The Violent Century Read Online Free PDF Page B

an elderly wolf.
    – As I said. The Old Man blows out a cloud of blue-grey smoke. It responds to Fogg. It whispers to him. That thing inside him that changed, that means fog and smoke are no longer natural phenomena but something almost alive , something he can, as ridiculous as it may sound, somehow manipulate. His Majesty’s Royal Service, the Old Man says. More specifically, the Bureau for Superannuated Affairs.
    Smokes and waits. A twinkle in his eyes. His grin a wolf’s grin.
    – I don’t understand, Fogg says. Runs it through his head. Comes up with: The Retirement Service ?
    The driver smiles in the rear-view mirror. Samuel, though Fogg doesn’t learn his name until much later. The Old Man says, Consider us a … pension scheme. For the Empire. Fogg shakes his head. The silence again. That waiting silence. Baiting him.
    They drive along the road, automobiles pass them going the other way, in the field a horse pulls a cart heaped with hay. The farmer driving it turns to look at them as they pass, the Old Man turns his head sharply, stares, his intensity frightening. As the car drives on the farmer and his cart disappear in the distance, grown small like ants. The road continues ahead. The Old Man sighs, rubs his head as if it hurts, says, I thought I felt something.
    Fogg is left wondering if one day, soon, that anonymous farmer, too, would receive an unexpected visit, would see the same Rolls-Royce glide into his path, making him stop, and stare, surprised and apprehensive.
    – You said Deutsch is a spotter, Fogg says. Of … you mean there are others?
    – What do you think? The Old Man says.
    – I hoped so. But I never knew.
    Relief in saying the words. Breathing in, deeply. The smell of hay from the fields. Passing a row of beehives, short squat boxes with a buzzing dark cloud around them. The Old Man, with unexpected gentleness: And you were afraid.
    – Wouldn’t you be? Fogg says.
    – Fear is healthy, the Old Man says. Then catches the driver’s eye in the mirror. Sighs. Says, Yes, I would be too. Says: I was .
    A connection between them. Things unsaid. A world of meaning in those two words. Not alone , Fogg thinks. For some reason, thinks of his father. When he, Henry, was young. When his father seemed to him like a tree, so big and strong, and he loved him, unconditionally, even when love hurt. And he says, with wonder in his voice, So you’re …
    – In a small way, the Old Man says. Yes.
    – What will happen to me? Fogg says, into the waiting silence. And the Old Man says, simply, You will serve.

NAZI FORCES INVADE POLAND
September 1, 1939
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WARSAW Nazi forces have invaded Poland in a move drawing wide condemnation across Europe. Reports suggest the attack began with the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opening fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, in Danzig. At the same time, German infantry divisions supported by squadrons of Luftwaffe airplanes began the invasion, and heavy bombings are currently rocking Warsaw.
The invasion follows Hitler’s previous acts of aggression: the September 1938 forced transfer of the ‘ethnically German’ Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany and the March 1939 occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia.

BRITAIN DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY
September 3, 1939
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LONDON Following the expiration of the deadline for German troops to withdraw from Poland, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has declared war on Germany. The French government has also declared war following the expiration of its own ultimatum to Germany. A new War Cabinet has been set up and Winston Churchill has been confirmed as First Lord of the Admiralty. King George IV, speaking on the radio, said: ‘The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield. But we can only do the right as we see the right and reverently commit our cause to God.’
All men between 18 and 41 are liable for conscription.

THREE:
    SNOW