A YOUNG SUCCUBUS NAMED DELICIA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 10 – THE SS ARE COMING

 

12:06 (Paris Time)

Friday, September 19, 1941

‘Mille et Une Nuits’ Cabaret, 34 Rue Saint-André-des-Arts Quartier Latin, 6th Arrondissement, Paris Occupied France

Mélanie was quite satisfied with her late night to late morning visit to London as she teleported from her secret cave to her bedroom on the upper floor of the cabaret. First, she had visited under invisibility cloak a British armory in the suburbs of London and had ‘requisitioned’ there two American-made Thompson Model 1928A1 .45 caliber submachine guns, two British-made Sten Mark II 9mm caliber submachine guns, a Bren Gun .303 caliber light machine gun, two FN GP35 9mm pistols, one Very signal flare pistol, numerous spare magazines and lots of ammunition, on top of a few boxes of smoke and incendiary grenades. In fact, it had taken her a total of five return trips to teleport all that to her secret cave. With those new additions to her already extensive arsenal, her ‘Paris Commando unit’ would now appear to the Germans as a well-armed British unit armed solely with standard British Army weapons, thus not providing an excuse to the Germans to retaliate by executing French hostages. After that, she had made a final trip to London to drop at the Free French Forces headquarters a package containing the latest military information on the Germans that she and the other dancing girls of the cabaret had been able to milk from visiting German officers. Later on, during the next early morning, after she would have finished dancing and stripping for German customers, she planned to pay a visit to the Austerlitz railway station, where she knew that a train full of requisitioned French goods was due to leave for Germany. All in all, she was finding herself busier than ever in this war, but her efforts were definitely leaving their mark by now. Hit nearly every night by ghost-like ‘British’ commando raids around Paris, the German garrison of the city was now nearly paranoid, with German sentries firing at about anything which moved in the night and causing quite a few accidental friendly casualties. German street patrols and checkpoints were also much less frequent, with troops preferring to stay barricaded inside their barracks as much as possible. Yes,

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that had hurt somewhat the cabaret in terms of the volume of its German clientele, but Marie Laurent had been the first to concede that this was a more than acceptable price to pay in order to loosen the German grip over the capital and its inhabitants. The other Résistance groups in Paris, while still not knowing who was causing all this mayhem and the litany of lootings of German supplies, could only be thankful for the diminished pressure from the Abwehr and Gestapo, two German security organizations which had been hit particularly hard during the last few months. One final benefit of all this was more personal for Mélanie: she had quickly learned from combat experience during her raids disguised as a British soldier and could now honestly call herself a seasoned, tactically competent combatant, adding her new martial prowess to her magical abilities and supernatural powers.

First taking a few hours to rest after her busy night and morning, more than enough for a Demon like her, Mélanie then started preparing for the arrival of the first customers of the cabaret tonight. She was however surprised when the doorman, Paul Dujardin, came up to her room to tell her that a German officer was asking to see her downstairs. Curious and also a little bit nervous, she went down to the show lounge dressed in her robe and slippers, to find out that one of her most regular customers, Leutnant Karl Mackessen, was the one waiting for her. She gave a warm smile to the handsome German, who had always been very correct with her and the other girls of the cabaret.

‘’Herr Leutnant Mackessen! To what do I owe this nice surprise visit?’’

‘’To some sad news for me, my beautiful Mélanie.’’ replied in a sober tone the tall, blond man in his twenties. ‘’My regiment, along with the rest of our division, is soon to be transferred to the Russian Front. The two other infantry divisions in and around Paris are also being transferred to Russia. In exchange, SS troops will soon take our place as occupying units in Paris.’’

Mélanie hid as best she could the apprehension she felt on hearing that. By now, she knew enough about the German forces and had heard about the reputation for brutality and viciousness of SS troopers.

‘’SS units, in Paris? Why such a switch?’’

‘’Because of the depredations of those British soldiers hiding around Paris. It seems that the Führer has grown fed up with the situation and has ordered the screws

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tightened on Paris and its suburbs. The three SS divisions coming soon to Paris will arrive straight from the Russian Front, where we will replace them.’’

‘’I am sorry to hear that, Karl: I will miss you and your comrades.’’ Those words made Mackessen lower his eyes for a moment before he looked back at Mélanie.

‘’I will miss you a lot too, Mélanie. However, I am also worried about what could happen to you and the other people in Paris.’’

‘’What do you mean, Karl?’’

‘’What I mean to say is that those incoming SS units have a very bad reputation. My division commander actually thinks of them as a collection of thugs and murderers in uniform. Rumors are that they massacred in Russia whole villages and groups of Soviet prisoners of war on a regular basis. Unfortunately, SS troops are sanctioned and supported by the Führer, so army commanders were unable to restrain the conduct of those SS soldiers. I am afraid that, with them in charge of the security situation in Paris, things will be much harsher for the citizens of Paris…and for you and the girls of this cabaret.’’

Mélanie was left speechless for a moment by those words: she had never dreamed that her actions would have attracted such an outcome, on the contrary. She had in fact expected a relaxation of the conditions in Paris, with occupying troops avoiding it for security reasons. Now, the prospects of what was coming were nothing but bone-chilling.

‘’And the Paris Kommandantur, will it be able to restrain those SS?’’ Mackessen shook his head slowly at her question.

‘’Not a chance! I do hope those SS will treat you and the girls here decently, but I don’t have much real hope for that. Be careful with them, Mélanie.’’

‘’I will, Karl. Be careful yourself while in Russia.’’

The German smiled at her last sentence and took a small, wrapped box from inside his greatcoat, then presented it to Mélanie.

‘’I brought a parting gift for you: Swiss chocolate. I hope that you will like it.’’

‘’You’re a sweetheart, Karl! I will think of you while eating them.’’

‘’Thank you! Unfortunately, I must go now: I have tons of things to do to prepare my men for our transfer to Russia.’’

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He then gave a last kiss on Mélanie’s lips before leaving. Mélanie stayed motionless near the door for a moment as she thought over what Mackessen had said, prompting Marie into coming to her and asking her a question in a concerned tone.

‘’Is something wrong, Mélanie?’’

‘’Indeed, Mother! Karl’s unit, along with the other German Army units in Paris, are being transferred to Russia. In exchange, we will get SS troops as new occupiers and, if I can believe Karl, those SS are rumored to be thugs and murderers who committed numerous atrocities in Russia against civilians and prisoners of war.’’

‘’Oh my God!’’ exclaimed spontaneously Marie, prompting a sarcastic reply.

‘’Don’t wait for Him to help us, Mother. I would rather bet on Lucifer’s help. So many dark souls coming, ready to be sent to Hell. This is going to become very bloody indeed.’’

Marie gave a scared look at her adopted daughter then: despite all the years she had spent lovingly raising her, educating her and pushing her towards the good, Mélanie, or more correctly Delicia, was still at least partly a Demon at heart.

09:13 (Paris Time)

Monday, September 29, 1941

Court of Honor of the French Army Military School (École Militaire) 7th Arrondissement, Paris

General-Major Ernst Mandell, Commander of the 30th Infantry Division, felt nearly humiliated as his successor as commander of the troops garrisoned in Paris,

Brigadeführer29 Theodor Eicke, was approaching the lectern set up in the Court of Honor of the French Military School. Eicke, the commander of the newly arrived 3rd SS Division (Totenkopf), had insisted on arranging a formal ceremony of passage of command and had delayed for that purpose the departure of Mandell for Russia, towards which most of the men of the 30th Infantry Division were already on the way by rail. The previous day had been enough to show to Mandell that Eicke was true to his reputation as a thug unfit to wear a military uniform. Now, Mandell was going to be forced to pass his authority to that thug in front of assembled SS troopers lined up in the court and under the lens of official German photographers and cameramen. Making a show of looking martial in his

29 Brigadeführer: SS rank equivalent to Major General.

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deportment, Eicke, a slightly obese man, tapped on the microphone set on the lectern in order to test it, then started speaking.

‘’Brave men of the SS Third Division, you are…’’

POW

As surprised as anyone else present, Mandell could only watch at first as Eicke, hit in the back of the head by a bullet, crumbled to the ground. Then looking up and behind him, from where the detonation of the shot had come, Mandell was in time to see the flash of a gun firing from one of the top floor windows of the school’s library, which was housed in the main façade building in which the main school entrance was. This time, however, it was a machine gun firing and not simply a rifle. The first long burst hit the tight ranks of the assembled SS troopers as they stood at attention, mauling down a good dozen men before the SS men started reacting and broke rank at a run to take whatever cover was available. The courtyard was however quite vast and devoid of cover and more SS men were downed by a second machine gun burst before they could get to the first few trees planted around the parade ground. SS troopers were starting to fire back after hastily loading cartridges in their rifles, which had been kept unloaded for safety reasons for the parade, when a number of grenades started to be thrown from various windows of the buildings bordering the courtyard. Again caught by surprise, the SS troopers suffered heavy casualties from that rain of grenades, which was followed by a second machine gun firing from an East side building. Mandell, who had gone to check on Eicke, only to confirm that he was dead, understood at once that the infamous British commandos whose depredations had prompted the replacement of his division by SS troops were now greeting the newcomers in their usual deadly fashion. Forgetting about his personal safety, he watched critically how the SS troopers reacted and countered the British attack on them. Overall, he was not impressed at all, the SS men taking a long time to organize and start some kind of true counter-attack. Most of the SS soldiers actually stayed behind whatever cover they had found and simply fired around at the various spots from which fire had come from. That proved quite ineffective, as British commandos seemed to be everywhere, firing each time from different windows and different buildings. In contrast to the SS reactions, British fire proved most deadly, with machine gun bursts alternating with rifle shots and grenade throws and downing scores of SS men. A couple of SS officers finally reacted correctly and led groups of troopers inside the buildings of the school to start chasing the British out of them.

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Judging from the noise of fierce gunfire exchanges and grenade detonations coming from the inside during the next few minutes, that task proved to be anything but easy. Mandell, still in the open and exposed, then realized that the British could have easily spotted him and shot him dead, but had not targeted him once, yet. He nearly chuckled when he understood that the goal of the British today was to humiliate the incoming SS men and teach them a lesson right from the start. From what he could now see and hear, it appeared that the British were having much success in those goals today.

As abruptly as it had started, the shooting and fighting stopped maybe fifteen minutes after the first shot that had killed Eicke. Tense and nearly under shock, the SS troopers slowly came out from behind cover or from inside the buildings of the schools, many carrying out wounded German men. Intercepting a SS senior officer who was passing by, Mandell spoke to him in a command voice.

‘’Sturmbannführer30, have any of our attackers been killed or captured?’’

‘’Nein, Herr General! However, our men saw a number of British soldiers running from firing position to firing position. These attackers also left behind hundreds of brass casings from .303 caliber rounds. The last word I got was that those British soldiers were last seen withdrawing towards the underground levels of the school.’’

‘’Hum, that corresponds to what we already know about their favored tactics. It seems that those British soldiers use the various caves, tunnels and old underground quarries of Paris as a way to go around unseen.’’

‘’Should we send search parties in those tunnels, Herr General?’’

‘’NO! That is exactly what those British soldiers will be hoping for: to attract our men into further ambushes on obscure grounds we know very poorly. You better simply collect your dead and wounded and secure the school grounds. How many casualties have you suffered?’’

‘’I am not sure, Herr General, but I have personally seen at least fifty dead and wounded men to date. Our total casualties will probably exceed a hundred men.’’

‘’Very well, Sturmbannführer! Carry on!’’

While he could not be said to be satisfied by this, being another clear victory for the British at the expense of German soldiers, Mandell could at least tell himself that the SS

 

30 Sturmbannführer: SS rank equivalent to Major.

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troopers were most probably not going to fare any better than the men of his division against those ghost-like commandos.

15:30 (Paris Time)

Saturday, October 4, 1941

Near the Porte de Clignancourt, 18th Arrondissement Northern suburbs of Paris

Leutnant Rudolph Zimmermann, sitting with three of his comrade fighter pilots in

the small VW Kubbelwagen31 staff car, saw first the military checkpoint ahead of them, just after the bend on the road that they had just negotiated.

‘’Slow down, Max: there is a checkpoint dead ahead.’’

Max Grundig, who was driving, did so and they soon screeched to a halt at the checkpoint, composed of a chicane made of old steel barrels filled with rocks and guarded by at least ten soldiers backed up by an armored half-track and by a machine gun sited inside a sandbagged position. Rudolph hid his displeasure on seeing that the soldiers were SS troopers: he didn’t like the SS, for a number of reasons. His displeasure turned into cold hatred when he saw that two of the SS soldiers were busy beating up with their rifle butts a civilian man lying down in the grass on one side of the road. He quickly understood why the poor man was being beaten when he was forcibly pulled back up and then chased away with ample kicks from the soldiers: the civilian wore a yellow star of David, marking him as a Jew. That didn’t quiet Rudolph’s anger, on the contrary. The pilot however had to refocus his attention, as a SS soldier was approaching the staff car. The soldier saluted them but his tone was barely polite when he spoke.

‘’Papers, please!’’

The four fighter pilots were in the process of fishing out their military identity cards when the armored halftrack exploded in a big fireball. Less than three seconds later, another explosion projected the machine gunners, shredded and bloody, out of their sandbagged position. With their vehicle stuck between the two lines of barrels of the chicane and with the barrier still down, the unfortunate pilots could only duck as much as they could in their seats as machine gun fire started sweeping the surviving SS soldiers. The SS

31 Kubbelwagen: Military variant of the famous VW Beetle.

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who had asked for their papers ended up dead, sprawled on top of the hood of their Kubbelwagen. Then, as quickly as it started, the fighting stopped. Cautiously raising their heads to look around them, the pilots saw that all the SS soldiers were either dead or on the ground, moaning with pain. Rudolph’s eyes bulged out and his heart jumped in his chest when he saw a British soldier armed with a light machine gun come out from behind a nearby tree, his weapon pointed at the staff car. Rudolph then spoke as calmly as he could to alert his comrades without making them do something regrettable.

‘’You better put your hands up, guys: a British soldier is approaching us.’’

‘’Mein Gott!’’ couldn’t help say Max Grundig in a weak voice while raising slowly his hands up. Thankfully, Rudolph’s two other comrades also raised their hands. The British soldier, who wore the ranks of a sergeant, stopped briefly by the side of a wounded SS soldier, taking the time to coldly finish him off with one bullet before approaching the Kubbelwagen, his face hard. He however smiled after examining for a second the four scared pilots.

‘’Aah, gentlemen of the Luftwaffe, hey?’’ He said in English with a peculiar accent. Rudolph, who could speak English, swallowed hard and answered him.

‘’Yes, we are from the Luftwaffe, and not from the SS Corps.’’

‘’Good for you!’’ replied in a jovial tone the sergeant, who wore Canadian patches and insignias. ‘’You get a free pass today! Move along, chaps!’’

‘’What did he say?’’ asked nervously Max Grundig, making Rudolph point the road ahead.

‘’Go, and don’t ask questions now!’’

The Canadian sergeant then surprised the pilots further by unceremoniously pulling the body of the dead SS off the hood of the Kubbelwagen, then raising the barrier of the checkpoint and saluting them as they drove past him.

‘’Enjoy Paris while you can, chaps!’’

Rudolph waited until they were out of view of the checkpoint before blowing air out in relief and telling his three comrades what the enemy soldier had said, leaving them both incredulous and thankful.

‘’Mein Gott! My wife won’t believe me when I will tell her about this.’’ said Bruno Honnecker. ‘’Why did that Brit spare us?’’

‘’First, he was Canadian, not British.’’ answered Rudolph. ‘’Second, I believe that he wanted to make the point that his unit’s designated targets today were SS troops. Personally, I could think of quite a few reasons to single out SS troopers like this.’’

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His companions all nodded their heads at that: the SS may be feared, but few in Germany liked them. Of a common accord, the four pilots decided not to mention the incident to any SS soldier or officer they may cross path with this evening and to wait until the next day to report it to their own unit intelligence officer, the reasoning being that the SS may find suspicious the fact that they had been spared by the enemy.

After stopping for supper at a good restaurant on the Right Bank of the Seine, in the 2nd Arrondissement, the four pilots arrived at around seven in the evening at their prime intended destination: the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’ Cabaret. Being fairly regular patrons with a good reputation as well-behaving customers, they were promptly shown seats in the show lounge, which was uncharacteristically empty of visitors at this hour. Rudolph let out a deep sigh of relief when he sat down, making Marie Laurent smile down at him.

‘’Mon Dieu, Herr Leutnant, was the road trip from your base that tiring?’’

‘’Tiring? No! Scary? Yes! Do you still have some cognac available? I think I really need something strong to help my poor heart.’’

‘’I will have a cognac too, Madame Laurent.’’ said Max Grundig, imitated by the other two pilots of their group. Marie raised an eyebrow at that.

‘’Well, you will certainly need to tell me about your trip, gentlemen…and I do have still a good bottle of cognac in my cellar. In the meantime, Sung Li will take care of starting to relax you four.’’

The four pilots smiled at that: Sung Li was a 23-year-old, deliciously exotic Chinese beauty whom they had all tasted in the past. True to her word, Marie sent the Chinese girl in the lounge within a minute, where she started dancing and stripping at once to the music of the three regular Arabic musicians employed by the cabaret. To Rudolph’s delight, it was young and beautiful Mélanie who came to bring their glasses of cognac to the pilots. After distributing the glasses around, she sat down next to Rudolph, while Marie Laurent sat between him and Max Grundig to talk with them while they watched Sung Li dance.

‘’So, what happened during your trip to shake you that much, gentlemen?’’ asked Marie to no particular pilot. Rudolph took on him to tell the tale of their misadventure, making Marie’s jaw drop.

‘’My God! This certainly qualifies as a close call.’’

‘’It indeed does, madam. By the way, your cabaret is strangely empty for a Saturday night.’’

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‘’Well, it seems that those British commandos you encountered have made many of our regular customers leery about going around Paris at night. From the little I heard about those commandos, I would say that the caution of our usual customers is understandable.’’

‘’And those newly arrived SS units, did any of their officers started frequenting your cabaret?’’

Marie Laurent suddenly became much more reserved at that question from Max Grundig.

‘’No, not yet! They are probably still too busy establishing their units around Paris. To be frank, I am not anxious to see them here as customers. Out of the few SS officers who came to our cabaret in the past year, two of them proved to be very rough with my girls and I had to ban them from my cabaret, getting the help of a friend at the Kommandatur to have them disciplined.’’

The youngest of the four pilots, Bruno Honnecker, hesitated a bit before asking a question to Marie.

‘’Excuse me if my question will sound naïve to you, Madame Laurent, but may I ask what you think about us Germans? Most French people openly hate us and shun us, but your cabaret is one of the rare places in Paris which truly made me feel welcomed.’’ Marie, instead of laughing at Bruno’s question, nodded her head soberly.

‘’A very good question indeed…with a very complicated answer to it, Herr Honnecker. First off, let me tell you that I have been managing this cabaret cum luxury bordello for seventeen years now and I have seen all kinds of customers go through it, be they French, British, German, Italian or any other nationality under the Sun. Some were rich industrialists or businessmen, powerful politicians, diplomats, aristocrats or senior military officers, while others were less wealthy people who saved for a while in order to fulfill their dreams for one night in my cabaret. Most were thankfully decent and gentlemanly with my girls but a few others, mostly the richest ones, acted like selfish assholes. In fact, my worst customers were Frenchmen, not Germans, if you save the one Spanish diplomat whom I had thrown out Manu-Military by my doorman a few years ago. On the other hand, our two countries are at war, with your country now occupying my country. Do I like that? Not one bit, and neither do Mélanie or my dancing girls. However, me and my girls depend on the revenues from this cabaret to make a living and survive in a world where women are still treated as an inferior class by men. Like for our past patrons before this war, we can’t choose our customers and must accommodate them as reasonably as possible, if we want to stay in business. I certainly

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can’t change the course of this war by myself, so I decided to go with the flow, as they say, and accept Germans as customers. As long as they don’t try to push Nazi ideology on me and as long as they deal decently with my girls, my German customers will be welcomed here, like all my past customers who behaved, even though this has caused to me and my girls a lot of grief with our neighbors, who would gladly torch down my cabaret by now. To resume what I said, I judge my customers individually and not according to their nationality. For that reason, you gentlemen from the Luftwaffe will always be welcome here, along with your comrades from the Kriegsmarine, even though your submariners often still stink of diesel fumes when they show up.’’ The four pilots laughed heartily at that jab at German submariners. Rudolph then smiled to Marie.

‘’I must say that this is about the most honest answer to a question that I ever heard, Madame Laurent. Thank you for your comprehension and open-mindedness.’’ He then looked at Mélanie, still sitting beside him.

‘’And you, Mélanie, what do you think?’’

‘’I fully agree with my mother, Rudolph. I will however add to that the fact that I genuinely love sex and that, as a girl with a strong character, I don’t care what others may think about that. I don’t intend to ever marry and I plan to always be my own master in life. So, sorry if that means that you have to abandon any dreams of marrying me after this war.’’

‘’Was I that obvious, Mélanie?’’ said Rudolph, faking a hurt tone and making his three comrades laugh again.

‘’For a girl like me, yes! But you have proved to be a more than decent man, so I will give you guys a little extra.’’

Mélanie then got up and whispered to one ear of Marie, who then nodded her head. To the delight of the four German fighter pilots, Mélanie then joined Sung Li on the dance floor, gluing herself to the Chinese girl and starting to caress her in a most sensual way. Sung Li, smiling, then started doing some caressing of her own, while both girls stripped each other slowly. By the time that Mélanie and Sung Li were fully naked and kissing and fondling each other, the four pilots were as horny as steel bars. As both girls, still naked, went to sit on the laps of Rudolph and Bruno, Rudolph looked with some embarrassment at Marie.

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‘’Uh, our little adventure a bit earlier has kind of convinced me that it may not be safe for us to return to our airbase at night. Would you mind if we could pass the night here, Madame Laurent?’’

Marie made a sarcastic smile as she answered him.

‘’Oh, I’m sure that we could decide on a special all-night fare for you and your three comrades, Herr Leutnant, especially since we are having so few customers tonight. Which two of my other girls would you like to have tonight as companions, on top of Mélanie and Sung?’’

After a minute of making hard choices, the Germans asked for Yasmina Hussein and Dinh Tieu to join them. Once the Lebanese girl and the petite and delicate Vietnamese showed up, the pilots went for broke and ordered bottles of champagne, starting a mini-orgy in the show lounge. After a half-hour of merry drinking and mutual fondling, the four pilots and four girls moved to the guest bedrooms upstairs to continue their party in more intimacy.

The four pilots, utterly broke but most happy, left the cabaret in mid-morning, once the Sun was well up, to return to their airfield northwest of Paris. Both Marie and Mélanie waved them goodbye as they drove away. Marie sighed as the kubbelwagen went out of her sight.

‘’Damn war! Those four Germans are most decent men, even if they are fighting against the allies of France.’’

Mélanie nodded her head at that, also feeling ambiguous about the departing pilots.

‘’True! Hopefully, circumstances will not force me to kill them if I meet them again during one of my covert raids. Talking of raids, there is a train full of requisitioned supplies due to leave at noon from the Gare de l’Est. I better go to my cave to prepare for it.’’

‘’Will you be back early enough to start greeting with me German customers this afternoon, Mélanie?’’

‘’Don’t worry, Mother: I will be back by two o’clock at most.’’ Mélanie then threw a dark look at one of their neighbors, a fat woman in her fifties who played busybody from the balcony of her second-floor apartment, in the building across the street from the cabaret.

‘’When I think that all those hypocrites and morons around us think that we are collaborating with the Germans. I am worried that they may attack us or put the

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liberation authorities against us once the Germans are chased out of Paris. I may have to do something about that, but in a way that will not blow our cover to the Germans. However, I am still not sure how to do that.’’

‘’Well, let’s live this war one day at a time, Mélanie. We are still a very small cog in the effort to rid France of its German invaders.’’

‘’A small cog? Mother, I just caused the transfer of three divisions out of Paris!’’

‘’Yes, but you in turn drew tens of thousands of brutish SS troopers to our city.’’ Replied Marie while looking a bit crossly at her adopted daughter. ‘’I don’t think that we gained in that exchange. Those SS men have not yet showed up here at the cabaret, but I dread the day when they will start frequenting my establishment. I am particularly worried about how they will treat my girls. Their reputation is quite awful, as you must know already.’’

‘’Well, I am sure that your good relations with General Stulpnagel and his staff will help keep these SS men in check, Mother. Be sure however that I won’t let anyone mistreat me, or mistreat one of our employees in front of me.’’

‘’And what would you do then? Disintegrate that SS man?’’ Mélanie smiled before touching her temple with one index.

‘’Oh, something more subtle than that: I will play head games with him.’’

19:43 (Paris Time)

Thursday, October 9, 1941

‘Mille et Une Nuits’ Cabaret

Paris

Marie, alerted by her doorman, hurried into the show room to greet the high-ranking SS officer who had just stepped in with four huge SS bodyguards. Being quite proficient by now in identifying the various rank insignias and uniforms of the German forces, she saw that the officer was an Obersturmbannführer, or lieutenant colonel, of the SD, the security services of the SS Corps. That unsettled a bit Marie, as the SD controlled the dreaded German secret police, the Gestapo, of sinister reputation. Steeling herself and painting a welcoming smile on her face, Marie walked to the SD senior officer and bowed her head to him politely, then spoke in her now decent German.

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

The officer, a small and surprisingly thin, nearly frail man, smiled back to her while kissing her right hand. He then spoke in good French.

‘’And I am honored to meet you, madam. I am

Obersturmbannführer Walter Schellenberg, Special Envoy and Assistant of Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Reich Main Security Office. But be reassured, madam: I am here for pleasure, not for business.’’

Marie didn’t have to fake her surprise then on hearing how high her visitor was in the SS hierarchy. Doing her best to ignore the four big SS bodyguards, who towered over both her and Schellenberg, she showed to the latter an empty sofa on one side of the lounge.

‘’Please, make yourself comfortable, Herr Obersturmbannführer. Would you like something to drink? Wine or spirits?’’

‘’Would you have Champagne by chance, madam? I know that Champagne is becoming quite rare by now in France but your establishment was highly recommended to me by General Von Stulpnagel himself.’’

That came as another surprise to Marie. However, Schellenberg had an intelligent, warm expression and seemed to be a well-educated man, so she relaxed a bit.

‘’I do have a few bottles of Champagne in my cellar, thanks to gifts brought to me by some of my customers, including General Von Stulpnagel. MARC, BRING UP A CHILLED BOTTLE OF DOM PÉRIGNON AND A CUP!’’

‘’Dom Pérignon? You do indeed have good friends in the German

Kommandantur, madam.’’ said the SD man, visibly impressed. ‘’It is nice for me to see that we Germans are still welcome somewhere in Paris.’’ Marie stiffened a bit at those words, something that Schellenberg’s alert eyes noted.

‘’Do not worry, madam: you and your establishment have a very good reputation with us. I was referring to the brazen series of attacks by British soldiers presently hiding in the Paris region.’’

‘’Oh, them!’’

‘’Yes, them! They are the reason for my trip to Paris. But let’s stay on more agreeable subjects, Madame Laurent. General Von Stulpnagel has praised to me the

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beauty of your daughter, who dances in your cabaret. Would she be here tonight, by chance?’’

Marie understood at once how important this could become. If Mélanie could get intimate with Schellenberg, she would then be able to explore his mind and learn some very important Nazi secrets, thanks to her mental powers.

‘’My daughter Mélanie is effectively here tonight, Herr Schellenberg. However, she is presently busy washing and drying her hair upstairs: one neighbor who consider us as collaborators for welcoming German officers in this cabaret threw from atop a balcony the content of a chamber pot on Mélanie’s head, supposedly by accident of course.’’

Schellenberg nodded his head at that and pointed at one of his big bodyguards.

‘’A too frequent attitude by too many French citizens, unfortunately. If you wish so, I could send Otto here to go teach a lesson to that neighbor of yours.’’

‘’Uh, thank you but I would rather not, Herr Schellenberg: nearly all my neighbors are hostile to me and my girls and having one beaten up would only reinforce their hatred towards me.’’

‘’As you wish, madam.’’

Marie made a forced smile at him then. In truth, Mélanie was indeed busy washing and drying her hair, but not because she got a chamber pot poured on top of her. She was in fact washing her hair nearly every day now, in order to take out the strong smell of gunpowder and explosives from the attacks she perpetrated while disguised as a British soldier. Such a smell, which was easy to detect, would render suspicious at once any German officer dating her in the cabaret. Then, how would a French girl explain how she got the smell of gunpowder on her without incriminating herself at once? The arrival of her maître d’, Marc Aubut, carrying a silver platter with an ice bucket and a cup on it then gave Marie a respite and some time to think more. The maître d’ then took out of the ice bucket a champagne bottle and, after presenting it to Schellenberg and getting a nod from him, opened it with a resounding ‘POP’. Before Aubut could pour some champagne in his cup, Schellenberg stopped him with a gesture of the hand.

‘’First, bring a second cup for Madame Laurent.’’

‘’Right away, monsieur!’’

Marie smiled to the SD man as Aubut was hurrying back to the kitchen.

‘’Why, thank you very much, Herr Schellenberg: you are indeed a gentleman.’’

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‘’I pride myself in being a well educated and cultured man, madam.’’ replied the German, suave. ‘’In truth, I wish that we could end this war right now. So much death and destruction!’’

‘’I will certainly agree with you on that.’’ said Marie, sincere. ‘’Aah, here is my dear daughter Mélanie!’’

Turning his head towards the main staircase leading upstairs, Schellenberg saw a tall, incredibly beautiful teenage girl come down the stairs, dressed like an Arabian princess. His eyes glistened as he contemplated her sexy curves, feline grace and generous and firm chest, along with her long silky black hair which fell down nearly to her waist. Even Schellenberg’s bodyguards couldn’t keep an impassive face as they stared lustily at Mélanie. Stopping in front of the SD officer and bowing politely to him, Mélanie then gave him her most sensual smile.

‘’Welcome to the ‘Mille et Une Nuits’, monsieur.’’ She said in perfect German. ‘’I am Mélanie Laurent and I am at your service tonight.’’

Nearly hypnotized by her impossible beauty, Schellenberg managed with difficulty to stop staring at her long enough to look at Marie.

‘’Decidedly, General Von Stulpnagel didn’t exaggerate one bit about how beautiful your daughter was, Madame Laurent.’’

‘’Thank you, Herr Schellenberg! Now that my daughter is here to take care of you, I will go check on a few things, if you don’t mind.’’

‘’Please go ahead, madam.’’

As Marie left the show room, the three other German officers who had already been in it for a while decided to go upstairs with their chosen girls, leaving Schellenberg alone with Mélanie and his bodyguards. The SD man waited for the maître d’ to have returned and served him and Mélanie champagne, then leave, before speaking to the teenager.

‘’So, how old are you, my child?’’

‘’Seventeen, Herr Obersturmbannführer.’’ Lied the fourteen-year-old Demon. Schellenberg, whose marriage was not a happy one, couldn’t help imagine already what it was going to be to have such a fantastic-looking young girl in bed.

‘My name is Walter Schellenberg, but please just call me Walter, Mélanie.’’

‘’Very well, Walter. So, what brought you to Paris? Girls?’’ Schellenberg made a wry smile at that.

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‘’I wish that trip could have been strictly for pleasure but no, I am here to take care of some local problems. But let’s stay on nice subjects. Tell me how you ended up here in this cabaret, Mélanie.’’

‘’Oh, it is actually a rather short and straightforward story, Walter. I was abandoned by my mother at the age of nine in a back alley of Paris, because she couldn’t care for me anymore. Then, I was found by Marie, who sheltered me and adopted me. It seems that I always have had an affinity for sex and watching Marie’s girls dance convinced me that it was what I wanted to do. By working here in this cabaret, I preserve my future personal independence while accumulating enough savings to start a career of my own later on.’’

‘’And what would you like to do once an adult, Mélanie?’’

‘’I am seriously thinking about becoming a professional model or an actress.’’

‘’And I am sure that you would have great success in such careers.’’

‘’Thank you, Walter! But enough about me! Let this evening be your evening. If you would like to, I can dance for you while you relax and drink your champagne.’’

‘’That is a fine idea, Mélanie.’’

Getting up from the sofa, Mélanie then positioned herself in the middle of the lounge, in front of Schellenberg, and struck a dancing pause before looking at the three Arab musicians.

‘’Harem music, please!’’

She soon was dancing slowly, spinning around and swinging her hips while keeping her eyes fixed on the SD man and smiling at him. All but hypnotized by her, Schellenberg could only stare back in admiration as she progressively stripped out of her vaporous Persian dancer’s outfit and as the rhythm of the music accelerated. The music finally reached a crescendo and abruptly died as a now naked Mélanie sat down in Schellenberg’s lap, facing him and with her big, firm breasts near his face. The SD man had to take a deep breath then to come out of his near trance.

‘’Wow! Never have I seen such beauty and grace on display, Mélanie. You are truly fantastic.’’

‘’Why, thank you, Walter. Maybe we could continue this conversation upstairs, on a large and comfortable bed?’’

‘’That is an excellent idea, my dear Mélanie.’’ replied Schellenberg before getting up with her from the sofa and walking to the main staircase at one end of the lounge

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while holding her left hand. The four SS bodyguards looked at each other as the couple was climbing the stairs.

‘’Should we follow them upstairs?’’

‘’Me and Kurt will go up and stand guard outside their door.’’ replied Otto, the senior bodyguard. ‘’Fritz and Klaus, you make sure that no one tampers with the staff car outside.’’

The four SS guards then split as ordered, with two of them going outside to watch their car.

About one hour later, Schellenberg came back down to the show lounge with Mélanie and his two SS bodyguards, more than satisfied. He bowed politely to Marie, who had been anxiously waiting in the lounge to see how things went, and gave her an impressive pile of French Francs, which she gratefully accepted.

‘’Your daughter Mélanie is a true angel, Madame Laurent. Your cabaret made honor to its reputation.’’

‘’And I was honored to receive and entertain such a distinguished guest as you, Obersturmbannführer Schellenberg.’’ replied Marie, smiling at the irony of someone calling a Demon girl ‘a true angel’. ‘’Don’t hesitate to visit us again as much as you like.’’

‘’Oh, if I came back as much as I would like to, then I am afraid that I would get no work done at all, madam. Have a good night, you and your sweet Mélanie.’’ Schellenberg then left after a last kiss on the lips of Mélanie. Marie couldn’t help let out a breath in relief when Schellenberg’s staff car rolled away from the cabaret.

‘’Phew! At first, I was nearly expecting to be arrested on the spot. So, how was that Walter Schellenberg with you, Mélanie?’’

‘’He stayed a gentleman all the while, Mother. While he was a bit selfish as a sex partner, his manners were gentle and I think that I truly had him under my spell. I suspect that his marriage is not a very solid one, as he was really hungry for sex and seemed to expect at first a completely passive bed partner. Overall, I would say that he is a well-educated man with good manners and a sharp intelligence. He is no street brawler like his typical SS troopers and is an intellectual type with refined tastes, even though he is fully committed to the Nazi cause.’’

‘’And…about his visit to Paris?’’

‘’As I suspected, he was sent here on orders from Hitler himself to get rid of my ghost British commandos, who are apparently making the Führer mad. I was able to

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read his mind in bed and saw that he is planning a massive, coordinated sweep of the various underground complexes of Paris by the newly arrived SS units. He apparently believes that this is where the British commandos are hiding.’’

‘’So, what are you going to do about that, Mélanie? Suspend your raids temporarily and stay here?’’

That made Mélanie smile devilishly at her adoptive mother.

‘’Me, stop my raids? Hell, I will be waiting for those German search parties with great glee, Mother! I may be very busy in the next few days in order to prepare for those SS brutes.’’