A YOUNG SUCCUBUS NAMED DELICIA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 3 – OCCUPATION

13:42 (Paris Time)

Friday, June 14, 1940

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Paris, France

 

‘’Damnés Boches1!’’ Muttered Marie Laurent under her breath as she stood in the front ranks of the French citizens gloomily watching German soldiers parading triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées. While that sight infuriated her and deeply hurt her patriotic feelings, she could understand why French leaders had decided to declare Paris an open city, in order to avoid its destruction. With the recent massive defeat of French, British and Belgian armies at the hands of the Germans north of Paris, what remained of the French Army was now withdrawing to the south of the country and was in no state to effectively defend the capital. Marie loved her city of birth and was thankful that it was not going to be reduced partly to rubble, like what had happened to Rotterdam, Warsaw and other unfortunate cities of Europe. However, that now left her with a most unpleasant reality to deal with.

‘’What are we going to do now, Mother?’’

The 43-year-old cabaret and brothel owner turned her head to look at Mélanie, her adopted daughter. Mélanie was already much taller than her, despite being only thirteen years old, and sported a generous, impressive chest. Officially, according to the municipal archives, Mélanie was sixteen, since Marie had lied about the girl’s age when she had officially adopted her in 1932. She also possessed a nearly surreal beauty and was very mature, even compared to a truly sixteen-year-old girl.

‘’I don’t know yet, Mélanie. It will mostly depend on what the Germans in Paris will do next. Let’s go home: we will be more at ease to talk there.’’

 

1 Damnés Boches!: ‘Damned Germans!’ in French slang.

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Going back to their bicycles, which they had tied with chains and locks to a nearby lamp post, the two of them started pedaling through the sparse vehicle traffic, rolling down the Avenue Dutuit and heading towards the Seine River. The French government had already imposed the rationing of gasoline, in order to give priority to the needs of the French Army, thus reducing markedly the normally dense vehicle traffic in downtown Paris. Another factor which had helped empty the streets of Paris was the fact that Parisians had been massively fleeing the city in anticipation of the arrival of the Germans, with more than a million citizens having already fled towards rural areas to the South and West. Turning left on the Cour-de-la-Reine Street and following the Right Bank of the Seine, the duo then crossed the river at the Pont de la Concorde, one of the numerous bridges linking the Right and Left Banks of the Seine. Once on the Left Bank, the woman and girl followed the Boulevard Saint-Germain, heading towards the Quartier

Latin2, in the Sixth Arrondissement, where their cabaret was situated. After about 1,600 meters, they turned left on the Rue de Buci, which soon became the Rue St-André-des-

Arts, finally arriving at their destination, the Cabaret ‘Mille et Une Nuits’3, a six story-high light beige stone building, after passing the corner with Rue Séguier. The duo immediately brought their bicycles inside through a side door, not wanting to see them possibly being stolen if left outside: bicycles were presently in very high demand in Paris, with few being actually available for sale. The graying cleaning lady of the cabaret, Réjeanne Bouvet, saw them come in and hurried to them as they were storing their bicycles in a small storage room next to the side entrance.

‘’Madame! Madame! Are the Germans really inside Paris now?’’

‘’Unfortunately, yes, my good Réjeanne.’’ answered soberly Marie Laurent. ‘’It also looks like they are going to stay for a long while indeed.’’

‘’What should we do, Madame?’’

‘’I don’t know yet. However, I know this for sure: I am not going to close my cabaret and flee Paris, like too many have done already. Your job is safe here and you can continue living in your third-floor room.’’

The cleaning lady nodded her head at that, a bit reassured. Many of the employees of the cabaret, including the eight young women working as dancers and strippers, actually

2 Quartier Latin: Latin Quarter. District of Paris in the Sixth Arrondissement, where many big schools and universities are concentrated.

3 Mille et Une Nuits: One Thousand and One Nights, in French.

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lived in the small rooms on the upper floors, eating as a group at the kitchen of the cabaret and brothel.

‘’Thank you, Madame Laurent. You are very kind indeed.’’

‘’Well, someone has to be kind in this tough world. Are the girls all in at this time?’’

‘’They are, madam!’’

‘’Then, tell them to gather together in the main show room.’’

‘’Yes, madam!’’

As the cleaning lady hurried away, young Mélanie spoke in a low voice to her adoptive mother.

‘’What do you have in mind, Mother? Do you think that the Germans will allow our cabaret to stay open?’’

‘’Believe me, Mélanie: where there are soldiers, there are brothels. Paris will soon enough be awash in German soldiers and they will most probably install various high-level headquarters in this city. On the other hand, our cabaret has always attracted high-end customers, as it is not some kind of cheap place for quickies, as too many Paris brothels are. I thus fully expect that my establishment will attract many German officers as customers.’’

‘’Many of our neighbors could eye that in a bad way, Mother.’’

‘’If these hypocrites do, then too bad! I have girls to support, girls who would otherwise be mostly reduced to whoring themselves on the streets of Paris if I closed this place. Besides, where would we go? I don’t have a property out in the provinces and I invested too much in this cabaret to close it just because the Germans are in town. We will continue our business as best we can, Mélanie.’’

‘’Then, I would like to help you in this, Mother. Up to now, you have insisted on me concentrating on my education and on honing my dancing and singing skills. However, I firmly believe that I am fully ready to perform in the cabaret…in all capacities. You know perfectly well that I can do the job.’’

Marie Laurent stared in silence at her daughter for a long moment as she weighed her answer to that request. She did know what Mélanie was capable of doing, as she had proved to be no normal girl right from the start. Mélanie had quickly proved to be a true genius in terms of intellectual capacity and mental performance. Shockingly for Marie at the time, Mélanie also had proved to possess a number of incredible powers, which she had discreetly practiced and improved in private during the previous eight years, powers

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which only a supernatural being like her could have possessed. She also had proven to have a difficult, somehow dark character at first, something which had not surprised Marie in view of the demonic nature of Mélanie. Marie had since worked hard to mellow her character and to make her a nicer girl to relate with.

‘’Very well, Mélanie. If you insist, I will start using you, including as a bed partner for my customers, as part of my group of working girls. With your most special abilities, you should make a killing on the floor of the lounge and in the private rooms.’’

‘’Thank you for your comprehension, Mother. I promise you to help you keep your cabaret a prosperous and popular one.’’

‘’That I don’t doubt for a second, Mélanie.’’ replied Marie, eyeing the nearly supernatural beauty of her adopted daughter. In truth, Mélanie would probably have been able to easily become a top fashion model, if not for her tender age at the time. She had been attracting boys around the Quartier Latin like honey for years now and had bedded many of them, discreetly of course, lest the authorities react negatively to such sex between minors. Marie should have been scandalized by that but, considering the true nature of her adopted daughter, she knew that this was par for the course in Mélanie’s case. If anything, Mélanie probably knew as much about sex and was at least as skilled in the matter as any of the eight working girls employed by Marie in her cabaret cum brothel.

‘’Well, let’s go to the show room, to discuss with the girls there.’’

Going past the kitchen and laundry room, situated in the back section of the cabaret’s ground floor, Marie and Mélanie went to the show room, a long and relatively narrow wedge-shaped room decorated in the oriental fashion, with Persian carpets, brass-framed furniture, large embroidered cushions and deep red curtains. The room was in fact meant to make the customers feel like they were in some kind of exotic Persian harem. The eight young women who soon started to arrive in the lounge also helped reinforce that exotic feeling, with four of them being of Arabic descent and the four others being either Vietnamese or Chinese. All were young, beautiful and sensual. They were however quite nervous and apprehensive as they sat around the lounge, with Marie standing near the musicians’ alcove at one end and with Mélanie sitting to her right. Réjeanne Bouvet and Stéphanie Morin, the young maid in charge of cleaning the private rooms used by the customers after they went upstairs with a girl, were also present, along with Sylvie Renaudin, the cook of the cabaret, and Paul Dujardin, the

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doorman and handyman, both of whom lived on the top floor of the cabaret. The only employees not present in the lounge were Marc Aubut, the barman and wine waiter of the establishment, and three Arab musicians, who lived with their families outside the cabaret. Looking around and smiling reassuringly at her assembled employees, Marie then spoke up in a calm voice.

‘’Thank you for coming this promptly, my friends. Me and Mélanie just returned from watching German troops parade down the Champs-Élysées. While that sight certainly depressed me, I still intend to continue operating this cabaret, no matter what comes. Your jobs are thus safe, unless the Germans decide to force the closure of our cabaret. Such a forced closure is however most improbable in my opinion. I fully expect the Germans to use Paris as a rest and recreation center for their soldiers in France. Masses of soldiers means lots of young men starving for sex, which in turn means potentially lots of business for us. I know that the idea of entertaining German soldiers may feel wrong and even unpatriotic for many of you, but we still have to earn a living in order to survive.’’

‘’What if our neighbors take that as being treasonous, Madame Laurent?’’ asked Paul Dujardin, raising his hand before speaking. Marie gave him a sober look as she responded.

‘’I am sure that some people around here will think so, but they will also have to adapt themselves to this new reality if they want to survive. I can’t say what exactly the Germans will do around Paris in the coming months, or how badly they will treat French citizens, but my experience during the Great War of 1914-18 tells me that they will probably squeeze our country dry and exploit us as much as they can. Remember how much we made them pay for their aggression after their defeat in 1918, forcing them to pay huge war reparation costs. Well, you can be sure that they will most probably return us the favor once they will have forced our government to capitulate, so expect some lean, tough times ahead.’’

Stéphanie Morin, the young maid, then protested.

‘’Don’t you think that our army can’t push them back once it regroups, madam?’’ Marie shook her head sadly at those words.

‘’At the rate the German Army is pushing its way through France? I don’t think so. As much as I would like to see that happen, don’t expect some miraculous military recovery on the part of France.’’

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‘’But we can’t just accept defeat and greet the Germans here as if they are simply new customers, madam.’’ objected Paul Dujardin, a solid, 39-year-old man who would most probably have volunteered to join the French Army and fight if not for a severe limp which had been caused by an accident years ago. Marie gave him an understanding smile, knowing that her doorman was no coward. To everyone’s surprise, including Marie, it was young Mélanie who replied to him, jumping to her feet.

‘’Who says that we have to accept defeat? We just need to be sensible about it and fight the way we can do best. Let’s accept the Germans as customers in our cabaret! Then, us girls can use our charms to make them feel comfortable and push them to brag aloud about their military exploits. If we are smart and simply listen to them, then we may be able to find in a safe way some of their secrets, secrets which could then help France defeat Germany in the long run. Pillow talk will be our new weapon to defeat those Germans.’’

The others looked at each other, stunned at first. Then, smiles appeared around the lounge.

‘’Pillow talk… That could work! A brilliant idea, Mélanie.’’ said Marie. ‘’But the girls are no spies: they could draw suspicions if they start asking questions to our future German guests.’’

‘’I did say to simply listen to them, Mother. When we will know that a particular German may be of interest and is loquacious, then I will make it my business to learn what I can from him.’’

While Marie, who knew the kind of mental and magic powers Mélanie had, didn’t object to that, a few of the dancing girls looked at the teenager with shock.

‘’You want to bed customers, Mélanie?’’ objected Aïsha Rahal, the oldest stripper present at the age of 26. ‘’But you are too young for that!’’

‘’Who says? The age of consent in France is still thirteen, right? Besides, don’t you have girls younger than me who get married in Lebanon, Aïsha?’’

‘’Uh, yes, but…’’

‘’And who else here can speak German perfectly?’’

Mélanie’s hypothetical question made more than one person present roll their eyes: Mélanie’s linguistic prowess and incredible intelligence were well known in the cabaret. Mélanie was in fact known to speak, read and write fluently at least four languages: French, English, German and Latin. She had also been heard speaking in quite a few more languages, including Arabic, Vietnamese and Cantonese. And that was on top of

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assimilating via private lessons and self-learning the equivalent of a college education, all of that in a mere eight years. Not seeing anyone else object to Mélanie’s proposal, Marie then raised her voice to attract the attention of the group.

‘’While I intend to apply Mélanie’s suggestion, we will have more pressing priorities for today and tomorrow. In particular, we should stock up on as much storable foodstuff, wine, spirits and other essentials as we could find before there is a rush on shops…or before the Germans empty them. In fact, we should start hoarding things right away. I am thus going to use my hidden reserve of cash money in order to send you shopping around this afternoon. Sylvie, you will take with you four of the girls and will go buy foodstuff in the grocery stores nearby. Concentrate on essentials which can be stored for long periods, like flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, spices and canned meat and fish. Paul, since Marc is not here, I will ask you to go with four girls to Henri’s wine store and buy what you can of good quality wine and spirits, like rum, scotch and liquors. But, please, no vulgar table wine! I have standards to maintain. Me, Mélanie and Stéphanie will go our own way to try to find other essentials. Now, go get shopping bags while I get my money.’’

Splitting into three groups on departing the cabaret, leaving it under the watch of Réjeanne Bouvet, they scoured various shops and stores around the Quartier Latin, buying what they could find in essential items. They were helped in this by the fact that many Parisians had fled the city in the past few days, thus didn’t have to contend with long lineups of eager rival shoppers. However, the stores themselves were already half empty, as the normal supply network for food and civilian goods had been severely disrupted by the war during the last couple of weeks. They also found out that they were not alone in having expected future shortages. Still, the three groups came back to the cabaret with their shopping bags mostly full after a couple hours of searching and buying. Marie felt satisfied as she contemplated what they had bought, now piled on the big table of the kitchen where they used to have meals together.

‘’Good job, girls and guys! At least, we will now have for a couple of weeks’ worth of food supplies in reserve if things get tough. Now, go wash and dress for tonight, girls: while I would be surprised to get any customer tonight, we still should be ready to greet them properly. That means you too, Mélanie: make yourself as beautiful and sexy as you can.’’

‘’Uh, could that wait a moment, Mother? I need to discuss something with you.’’

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Marie gave her a worried look but nodded her head once and went with her into the nearby laundry room, closing the door behind them before facing Mélanie.

‘’Okay, what do you want to speak about, Mélanie?’’

‘’Mother, I believe that I could do much more than simply spy on the Germans through pillow talk. What about stealing weapons, explosives and ammunition? We also could steal fuel from the Germans, or even kill some Germans. You know that, with my powers, that would be quite easy for me to do. What do you think?’’ Marie stared at her eager adopted daughter, apprehension clear on her face.

‘’I know that you could do it, my dear Mélanie. But what about the consequences which would follow?’’

‘’Uh, what consequences, Mother?’’

Marie sighed as she remembered some of the worst things she had seen during the Great War of 1914-18.

‘’Over two decades ago, during the Great War, German troops executed by firing squad unarmed civilians on many occasions, accusing them of being partisans sniping at their soldiers or of spying. There were no summary trials then, only snap executions done on the strength of unproven suspicions. They even shot a British nurse whom they accused of being a spy. So, what do you think that the Germans will do today if we start attacking them physically? My bet is that they will shoot civilian hostages in retaliation.’’ Seeing that her reply was deflating Mélanie’s enthusiasm, Marie patted gently her right shoulder.

‘’Hey, I didn’t say that we could not steal from the Germans. I just said that we shouldn’t physically hurt German soldiers, so that they wouldn’t have a pretext to shoot hostages. Stealing from a thief is alright with me, Mélanie. While we are discussing how to resist the Germans, we will also need to find a way to pass to our soldiers the secrets we will eventually extract from our future German guests.’’

‘’I will start thinking about that, Mother.’’

‘’Good! Now, go wash and change!’’

As Mélanie walked out of the kitchen to go up to her room, Marie watched her with pride: her adopted daughter may have been a huge anomaly on this Earth and may be a bit scary at times, but she was both brave and resolute.

As Marie had expected, the night was very quiet, with not a single customer showing up, and with the streets eerily empty, save for one German infantry squad on

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patrol marching past the cabaret. Marie, who watched them from behind the pulled shades of a window, did see the squad leader stop long enough to read the freshly made sign in German put in the front window, which said that Germans were welcomed. She was pleased to see the soldiers excitedly discussing the sign for a moment before resuming their patrol around the Quartier Latin: with luck, the word was going to spread like wildfire through the units of the German occupation force.

The next day, Marie and Mélanie went out on their bicycles, but on separate ways, in order to cover more ground. Pedaling calmly through the city, they kept a discreet look for where the Germans were establishing themselves in Paris, watching for concentrations of parked German vehicles and on where Nazi flags were flown from buildings. The flags in particular proved most useful, as the Germans seemed fond of decorating their installations with them. Letting Mélanie wander through the districts, known in French as ‘arrondissements’ on the Left Bank of the Seine, Marie crossed the Seine via the Pont-Neuf, at the western tip of the l’Île de la Cité, the main island in the middle of the river on which the Notre-Dame Cathedral stood. Once on the Right Bank, she turned on the Rue de Rivoli and rolled past the Palace of the Louvre, which housed the museum of the same name, then the Gardens of the Tuileries, arriving at the Place de la Concorde after about forty minutes of lazy pedaling. She was rewarded by the sight of numerous locations of potential interest along the Rue de Rivoli, mostly luxury hotels which were apparently being taken over by the Germans, judging from the number of German trucks and staff cars parked in front of those hotels. However, she decided not to tempt her luck and didn’t stop to ask questions to passersby, instead continuing on along the Champs-Élysées. In the process, she passed by or through a number of German Army checkpoints and patrols, but those didn’t appear to be well organized yet.

‘This may all change very quickly in the next few days, Marie.’ thought the cabaret owner as she went in succession around the First, Eight, Second, Third and Fourth Arrondissement. She was careful not to scribble notes down, something that could have attracted the suspicions of German soldiers, and relied instead on her good memory. At around noon, she stopped at a small restaurant-terrace bordering the Place de l’Opéra, at the limit of the Second Arrondissement, to rest and eat. She used as well that occasion to discreetly watch the German activity around a nearby building, where a number of trucks were unloading office furniture and dozens of boxes. Marie’s attention

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redoubled when a German officer wearing the uniform of a general arrived by staff car and was greeted with rigid salutes by the soldiers on guard duty before he entered the building with a retinue of subordinate officers.

‘’Hum, that place will definitely need some extra attention in the coming days.’’ Taking the time to finish her soup and croissant, Marie then got back on her bicycle and continued her exploration tour of the Right Bank.

On the Left Bank, Mélanie had first pedaled along the shore of the Seine, passing slowly in succession in front of the Hôtel de la Monnaie, the Musée d’Orsay, the Palais Bourbon, which housed the National Assembly, and the Gare des Invalides, before arriving at the northern extremity of the Esplanade des Invalides, a huge park area fronting the no less huge Hôtel des Invalides, built by Emperor Napoleon to house the wounded veterans of his military campaigns and which now housed a military museum. Seeing from a distance a large number of German vehicles parked along the walls of the big stone building, whose façade measured a good 200 meters in width, Mélanie decided to investigate them from up close. Following the Avenue du Maréchal Gallieni, which ran down the center of the park area, she was stopped at the entrance of the square in front of the building by three German soldiers manning an improvised checkpoint.

‘’HALT!’’

Obeying at once and putting her feet down on the pavement, Mélanie played the innocent young girl as the Germans eyed her with obvious lust. She then surprised them by speaking in perfect German.

‘’Is it forbidden to pass here, sir?’’

The soldier who was apparently the most senior one answered her in a polite tone.

‘’Access to the Hôtel des Invalides is now forbidden to French citizens, miss. You will have to go either left or right from here and go around the building. By the way, may I ask you where you learned such good German?’’

‘’I studied German with a private tutor, sir.’’

‘’Ach so!’’ said the soldier, smiling, while not so discretely eyeing her wide cleavage, which showed much of her firm, 36C-sized young breasts.

‘’Does this mean that the museum is closed indefinitely, sir?’’ The senior soldier, an obergefreiter, or master-corporal, nodded his head.

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‘’Yes! It is now occupied by headquarter units of the German Army. The nearby French Army school is also out of bounds to French citizens, as it is being turned into caserns for us. You would do well not to try to enter either place, girl.’’

‘’Thank you for the advice and warning, sir. Bye!’’

Mélanie then turned her bicycle to her left and pedaled down the nearby Rue de Grenelle, watched by the three German soldiers.

‘’Himmel, what I would give to offer myself such a juicy girl!’’ said in a low voice the master-corporal, making the two other soldiers with him nod in agreement.

Still resolved to have a better look at the Hôtel des Invalides and at the École

Militaire4, Mélanie rolled down the Rue de Grenelle for a hundred meters, then turned right on the Rue Vaneau, followed soon by another right turn, this time on the Rue de Babylone. She stopped for a moment at the corner with the Boulevard des Invalides to detail her surroundings and decide how to proceed next. The southern façade of the Hôtel des Invalides was now visible nearby, to her right, while the upper levels of the École Militaire were in sight ahead of her, across from three street blocks. While German sentry posts and roadblocks guarded the southern façade of the Hôtel des Invalides, she could not see German checkpoints in the direction of the École Militaire, so she started rolling again, turning left, then right, to get on the Avenue Duquesne, which led to the École Militaire and then ran alongside its northeastern façade. She had visited the École Militaire once in the past with Marie, as part of a guided tour, while she had visited two times the military museum in the Hôtel des Invalides. Both places were huge, with many interconnecting wings and with extensive sub-basement levels which connected with the Paris sewer system, which itself connected with the network of abandoned subterranean quarries and catacombs lying under Paris. For someone like her, getting inside those underground places at night, either via underground passages or by using her power to teleport, should prove easy. However, she needed to know more about how the Germans were going to use those buildings, particularly concerning where they would store their reserves of weapons and ammunition. With so many German soldiers now occupying both places, they were bound to keep at the least some ammunition reserves and weapon storage rooms on location. Those could in turn

 

4 École Militaire: French military academy for future officers in Paris.

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potentially become a rich pilfering ground for Mélanie, in order to arm future resistance groups in Paris.

She encountered the first German checkpoint at the crossing of Avenue Duquesne and Avenue de Lowendal, near the southeast entrance gate, which was itself guarded by no less than nine soldiers. The four German soldiers manning the checkpoint didn’t point their weapons at her as she slowed down and braked her bicycle to a stop at the level of the sand-bagged sentry post, a positive point by itself. She thus smiled to the soldiers, speaking to them in German.

‘’Hello! I was heading towards the Eiffel Tower. Am I allowed to pass and continue along the Avenue de la Bourdonnais, sir?’’

The German soldier nearest to her gave her a questioning look, apparently not knowing where the Avenue de la Bourdonnais was. Mélanie, still smiling, pointed down the avenue past the checkpoint.

‘’That’s Avenue de la Bourdonnais, sir.’’

‘’Oh! I didn’t know! My unit arrived in Paris only this morning, so we are not familiar yet with the place.’’

‘’You should love Paris, sir: it is the city of love and is full of history.’’

‘’We were certainly hoping so, miss.’’ said the soldier, getting into a happy, easy mood, thanks partly to Mélanie’s power to charm people. ‘’Uh, normally, you would need to do a wide detour, but you are obviously no threat to us. You may pass this time, but I will ask you to take another route next time.’’

‘’Thank you! Oh, while we are talking about Paris as the city of love, let me give you the address of the erotic cabaret and strip club where I work, in the Sixth Arrondissement.’’

‘’You work in a strip club, miss? As a waitress?’’ nearly shouted the soldier, not believing his luck, as his three comrades started listening very closely. Mélanie gave them a malicious smile.

‘’Me, a simple waitress? Hell no! I am one of the strip dancers and hostesses at the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’. Uh, would you have a pen and paper, by chance?’’ The soldiers nearly raced each other to produce something to write on and give it to Mélanie, who then wrote a few lines, plus did a simplified sketch map of where the cabaret was before handing back the pencil and piece of paper to the German soldier.

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‘’Here you are, sir. The cabaret is a bit pricey, but the shows are top quality and so are the girls. By the way, German soldiers are welcome at the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’.’’

‘’Do the other girls look as nice as you, miss?’’ asked another of the four soldiers. In response, Mélanie briefly pulled up her blouse, making her big firm breasts pop in the open and also making the Germans’ eyes pop wide open.

‘’They are all very nice, but they still can’t beat my tits. Well, see you soon, I hope!’’

She then pedaled away past the checkpoint, leaving behind four drooling German soldiers staring at her firm, well-shaped bum. One of the soldiers borrowed the piece of paper from his comrade and read the information on it before looking at the others.

‘’Do you think that our officer will let us go visit that place, Heinrich?’’

‘’Hell, Dietrich, Leutnant Mackessen is liable to run first to that cabaret once he learns about it!’’

While she wasn’t able to enter the grounds of the École Militaire proper, Mélanie passed by enough German soldiers and vehicles while rolling past the northeast perimeter of the complex to become convinced that at least a few thousand German soldiers were in the process of moving in to take quarters inside the École Militaire. Most of the troops were in fact busy unloading tons of supplies and equipment from parked trucks, then bringing those items inside. There were as well dozens of horses being led to the stables of the complex after being unhooked from their various wagons and limbers. She was particularly interested by the sight of a group of parked truck waiting to get inside the crowded parking lots, to be unloaded there: they wore warning panels advertising them as carrying explosives or ammunition. Now certain that there was going to be something worthy of stealing here, Mélanie continued her lazy pedaling towards the Eiffel Tower, situated at the end of the long park of the Champs de Mars, next to the Seine River.

It was mid-afternoon by the time that Mélanie arrived back at the cabaret, finding out that Marie was still not back. Fervently hoping that her adoptive mother had not run into some kind of trouble, she took a quick sponge bath and changed into fresh clothes before starting to write down the things she had noticed during her meandering trip by bicycle. She had time to finish writing her notes before Marie finally returned, tired by her long outing.

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‘’Ooh, my poor back! I am getting a bit old for this much pedaling around. So, did you see anything of interest, Mélanie?’’

‘’Plenty, Mother!’’ replied the teenager before showing her the notes she had just completed and describing in detail what she had seen and heard. Marie nodded her head, quite satisfied.

‘’Not bad for a first excursion through town. I myself saw what appeared to be numerous German headquarters being established in luxury hotels, mostly in the First and Second Arrondissement. A couple more days of this and we should end up having a fair idea of what the German deployment in Paris looks like.’’

‘’Agreed, Mother! Uh, by the way, we may possibly get some German visitors tonight: I gave the address of our cabaret to a few Germans near the École Militaire.’’ While surprised by that, Marie didn’t get angry at her, apparently approving of it.

‘’Well, we sure could use some paying customers here: they have been quite rare in the last few days. You still want to perform in the lounge…and in the private rooms, my dear daughter?’’

‘’We attract flies with honey, not vinegar, Mother.’’ replied Mélanie, a malicious smile on her face. ‘’By the way, if we get few or no customers tonight, then I will go infiltrate the École Militaire via the underground, to start exploring the German installations there.’’

‘’Oh dear! Don’t you think that is unnecessarily dangerous, Mélanie?’’

‘’Come on, Mother! You know what I can do and what kind of powers I possess. The Germans will be lucky to even see my shadow. Besides, what best source of weapons, ammunition and explosives could we find in Paris but German caserns?’’

‘’Hum, I hope that you are right, Mélanie. Very well, I will go wash and change myself before checking our preparations for our eventual customers.’’

As Marie had expected, no French customer showed up that evening, the streets becoming eerily quiet as the Sun went down. However, at a bit past eight o’clock, three German military vehicles screeched to a halt along the façade of the cabaret. Out of the

two VW Kubelwagen5 and one Krupp light truck came five German officers and four soldiers, with three more soldiers staying inside the vehicles. Watched by the fearful eyes of the neighbors of the cabaret, the officers then entered the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’,

5 Volkswagen Kubelwagen: Military variant of the celebrated Volkswagen Beetle.

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while the four soldiers took positions on each side of the main entrance, rifles at the ready. Paul Dujardin, the doorman, barely had time to shout a warning to Marie Laurent before the German officers marched inside the vestibule of the cabaret. Marie, nearly running to greet them, stopped in front of the first German, giving him a wide welcoming smile and speaking in her limited German.

‘’Welcome to the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’, gentlemen! I am Marie Laurent, the owner and manager of this cabaret.’’

To her surprise and relief, the German facing her, a medium-built but fit man in his early thirties with black hair, replied to her in a most decent French while bowing politely to Marie.

‘’And I am Hauptmann6 Herman Kummersbach. One of my men informed me this morning about your cabaret and I decided to come with my subalterns and visit your establishment. Before we go further, do you accept Reichsmarks? I am afraid that our unit’s paymaster has not had time to get some French Francs yet.’’

‘’Uh, will I be allowed later on to go exchange those Reichsmarks for Francs, sir?’’

‘’Of course! After all, we will be controlling the local government. However, if any problem arises, just inform me about it and I will send you my pay officer, who will then effectuate the exchange. So, how much is the entrance fee, Madame Laurent?’’

‘’The individual entrance fee is forty Francs, sir. Then, if you or any of your officers wish to go upstairs for some private time with one of my girls, it will be subject to an additional fee.’’

‘’That was already understood by us, madam. Here is my entrance fee.’’ Marie took the two one Reichsmark banknotes and examined them for a second before looking back up at Kummersbach.

‘’Uh, how much is the exchange rate between the Reichsmark and the French Franc, Hauptmann?’’

‘’As per official German policy, the Reichsmark’s value is set at twenty French Francs. This will apply everywhere in France, so don’t accept less when exchanging your Reichsmarks. Those who will refuse them or will underpay for them will get in trouble with us.’’

 

6 Hauptmann: German officer rank equivalent to Captain.

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‘’I see!’’ Said Marie, who was just reminded that this polite gentleman was still a foreign occupier. ‘’Well, if you will follow me into the show room and make yourselves comfortable.’’

‘’With pleasure, Madame Laurent.’’

The five German officers evidently liked at once the exotic décor of the show room, with its Persian carpets, embroidered cushions and drapes and comfortable couches. Once they were sitting, Marie asked another question to Kummersbach.

‘’Do all your officers speak French, or should I call in my daughter, who speaks perfect German?’’

‘’Good for her!’’ said Kummersbach, pleased. ‘’You certainly make your place most welcome to us up to now, Madame Laurent.’’

‘’Wait until my girls start entertaining you and your officers, my good hauptman. MÉLANIE, PLEASE COME TO THE LOUNGE!’’

The eyes of the five Germans turned at once on Mélanie when she stepped in the lounge, coming from behind the musicians’ alcove, where three men in Arabic outfits already sat with instruments at the ready. The Germans immediately held their collective breaths as Mélanie, dressed in a vaporous harem dancer’s outfit worthy of the ‘Arabian Nights’, walked in and nearly glided quietly to a position in front of the Germans before bowing low and speaking in German.

‘’Good evening, gentlemen! I am Mélanie Laurent, at your service.’’ While she bowed, the loose and wide cleavage of her semi-transparent top gave to the Germans a good view of her young, firm breasts, making them stare with lust at her.

‘’Thank you, miss. Do you by chance perform at this cabaret, on top of playing host?’’ asked Kummersbach, hopeful. Mélanie straightened up and grinned to him.

‘’I am available to satisfy your fantasies to the utmost, sir.’’

‘’Excellent! We are truly looking forward to the show.’’

‘’Would the gentlemen like something to drink before the first dance?’’

‘’That would be nice! What do you have available?’’

‘’Our cellar is still fairly well stocked, sir. Our Maître D’ will bring you our wine and spirits’ card.’’

She then looked towards the rear door of the lounge, where Marc Aubut stood waiting with wine cards and menus under one arm, and signaled him to approach. The small, frail gay man, wearing a tuxedo, came at once and distributed his cards and menus,

35

which contained hastily written translations in German, with the prices of various sexual services also discreetly included at the last page. Aubut, who spoke a fair German thanks to his extensive experience in various hotels before the war, took the officers’ orders, then disappeared just before the first dancer appeared. Marie announced the dancer as the petite, delicate and most beautiful young Oriental girl came forward, dancing on the music of the three Arab musicians.

‘’Gentlemen, I present you young and beautiful Hien, from Indochina.’’ Watched by the captivated Germans, Hien started a slow, gracious dance, making her Oriental outfit flow smoothly around her. It was not long before she started shedding

parts of her outfit while still dancing. Leutnant7 Karl Mackessen, a tall, blond, blue-eyed and handsome young man, couldn’t help softly exclaim himself when Hien shed off her top, revealing a pair of small but firm breasts.

‘’Mein Gott! My loins are on fire!’’

‘’Welcome to the club, Karl!’’ replied Leutnant Michel Weissmann, sitting next to him and devouring Hien with his eyes. The petite Vietnamese soon ended up with nothing on but a small G-string and started dancing very close to the Germans, repeatedly offering parts of her body to their eager hands. Then, just after Marc Aubut had served to the Germans the drinks they had ordered, Hien shed her G-string, revealing her closely shaved groin and making the Germans suck in their breath. Going from one officer to the next, she danced very close in front of them while giving them inviting smiles.

‘’Who wants me?’’ she said in French, prompting Kummersbach to answer at once.

‘’Rank has its privileges, miss. I will gladly go upstairs with you.’’ Hien smiled to him and took one of his hands, making him get up from his couch. With Mélanie taking care of gathering her pieces of clothing lying around the lounge, Hien then disappeared with the German captain via a decorated staircase leading to the upper floor.

The four remaining German officers barely had time to take a sip from their drinks before a second dancer appeared. This time, it was an Arabic woman in her mid-twenties wearing a belly dancer’s outfit.

7 Leutnant: German rank for a junior lieutenant.

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‘’Gentlemen, Aïsha Rahal, from Lebanon, at your service.’’ announced out loud Marie, who was sitting in a corner near the entrance. With her wide hips and large breasts, Aïsha started dancing close to the Germans, making her abdominal muscles move to the rhythm of the Arabic music. Soon shedding her top and exposing her large, firm breasts, she then went down the line of German officers, bending forward and letting them have a lick or two at her nipples. The four remaining Germans soon built up a second erection as she progressively stripped. This time, it was Leutnant Bruno Dortmunder who asked for her favors at the end of her strip dance and went upstairs with her.

The three remaining officers, now quite hot under the collar and having ordered fresh drinks, were wondering who would dance next when Marie spoke out loud.

‘’Gentlemen, please greet my daughter, the young and beautiful Mélanie!’’ The Germans enthusiastically clapped their hands as Mélanie, still wearing her harem outfit, came forward, hypnotizing them at once with her nearly impossible beauty. Dancing slowly at first and showing great suppleness and grace, Mélanie accelerated the rhythm of her dance as the musicians raised the tempo of their music, while shedding progressively her clothes. Soon, she was stark naked, revealing her baby-smooth groin and making the Germans drool as she rubbed herself in turn against each of the three Germans. Finally, Karl Mackessen, unable to resist longer, grabbed her by the waist and made her sit in his lap.

‘’Himmel, you would make any man mad with desire, girl. Could we go upstairs together now?’’

‘’Why not, my handsome man?’’ she purred. Karl got up at once with her and went up the stairs to the upper floor with indecent haste, leaving his two remaining comrades in the hands of Sung Li, from Canton. Mélanie guided Karl to one of the small bedrooms reserved for the clients who wanted to sample further the charms of the cabaret’s dancers, closing the door behind her and then going to the German to start undressing him. She kissed him with her open mouth after removing his jacket and tie, inserting her tongue inside his mouth. While Karl eagerly kissed her while fondling her naked body, Mélanie made a ‘Suggestion’ spell before speaking softly.

‘’You can tell me anything, Karl: I am trustworthy.’’

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The German, who had already succumbed to her supernatural charm, simply nodded his head at that, letting Mélanie finish to undress him. She playfully used one finger to make his rock-hard, fully erect penis wobble.

‘’I see that the German Army is at full strength and ready to thrust forward. It however should conduct a proper close-in reconnaissance of the enemy before attacking.’’

Amused by her use of military terms, Karl got in the game with her and started licking and fondling her breasts.

‘’You are right: we should get a good view and feel of the enemy positions first.’’

‘’May I suggest a good preliminary preparation of the terrain after the reconnaissance phase?’’

‘’Right again, my sweat Mélanie.’’ said Karl before kneeling in front of her and starting to lick her clitoris, making her moan with pleasure. After a good minute of tongue work, Karl then gently pushed her on top of the bed and opened her legs.

‘’Time for the main attack!’’

He closed his eyes from the ecstasy as he slowly slipped his penis inside her vagina, then started pumping in and out of her. Mélanie grinned to him as he was exerting himself.

‘’You do realize that you are now surrounded on all sides. Time for the French counter-attack to collapse the German forward element.’’ She then added her own grinding movement, timing it with his thrusts in order to enhance the waves of pleasure they were feeling. Seeing that Karl was about to get to orgasm before her, Mélanie quickly pinched the base of his penis to prevent him from ejaculating, all the while continuing her grinding motion. His face now red and sweating from the effort while his penis sent waves after waves of pleasure sensations to his brain, he nearly roared when she attained orgasm and finally let go his penis, making him explode inside her. Panting, he collapsed beside her on the bed, spent but happy. Mélanie was however not finished with him. Getting on top of him, she took a half-sitting position on his belly, making her breasts hang just above his face.

‘’Let’s stay comfortably together for a while longer, Karl. So, what did you do today?’’

His mind obscured by her ‘Suggestion’ spell and being in a near hypnotic trance, Karl replied in a near zombie-like voice.

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‘’My company was busy taking its new quarters in the French École Militaire. We had to move tons of things in, while also moving a few things around.’’

‘’Are there reserves of weapons and ammunition inside the École Militaire?’’

‘’Yes! The French left behind their own reserves of weapons and ammunition, so we had to take these out of the school’s armory before we could store our own reserves inside.’’

‘’Where did you put those French weapons and ammunition reserves?’’

‘’We piled the French weapons and ammunition down in the basement of the old barracks in the southeast corner of the school, which were originally used to quarantine sick soldiers. We intend to make a proper inventory of them in a few days, when we get the time to do so.’’

‘’And what about German weapons and ammunition?’’

‘’The individual weapons and ready ammunition are locked in lockers inside each barrack block, but our extra reserves are now in the old French armory, in the storage building at the southwest corner of the school, near Place de Fontenoy.’’ Now having the information she needed, Mélanie changed the subject, so that Karl would not remember having spoken about arms and ammunition.

‘’How about a second round of combat, Karl? You feel up to a second attempt against me? I can help you revive your dick.’’

‘’Hell yes!’’ said at once the German. Going first to a wash basin containing some water and a sponge, she cleaned her groin and vagina first, then cleaned Karl’s penis as it grew again. Licking and fondling his penis, she then mounted it once it was fully erect and started rocking back and forth on top of the German, making him groan with renewed pleasure. This time, she let him come on his own time, not wanting to spend too much time with only one German officer. After all, the other Germans could well possess more additional information. After attaining orgasm for a second time, Karl kissed Mélanie passionately while fondling her body one last time.

‘’You were truly fantastic, Mélanie! Thank you!’’

He then went to his clothes and took his wallet out of one pocket, extracting two five Reichsmarks banknotes and handing them to her.

‘’For exceptional services rendered, my lovely Mélanie. Be assured that you will see me again in your cabaret in the next few days and weeks.’’ Mélanie happily took the money, which actually represented twice the standard price for a sex session, and gave a last kiss to Karl.

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‘’And you certainly proved that the German Army body is strong and vigorous.’’ He briefly laughed at that and finished dressing back up as Mélanie left the room with her clothes and money in her hands.

Going back down the to the show room by the decorated staircase, Karl found Hauptmann Kummersbach already back, along with Bruno Dortmunder and Hugo Marburg. His superior gave him a questioning smile as he sat down on a nearby couch to watch the strip dance done by a petite, brown-skinned Oriental girl.

‘’You took your sweat time, Mackessen. How was your girl?’’

‘’That teenage Mélanie is pure dynamite in bed, Herr Hauptmann. I went at it twice, to do honors to the German arms. And how was your Oriental girl?’’

‘’She was like a true flower: beautiful to the eyes and delightful to the smell and touch. I highly recommend her.’’

‘’I may just try her, sir. But you really should try that Mélanie: she is the best I ever tasted.’’

Kummersbach made a show of looking impressed by his declaration.

‘’You, the stallion of the regiment, find her the best ever? Mein Gott, I will definitely try her…once I have recuperated from my first encounter.’’

‘’Well, I will definitely promote this cabaret to the other junior officers of our unit: it is a truly high-class establishment and the prices are quite reasonable, in view of the quality of the girls and of the shows.’’

‘’Agreed! I will personally talk to Major Folkenstadt about this cabaret tomorrow. Maybe we should have it serve strictly German officers: that would make the place safer for our use.’’

Karl nodded his head at that: most German soldiers and officers assigned to garrison duty were worried about the possibility of acts of sabotage or assassinations by die-hard Frenchmen. Fighting was still hard south of Paris and the French Army had yet to surrender. He however decided to forget that for the moment and concentrated back on the stripping girl.

Karl was the first to go up with a second girl, taking young Hien Min Wa with him upstairs. He was followed by Kummersbach, who eagerly followed Mélanie upstairs,

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coming down utterly spent after some forty minutes and falling down on a couch next to

a grinning Oberleutnant8 Hugo Marburg.

‘’Mein Gott! Mackessen didn’t exaggerate one bit: that young Mélanie is a true bombshell!’’

‘’The girls are certainly great here, Herr Hauptmann. This is a great way to relieve all that accumulated stress from fighting.’’

‘’And the men definitely need such a relief. Thinking of it, go tell our men outside that they can come in two separate groups, so that they can watch a few dances. However, make them understand that they can’t go up with a girl: they will have to only watch.’’

‘’I am sure that they will greatly appreciate even that, Herr Hauptmann.’’ Hugo Marburg thus went out to speak with his seven soldiers, selecting four of them to go in first and staying outside with the remaining three to help watch the vehicles and the cabaret’s entrance.

The four soldiers who went inside first opened their eyes wide when they saw the beautiful and exotic girl dancing half naked around the lounge. Eagerly paying their entrance fee to Marie Laurent, they then went to sit on couches opposite those used by their officers. While they were told that they couldn’t go upstairs to bed a girl, just the visual show made wonders to change their minds from the recent, bitterly fought battles with the French Army. They got even more than they hoped for when Mélanie and Sung Li started a lascivious dance together, stripping each other while caressing and kissing the other and making all the Germans present watch in captivated silence. The two girls then made things even better when they went to rub their naked bodies against the ecstatic soldiers at the end of their dance, letting the Germans’ hands roam all over their bodies while two other girls took care of the officers. After a too short half hour, the four soldiers had to regretfully go out and switch places with the three soldiers outside.

The Germans finally left the cabaret just before midnight, plenty content and with the officers half-drunk. Marie put up the ‘Closed’ sign on the entrance door, then went to count with satisfaction the pile of Reichsmarks left by the visitors. As for the dancing girls, they all had received sizeable tips from the Germans, so the initial fears about how

8 Oberleutnant: German rank for a senior lieutenant.

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German customers would behave had now evaporated. Marie however became both surprised and worried when she saw that Mélanie had changed into a set of dark, loose-fitting trousers and sweater. Going to her, Marie led her to a corner and spoke to her in a low voice.

‘’You still want to go out tonight, Mélanie?’’

‘’Yes, Mother!’’ replied her adopted daughter, her tone firm, while looking straight into her eyes. ‘’One of the officers told me where I could find the weapons and ammunition left by the French Army inside the École Militaire and I want to grab what I can before they can do a proper inventory of them. Don’t worry about me: I will be alright.’’

‘’Still, be careful, Mélanie.’’

Before Marie could say more, her daughter vanished in the blink of an eye from the spot she stood on. The cabaret owner looked down silently at that spot, reflecting mentally on the amazing powers possessed by the young Demon girl she had rescued and adopted eight years ago.

00:33 (Paris Time)

Sunday, June 16, 1940

Rue d’Estrée, near the Place de Fontenoy

Southeast corner of the perimeter of the École Militaire

Mélanie reappeared behind a tree planted within sight of the southeast entrance gate of the École Militaire, having instantly teleported from the cabaret. As a Succubus, a demon of seduction whose true name was Delicia, she had the innate power to teleport to and from locations she had seen before or had a good description of, and this at will and without error. Since she had passed by the École Militaire many times in the past and had even visited it once, getting to where she was now had been no problem for her. Seeing at least four German sentries guarding the main gate on Avenue de Lowendal, plus four street checkpoints blocking access to the portion of the avenue running along the southeast perimeter wall of the complex, she decided to take it safe and cloaked herself by switching on her power of invisibility before leaving the cover of her tree and crossing the avenue. Unseen by the German sentries, she got to the stone perimeter wall at a point about a hundred meters to the right of the main gate. A number of old buildings were situated along the opposite side of the wall, level with her, plus she

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could see a long barrack building further along the wall, next to the corner with Avenue Duquesne. Uttering a ‘Spider Climb’ spell, Mélanie quickly climbed the perimeter wall the way a spider would do, then climbed down on the other side, setting foot in a large, empty yard lined with storage buildings. Still invisible and seeing no Germans, she started visiting the various storage buildings, just in case they contained some weapons or ammunition. They didn’t, but they did contain something of great potential value for her and other Parisians: drums and jerrycans full of gasoline, plus drums and cans of lubricating oil and grease. She also found a number of portable manual pumps and rubber hoses with spouts used to transfer fuel into vehicles. Memorizing first the spot she was now at inside the biggest storage building; she then used a door at one end of the building which communicated with the adjacent barracks. She froze at once on entering the long central hallway of the barrack block: it was fully illuminated, with the overhead lamps switched on. Mélanie then saw the two German soldiers standing guard near a staircase in the center of the building. That convinced her at once that she had found the right place to get at the reserves of French Army weapons: the Germans would not post sentries at night to guard unimportant equipment or installations. Still invisible, she cautiously advanced towards the guards, doing as little noise as possible. Thankfully the two Germans, apparently bored to death by their routine duty, were chatting together, something which helped cover the few weak sounds made by her steps. One of the guards then took a few steps aside to light a cigarette, allowing Mélanie to pass between them and start going down the flight of stairs going to the basement level. Another couple of minutes and she was safely setting foot in another long hallway, this one kept in darkness. That was however no obstacle to her. By basic necessity, every demon possessed the ability to see in the dark, since many levels and corners of the Abyss were either obscure or poorly illuminated. Right now, even without any light on at her present location, she could see perfectly up to a radius of some twenty meters, albeit in black and white only. Deciding to explore first the rooms down to her left, Mélanie entered the first room she encountered, pushing open the large wooden door. She found herself in a large, long room made of stone masonry, with twin rows of massive arched pillars supporting the weight of the building above. There was no furniture in the room and the place smelled of molds and humidity, but there were piles of wooden crates and boxes lining the walls of the room. Her heart now beating faster from anticipation and hope, Mélanie approached the nearest pile of boxes and read the French inscriptions painted on them.

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‘’Cartridges, 8 X 50mm R Lebel, quantity: 5,000…’’

Mélanie didn’t know much about firearms, having used a shotgun only twice while hunting rabbits with her mother at an uncle’s farm. However, the doorman of the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’, Paul Dujardin, had served as a conscript with the French Army before the war and, being a naturally curious girl, Mélanie had asked him about firearms, a category of weapons unseen in the Abyss. While no expert on firearms, she knew enough now to know that she was going to need to make sure to grab four kinds of things if she wanted to create a clandestine arsenal of weapons meant to resist the Germans in the future: the weapons themselves; bolts in the case of rifles and automatic weapons or barrels in the case of pistol; detachable magazines for pistols and automatic

 

weapons; finally, lots of ammunition of the correct caliber and type. What she was now looking at was a crate of bullets meant for Lebel 8mm rifles, the main type of rifle which had equipped the French Army during the War of 1914-18. That pile and the other piles down the same wall actually consisted solely of crates of 8 X 50mm R cartridges totaling at least half a million such rounds. Going to the piles of crates lining the opposite wall of the room, she saw that they were crates of another rifle caliber, 7.5 X 54mm. She estimated the total for that caliber stored in the room to be at least 300,000 rounds. Two other separate piles of crates proved to be pistol ammunition, in either 7.65mm Longue or .38 ACP caliber. Mélanie smiled as she visually embraced the various piles of crates stored in the room: if she could find the appropriate weapons to go with those particular calibers and types of ammunition, then she would have enough reserves to supply hundreds of men for weeks of intensive fighting. A much smaller pile compared to the others then attracted her attention. Situated next to the access door, it proved to be made of a dozen cardboard boxes, each containing fifty small tin cans of lubricating oil for firearms. Quite satisfied by now, Mélanie exited the storage room and went to the next door down the hallway. That room also contained piles of crates, but not in the same impressive quantity as in the first room. Still, she could count a few thousand crates, all apparently of the same type. Going to the nearest pile, her heart jumped up in her chest on reading the French inscriptions on the top crate.

‘’Grenade, fragmentation, Modèle F-1, quantity: 24. By the

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Lords of Hell, this is something I really could use in this war!’’ Reviewing quickly at random other crates around the storage room, she felt her head nearly spin from the exhilaration she now felt: they were all crates of grenades, with at least 1,500,000 grenades stored in this room alone. Just to play it safe, she forced open one of the crates and looked inside it: it contained four steel boxes with handles, each box containing six grenades held in cardboard tubes. Taking one grenade out of its tube, Mélanie saw that it was fitted with its fuse and arming lever. The other grenades in that crate also proved to be ready for use. Grinning from ear to ear, Mélanie closed back the crate and exited the room, going to a third one. That room had only a few dozen crates inside it, but their content proved plenty satisfying: There were crates full of blocks of TNT explosives, while other crates and metal boxes proved to contain an assortment of detonators, fuses, spools of electrical wires, plungers and slow-burning wicks.

The fourth storage room in the left wing proved empty, as was the fifth and last one, so Mélanie backtracked and started exploring the rooms of the right wing. She hit at once what was the equivalent of a treasure for her, as she found in the first room dozens of wooden crates containing a mix of two different models of pistol and of one model of submachine gun. She also found in separate boxes the pistol barrels and breach blocks which went with those weapons, plus more boxes full of empty spare magazines. Her happiness at making that particular find was increased further when she visited the three next storage rooms,

finding in them hundreds of 8mm and 7.5mm

rifles and carbines, plus forty FM 24/29 7.5mm light machine guns, along with boxes

and boxes of empty spare magazines for the

light machine guns. There were even boxes

full of individual weapon cleaning kits, plus canvas ammunition carrying pouches and bandoleers. As she calmed herself down, Mélanie thought about where she was going to bring her loot and how much of what kind of weapon and ammunition she would take tonight, for starters. An idea popped nearly at once in her mind as she thought the problem over. During her eight years spent growing up and getting educated in Paris, Mélanie had found a fascinating playground for herself: the extensive network of underground tunnels and caves which had been dug during the past centuries under Paris. By using her powers as a Succubus, she had been able to access and explore

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many passages and subterranean rooms which were difficult of access for Humans. In particular, she had found that the basement of Marie’s cabaret was situated above an ancient subterranean rotunda, which communicated with the basement of the cabaret via a well-hidden tunnel. That old rotunda was going to be perfect for her use as a secret armory.

Now that she knew where to bring her selected weapons and ammunition, Mélanie thought over what kind of weapons and how many she wanted to carry away. The easy answer would have been ‘all of it’, but that would prove a stupid mistake on her part, as the Germans would quickly notice such a wholesale disappearance of captured weapons and ammunition. She was thus going to have to be reasonable and take only small quantities that would not be noticed at first glance without a thorough inventory. What Leutnant Mackessen had told her about an incoming inventory to be done of the French weapons then came back to her mind and she decided to take away a fair quantity of weapons now, before the Germans could conduct their check. Organizing her priorities in her mind first, Mélanie then grabbed a long, heavy wooden crate containing two FM 24/29 light machine guns and held it at the vertical close to her body. With a single thought, she then teleported to the subterranean rotunda under the cabaret with her crate of machine guns. Taking the time to properly line up the crate against one wall, she then jumped back to the storage room she had left less than two minutes ago and grabbed another machine gun crate, jumping for a second time to the subterranean rotunda. She ended up carrying away six light machine guns, along with boxes containing hundreds of spare magazines, cleaning kits and breach blocks for the weapons. Next, she went back to the room containing the pistols and submachine guns, weapons which would prove especially useful in any clandestine actions against the German occupiers. There, she took a total of eight submachine guns and forty pistols, along with spare magazines, pistol barrels and breach blocks, careful to take crates and boxes from piles hidden behind the front piles of crates. The next weapons to go to the subterranean rotunda were a total of 29 rifles and carbines, with their bolts and cleaning kits. After dozens of teleportation jumps to and from the rotunda, Mélanie was finally ready to start hauling away ammunitions and explosives. This time, in view of the huge quantities she had found, she was able to take much greater quantities without making suspicious dents in the piles of crates, thus grabbed over 50,000 cartridges of various calibers, plus nearly a thousand hand grenades and many crates of TNT and detonators.

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Her last trips of the night, at around five o’clock in the morning, were used by her to carry away ten jerrycans of precious gasoline.

She was utterly exhausted and quite dirty from her work but also very satisfied with herself by the time that she emerged from the basement of the cabaret to go up to her room and wash and change. Mélanie was naked and busy sponging herself when the door of her room opened, with Marie appearing in her nightshirt, her eyes still blurred with sleep.

‘’Did you run into any trouble while out, Mélanie?’’

‘’Not at all, Mother!’’ she replied with a big smile. ‘’Nobody saw me and I was able to grab and bring to the subterranean rotunda under our basement a significant amount of weapons and ammunition which had belonged to the French Army, along with some gasoline. I intend to return again tonight, to grab more stuff before the Germans can conduct a proper inventory.’’

Marie took a moment to digest those words before speaking again.

‘’Well, those weapons will certainly prove useful in the future, but right now the country is still disorganized and we are no military strategists. I thus believe that we should abstain from armed actions until the picture is clearer and we can find more people willing to resist.’’

‘’That is a reasonable line of action, Mother. I will thus concentrate on acquiring discreetly information on the Germans…after my second night visit to the École Militaire.’’

Marie seemed satisfied with that and left, closing the door behind her. Finishing her sponge bath, Mélanie then laid down on her bed to rest for a few hours after her long night of physical labor.

14:02 (Paris Time)

Laundry room, ‘Mille et Une Nuits’ cabaret

Mélanie was helping Stéphanie Morin, the maid in charge of cleaning the rooms used by the customers of the cabaret, in washing bed sheets when an excited Fatimah Kassem burst in the laundry room and shouted at the two girls.

‘’COME, QUICKLY! RADIO PARIS IS PASSING SOME BIG NEWS!’’

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Mélanie and Stéphanie didn’t need to be told twice and rushed out of the laundry room, following Fatimah to the large combined kitchen and dining room of the cabaret, where they found Marie Laurent and the other employees of the establishment gathered around the radio set sitting on top of a counter. In 1940, radio was the only means available to get news quickly, the only other alternative being to wait for the next morning newspaper.

‘’What is happening, Mother?’’

‘’Prime Minister Reynaud just announced his resignation. Marshall Pétain, who is replacing him at the head of the government, is about to speak.’’ explained quickly Marie to Mélanie before returning her attention to the radio set. While starting to listen as well, Mélanie thought about the implications of that latest piece of news. No good news in terms of French military actions had filtered yet, a sure sign that things were going badly for the French Army. The resignation of the prime minister also meant that the government was in disarray and had all but given up on the situation. As for Marshall Philippe Pétain, a widely admired hero of the First World War, his taking charge of the government was possibly one reason to keep some hopes. Those hopes were however dashed quickly as the old soldier spoke in a tone that presaged more bad news to come. Marie did a double take on hearing one particular part of Pétain’s speech.

‘’The French Third Republic is dissolved? And what is that new ‘French State’ going to be like? I don’t like this at all!’’

There were however more news following the Marshall’s speech, with an announcer saying that a new ministry was being created on orders from Pétain and the Germans, in order to organize and administer a future rationing program. The men and women assembled around the radio looked gloomily at each other as the news program concluded.

‘’Rationing?’’ said in a downcast voice Sylvie Renaudin, the 45-year-old cook of the cabaret. ‘’I had to live through rationing during the past war and it was no fun. Black marketeering and corruption are sure to play havoc with any fair distribution of food. I can bet that all the food shops will be emptied by the end of this day after this announcement: people are going to rush to buy what they can before this rationing program is started.’’

‘’You’re unfortunately right about that, Sylvie.’’ said Marie. ‘’Thankfully, we already bought sizeable reserves of food on Friday which will sustain us for a week or two. After that, we will see.’’

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The rest of the group didn’t speak up after her, too preoccupied by what the future had in store for them. Except for Mélanie, who simply twisted her head, they collectively jumped nervously when someone knocked loudly on the front door of the cabaret.

‘’I’ll get it!’’ said Mélanie, who then walked quickly out of the kitchen and through the show lounge to get at the main door. She however felt some anxiety when she saw through the window of the vestibule that her visitors were Germans…armed Germans. Taking a deep breath to compose herself first, she then unlocked and opened the door, coming face to face with a German officer with some gray hair. She relaxed a bit when she recognized a smiling Hauptmann Herman Kummersbach, who was part of the group of officers and soldiers accompanying the leading visitor.

‘’Welcome to the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’ Cabaret, sir. What can I do for you?’’ She said politely in German, making the senior officer nod once his head.

‘’Good afternoon, miss. I am Major Hans Folkenstadt and I came to bring some news to the manager of this cabaret.’’

‘’That would be my mother, Marie Laurent, sir. Please come in and make yourself comfortable in the show lounge while I go get her.’’

‘’Thank you, miss.’’ replied Folkenstadt, who then entered with four officers and two soldiers armed with submachine guns. The two soldiers then took position at the entrance to the show lounge while the officers sat down on the various couches and chairs, looking around and commenting on the exotic decoration of the room. Mélanie nearly collided with her mother when the latter emerged from the back room of the lounge.

‘’What is it, Mélanie?’’

‘’Germans officers are here, supposedly to give us some news. They are led by a Major Hans Folkenstadt.’’

‘’Very well! Could you stay with me to act as translator? My German is so limited.’’

‘’Of course, Mother!’’

Returning together in the show room, Marie stopped in front of Folkenstadt, while Mélanie stood slightly back and to her left, ready to translate. Marie then used her best German to present herself.

‘’Welcome to the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’, Major. I am Marie Laurent, owner and manager of this cabaret.’’

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Folkenstadt, who had got up on his feet when she entered, took her right hand and gallantly kissed it in the old Prussian fashion, then spoke if good but accented French.

‘’And I am Major Hans Folkenstadt, Commander of the First Battalion, 326th

Infantry Regiment. I was sent by my regimental commander, Oberst-Leutnant9 Steiner, to pass to you some important news concerning your cabaret. First, I would like to visit and inspect your cabaret and meet with your girls, if you don’t mind.’’

‘’Not at all, Major! I will first call in my girls to this room, so that you can see them.’’

‘’Thank you, Madame Laurent!’’

Marie then turned her head to speak to her adopted daughter.

‘’Mélanie, please go get our dancing girls.’’

‘’Yes, Mother!’’

Mélanie then left at a near run, returning within a minute with the eight strippers of the cabaret and making them line up in front of the German officers, whose eyes lit up at once while they admired the young women. While more restrained in his reaction, Folkenstadt apparently appreciated himself their beauty. He however gave a

questioning look at Mélanie while speaking to Marie.

‘’I was made to understand that your daughter herself also dances in your cabaret, madam?’’

‘’That’s correct, Major. I adopted her when she was nine.’’ lied Marie, using the false age she had given to the local authorities when she had officially adopted Mélanie. ‘’She is an excellent dancer and also a gifted singer, on top of being extremely beautiful.’’

‘’She is indeed very beautiful, madam. Well, with this said, would you mind if our regimental medical officer, Major Nordling, makes a quick medical examination of your girls while I tour your cabaret?’’

‘’He is most welcome to them, Major.’’ said Marie with a smile and a tone that made the junior German officers briefly laugh, while Nordling, a tall and thin man with unassuming manners, reddened a bit from embarrassment. Marie then led Folkenstadt and three officers in an inspection tour of the cabaret, leaving Nordling and the two armed soldiers at the entrance alone with the girls. Mélanie then stepped forward, smiling to the German doctor.

9 Oberst-Leutnant: German rank for lieutenant-colonel.

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‘’Why don’t you start with me, Doctor?’’

‘’Thank you, miss! Uh, I will need a more private setting to examine you: I wouldn’t want to make you strip in front of my soldiers.’’

Mélanie, who was in reality very leery about being examined medically because of her abnormal anatomy as a demon, replied with a grin.

‘’But we ARE stripping girls, Doctor. Let your hard-working soldiers enjoy the moment while they are here.’’

‘’Uh, very well, miss. Please undress and then sit on that couch.’’ With the two German soldiers guarding the entrance repressing grins while watching, Mélanie shed off her clothes, then sat on the couch designated by Nordling. However, before the German doctor could start his examination proper, she silently put on him a ‘Charm’ and a ‘Suggestion’ spell. With his mind now pretty well controlled by Mélanie, Nordling started taking her vital signs, or believed that he was doing so. In fact, while he went through the motions of examining her, he saw, felt and heard what she wanted him to. In reality, the bodies of Demons like Mélanie were vastly different from those of Humans. For one thing, she did not have a real pulse, so she mentally suggested to Nordling that he was feeling a normal, healthy pulse and blood pressure, which he recorded on his note pad, along with her name, age and other vital signs. Next, he made her lie down on the couch to examine her body in detail, concentrating on her genitals. He finally told her to get dressed while writing notes on his pad.

‘’You seem in excellent health, miss.’’

‘’Thank you, Doctor!’’

‘’You’re welcome! Next!’’

Nordling was examining the last girl, Dinh Fam Tieu, when Folkenstadt and his officers returned to the lounge with Marie, looking quite satisfied and in a good mood.

‘’I must say that you run a clean, well-furnished establishment, Madame Laurent. You also have a quite impressive wine cellar, with some fine vintage bottles in it.’’

‘’I do, Major, but I am worried that restocking my cellar will become quite difficult as the war progresses. I just heard on the radio that a program of rationing is going to be put in place in the weeks to come.’’

‘’Ah, yes, the rationing… This actually leads me to the main reason of my visit here. Doctor Nordling, are you satisfied with the health of Madame Laurent’s girls?’’

‘’Yes, Major! They all are in good health.’’

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‘’Excellent! Well, Madame Laurent, here is the deal: since your establishment has proved to be both of a high standard and is also most welcoming to German officers, Oberst-Leutnant Steiner, with the approval of our divisional commander, has designated your cabaret as a favored establishment to serve the needs of the Wehrmacht. As a consequence, your cabaret is to serve strictly German officers, Nazi Party officials and their guests from now on. In return, this will guarantee for your cabaret a steady, well-paying clientele. You will also gain privileged access to rationed goods, notably wines and liquors, so that you can keep serving a high-quality standard to our officers.’’ Marie was left speechless for a moment, stunned by that announcement. She however regained her composure quickly and politely asked a question to Folkenstadt.

‘’I am flattered by the confidence your commander is showing towards my establishment, Major. You mentioned German officers, Nazi officials and their guests, but not German soldiers. Will simple soldiers be allowed to use my cabaret?’’

‘’No! Their needs will be catered to by other, less luxurious and more affordable establishments for their needs.’’

‘’Oh, I see! Uh, if I could make a suggestion, I could still entertain your men by occasionally bringing my troop of girls and musicians to your barracks and make a public show there for your soldiers, just a strip show with no sexual intercourse. What do you think, Major?’’

Folkenstadt took only a short moment to think that over, finally nodding his head while smiling to Marie.

‘’That is actually an excellent idea, Madame Laurent. I will have to run it by my regimental commander first but I expect him to agree to it.’’

‘’We could make our show in the chapel of your barracks, Major.’’ proposed Mélanie, a devilish smile on her face, making the German officers laugh. Folkenstadt could only shake his head in amusement at her proposition.

‘’A strip show in a chapel… That’s quite a sinful idea, young girl.’’

‘’Sinning is my specialty, Major.’’ replied Mélanie, making the Germans exclaim with false indignation. Now in a really good mood, Folkenstadt pointed one of his accompanying officers, a captain in his early thirties.

‘’I decidedly have come to the right establishment today. Madame Laurent, I would like to present to you Hauptmann Lansdorf, our regimental paymaster. He brought French Francs with him, so that you could exchange the Reichmarks my officers spent here yesterday. He will regularly visit your cabaret to continue exchanging your

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German money. Doctor Nordling, on the other hand, will supply you with an ample reserve of condoms, courtesy of the German Army, so that you could provide them to our visiting officers.’’

Marie Laurent could only nod in agreement with all that, realizing at once the kind of fantastic access to German installations and personnel this was going to give to her and, particularly, to Mélanie, with all her special abilities and powers. There was only one sour point she could see in all this.

‘’Major, I am truly honored by all the favors you are bestowing on me and my cabaret, but I have one worry.’’

‘’And that would be?’’ said Folkenstadt, becoming serious at once.

‘’I am talking about the public perception of my cabaret, Major. Many of my neighbors may react badly to the favors you gave me and I am worried about the future safety of my girls. On the other hand, permanently posting German soldiers at the entrance of my cabaret would probably only inflame French opinion against me.’’ Folkenstadt, who was no idiot and understood too well the dilemma facing Marie, replied at once, his voice firm.

‘’Well, if your neighbors have any brains, they will abstain from harming you and your girls, unless they want to land in big trouble with us. I however agree with you that posting a permanent guard duty in front of your cabaret would be a bad idea. If you ever run into any kind of trouble because of the hospitality you are showing to us, then don’t hesitate to come see me at the French École Militaire, where my regiment is lodged.’’

‘’Thank you, Major! That is very much appreciated, truly.’’

‘’That is the least I can do for you, Madame Laurent. As a privileged provider of services to the Wehrmacht, let me give you now a few news and information ahead of the rest of the French population. First, starting tomorrow night, a night curfew will be enforced around Paris, from nine in the evening to five in the morning, Paris time. Anyone violating that curfew and not having a special permit will be stopped and questioned. Second, in one week, all French citizens in Paris will be asked to turn in to us any weapons and short-wave radio receivers they may have in their possession. I saw your radio in your kitchen, so you will have to turn it in then. Enjoy it while you still can. Third, a rationing system for foodstuff and various other items is being organized and will be implemented across the territories occupied by us in the next few weeks. However, as I told you earlier, you will enjoy a privileged access to rationed goods. Hauptmann Lansdorf will visit you then to explain to you the rules of the system and to

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bring you special rationing coupons for your use. Well, I believe that I gave you all the information I needed to give you, Madame Laurent. I will leave now, but you can expect many German officers to show up at your cabaret tonight.’’

‘’My girls will be ready for them, Major.’’ replied Marie, doing a curtsy in front of Folkenstadt. The latter replied with a nod of the head before turning around and leaving, with Doctor Nordling staying behind with Hauptmann Lansdorf. While Nordling had a soldier bring in a large box of condoms, Lansdorf exchanged for French Francs the Reichsmarks held by Marie, using the official rate of one Reichsmark per twenty French Francs. Mélanie, who was discretely watching everything around her, saw soldiers outside gluing some kind of signs on the main entrance door of the cabaret and on the nearby windows. Going briefly outside, she saw that the signs were official declarations in both French and German, declaring the cabaret to be opened strictly to German officers and their guests. Mélanie glumly contemplated in silence the sign on the door while thinking.

‘This is going to bring us trouble, big time!’

12:17 (Paris Time)

Tuesday, June 18, 1940

Service entrance of the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’ cabaret

Marie was in the kitchen of the cabaret, about to have soup and bread with her employees, when she saw from the corner of one eye Mélanie discreetly entering with her bicycle via the nearby service entrance. A large cardboard box sat on her bicycle, tied to its rear rack. Marie went to her daughter as the latter was storing her bicycle in the nearby storage room, closing the door of the service hallway before speaking to her.

‘’You’ve been doing a lot of comings and goings in the last two days, Mélanie. What are you up to?’’

The young Succubus gave her a no-nonsense look while answering her frankly.

‘’Buying things which could soon prove both vital and impossible to find, and this before the shops get emptied by panic buyers or get closed by the Germans. Major Folkenstadt’s warning about the incoming seizure of all weapons and short-wave radio receivers prompted me to act while I still could find useful things. I visited a number of shops yesterday and today, notably an electrical appliance shop, a pawnshop and a garage. In total, I have bought to date two short-wave radio receivers, one of which can

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work on batteries, spare batteries, an electrical transformer, wires, connectors, two car batteries and, finally, a hand-powered dynamo. With those last items I bought this morning, we will now have a short-wave radio receiver set connected to car batteries and a manual dynamo, the lot hidden inside the underground rotunda, while also having a portable radio hidden in our basement.’’

‘’And where did you find the money for all that, Mélanie? You didn’t steal that stuff, I hope?’’

Mélanie’s face then became most serious.

‘’No, Mother, I didn’t steal those items. What I did was exchange them against some of the gasoline I stole from the Germans. Right now, gasoline is like liquid gold in Paris, Mother. To return to the subject of that equipment I bought, getting news and information from outside which is not tainted by German or collaborationist propaganda will become vital to us if we ever are to be effective in resisting the Germans. Now is the time to prepare, Mother, before the Germans truly turn the screws on French citizens.’’ Marie was silent for a moment as she stared into the resolute eyes of her adopted daughter. Mélanie, or rather Delicia by her true birth name, had proved to be an extremely intelligent and resourceful young girl with a strong survival instinct. From what little Delicia had told her after Marie had found and sheltered her at age five, such resourcefulness and survival instincts were a must for any Demon wishing to survive and thrive in the Abyss, commonly known on Earth as Hell.

‘’Very well, Mélanie. You certainly make a lot of sense in view of our situation. Talking of situation and outside information, I heard this morning on the radio, while you were gone, an address on the French channel of BBC Radio given by a Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle, a French Army officer who fled to London after our armies were crushed by the Germans in Belgium and around Calais.’’

‘’So, what did he say, Mother?’’ asked Mélanie, instantly curious.

‘’He appealed to every French patriot able to reach England to do so and join the Free French Army, which he is forming there, to continue the fight against the Germans. He also called on all French citizens to continue resisting the Germans as best they could.’’

‘’So, all is not lost…’’ said dreamily Mélanie, making Marie nod her head.

‘’No, all is not lost, effectively. However, we are presently totally on our own, until some kind of organized resistance movement is formed here in Paris. How are you doing in terms of weapons and ammunition stolen from the École Militaire?’’

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‘’Pretty well indeed, but I am afraid that it will now become more difficult to get any more from there: the Germans have now started to do a detailed inventory of what is in the basements of the school, so I have to be quite cautious now. To answer your question, apart from a sizeable stock of both ammunition, explosives and gasoline, we now have in the rotunda 66 handguns, twenty submachine guns, ninety rifles and carbines and ten light machine guns, along with 1,200 fragmentation grenades and plenty of spare, empty magazines and ammunition.’’

Even with knowing the kind of powers and supernatural abilities held by her adoptive daughter, those numbers still made Marie open her eyes wide.

‘’My God! You have enough there to arm a whole infantry company.’’

‘’God had nothing to do with that, Mother.’’ corrected Mélanie, serious about that. ‘’You should know by now that he never does anything to help Humans. The only thing he is good at is punishing them.’’

Somehow, Marie had to agree with Mélanie on that: too many bad things had happened in the past years, with no miracles happening to compensate for those bad things.

More bad news actually piled on in the coming days, first with the announcement on June 22 of the signing of an armistice between France and Germany which signaled the official defeat and surrender of France and the imposing by the Germans of very harsh terms and conditions. Those sanctions notably included a country-wide night curfew and blackout, massive war repayments by France to Germany and the systematic looting of the French economy, meant to support German forces and the German economy. On June 23, the next day, the Germans ordered all the French citizens to turn in any weapons and short-wave receiver radio sets in their possession. On that occasion, Marie managed to keep her original short-wave radio by appealing to Major Folkenstadt and telling him that she wanted to put it inside her show room, tuned to Berlin radio stations and playing German music. That last factor, while gaining Folkenstadt’s quick approval, also proved to be surprisingly effective in attracting many more German officers to the cabaret and putting them even more at ease, thus helping greatly Mélanie’s efforts at gathering useful military intelligence from their guests. Unfortunately, while business went very well for Marie Laurent and her cabaret, the dark looks she and her girls got from other French citizens in the Quartier Latin kept becoming more frequent and worrying as the days went by.

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