. I would like to know more about you. If all you want is for me to agree with everything you say, we can just sit here silently.”

“Chivalry is long dead – I took out some noble knights myself. Just pretend to have a gallant tongue for one hour.”

“I do enough