Chapter 443: It Is Impolite Not to Reciprocate

In a quiet apartment in Liverpool, two British officers and a man in a suit sat at a table, drinking coffee in silence. The number of refugees outside was growing, but this apartment, being a government property, maintained its due peace and tranquility.

“The university has fallen?” the man in the suit asked, staring at his coffee. “I heard the defenders retreated with little resistance?”

“I think they did the right thing. We shouldn’t be destroying any more of Britain’s cities for that fool Churchill. Peace talks with the Germans are a must. The Germans lack the ability to govern overseas colonies; they don’t actually pose much of a threat to Britain. As long as we can buy half a year or a year’s time, we will still have a chance to defeat the German navy and turn our current disadvantage around,” one of the officers said with a nod.

“The Germans are not fools. Of course, they are not willing to just let the British surrender. Do you really think the people around His Majesty the King are all idiots?” the other officer sneered. “The fighting at the front looks fierce, but it’s all Churchill’s fault.”

In fact, the British Royal Family had long since begun to frequently dispatch envoys for peace through the neutral countries of Switzerland and Sweden. These envoys were sent in secret with the aim of conducting peace negotiations with Germany.

This was, in reality, a delaying tactic. It was less about negotiation and more about using the pretext of negotiation to buy time. If Akado were to agree to peace talks, the war would stop, and the two sides would haggle endlessly over various conditions. Eventually, when American aid to Britain had accumulated to a certain amount, the negotiations would break down, and the war would resume.

However, it was clear that the British were now less inclined to negotiate merely to stall for time. They now genuinely wanted to talk to the Germans about ending the war. After all, the German army was not far from the British capital.

But while it was once the Germans who had hoped for a British surrender, they now had not the slightest interest in the British peace feelers. To put it bluntly, the only thing Britain had worth negotiating over was the English Channel. Since the German army had already crossed it, there was no longer any need to talk about peace with the British.

Thus, the British envoys were left out in the cold, completely ignored. Merkel was currently meeting with Turkish negotiators, hoping to establish a solid strategic alliance between the two countries to lay a firm foundation for Germany’s campaign in the Middle East and a pincer attack on the Soviet Union.

Of course, the Turks were no fools. Although they had had a good cooperative relationship with Germany in the past, anyone who could become a nation’s negotiator was certainly not an idiot. The Turkish representative was stalling for time. He wanted to see the final result of the Battle of Britain before placing his bet between Germany and the United States.

Unlike the anxious Jews, Turkey, due to its geographical location, was determined to wait for the highest price. They knew that if Germany wanted to meddle in the Middle East and attack the Soviet Union, it would have to wait for Turkey’s decision. Because of Turkey’s importance, even if it were the last to join the German alliance, it would still be more important than a distant ally like Japan. So, Turkey had made up its mind: it would not release the hawk until it saw the rabbit.

“Cambridge has fallen. A large number of us technical personnel are to be sent to Canada. This sort of thing hasn’t happened in a hundred years. Even in Napoleon’s time, the British mainland was never attacked…” the man in the suit said with a sigh. “I’ve only just managed to decipher a part of the German code. I’ve only figured out the pattern for a few simple words. The rest of the work will have to wait until I get to Canada.”

Knock, knock, knock. A rhythmic knock sounded on the door. An officer stood up to answer it, grumbling as he walked, “What’s the matter? It takes this long just to buy some food.”

The moment he opened the door, he knew something was wrong. A cold glint of light appeared before his eyes, and before he could even take a step back, it had slit his throat.

He saw his own blood spurt out and also saw the face of the person opposite him—a strange, resolute face, with a pair of cold eyes under high brow bones. How did the Germans find this place? Isn’t the person we’re protecting a top secret? A few thoughts flashed through his mind, and then, a complete blank.

The British officer inside the room heard a heavy object fall to the floor. He paused for a moment, then stood up from his seat. He pulled out the pistol at his waist, signaled for the man in the suit not to make a sound, and then, while leaning towards the door leading to the living room, he said casually, “Look at you, just got back from buying food and you’re already making a clatter. You’re really a handful…”

Just as he was leaning against the wall, a man in overalls and carrying a knife flashed into the room. He raised his hand, intending to shoot the man who had burst in, in the back, but another hand grabbed his wrist from behind.

This British officer had clearly also undergone special training. With a twist of his wrist, he freed his arm. But it was only then that he saw that there were five enemies who had broken into the room. In the moment he hesitated, three short knives plunged into his chest and back.

A hand was clamped over his mouth. After a few muffled struggles, the British officer looked with an unwilling expression at the man in the suit, who was now pale with fright, and then died.

Of the German special forces who had burst into the room, a man with an ordinary face spoke in fluent English to the Englishman sitting in the chair, who was staring in terror at the dead officer on the floor. “Hello, Mr. Turing. Will you cooperate and come with us? Or are you prepared to stay in Britain?”

“I… I will not betray my country…” Turing said, his voice trembling slightly. “Don’t even think, don’t even think that I will work for Germany.”

“Before we came, the Führer specifically instructed our team that Mr. Turing is a very important talent, and that we should do our best to let you choose your own future,” the German special forces commander said. “So the Führer asked me to pass on a message to you. If you still feel that going to Germany is not negotiable, then we will have no choice but to let you die here.”

He smiled and walked over to Turing, whispering, “The Führer says: ‘If Mr. Turing is willing to remain in Britain, where homosexuality is illegal, rather than come to Germany, which is willing to grant you a pardon, then please let Mr. Turing die in Britain.'”

“You!” Turing stared at the man who was whispering his greatest secret in his ear, his face flushing red and then pale. For a long moment, he was speechless. Finally, he managed to stammer out, “You… how does your Führer know my… my secret?”

“Mr. Turing, not only does the Führer know this secret, he has even prepared your other half for you. A nobleman of very excellent lineage, in his early 20s, a wonderful young man,” the German officer said. “Can we depart now?”

Turing lowered his head. “Alright, I will go to Germany with you! But… but I must have a new identity…”

“Rest assured,” the German officer nodded. “Many people go missing in Britain every day now, don’t they?”

He gave a wave of his hand, and two more Germans entered from the door, each dragging the body of a dead British civilian. The German officer pointed to the two corpses and said, “We will set a fire here and leave these bodies to be burned to a crisp. That way, you will also be dead, a person who no longer exists. We can leave Liverpool tonight and return directly to Germany. There should be many other British scientists and engineers on the same boat. You may know some of them; you can probably have a chat.”

“From Britain? A boat directly to Germany? How is that possible?” Turing was clearly in disbelief. The German officer looked at him with a playful smile.

The group left the apartment. A little while later, a raging fire broke out. There were many other fires burning in Liverpool, and it seemed that quite a few engineers and scientists who had been hiding in the city, waiting to board a ship out of Britain, had been captured by the Germans today. But Turing was still very curious. He really wanted to know how these Germans were going to get him out of Britain.

The result was a real eye-opener for this scientist who was usually engrossed in mathematics. They simply drove in a car, brazenly, to the Liverpool docks. The Germans, who had changed into British naval uniforms in the car, passed the British naval inspection and then boarded a cargo ship supposedly bound for “America.”

This was a German smuggling ship. The last few times it had docked in Liverpool, it had been smuggling food from Germany to Britain. So the British inspections of this ship were not very strict, and they even intentionally avoided disturbing it. Akado had a Junker aristocrat loyal to him pretend to smuggle food to Britain. In fact, after a few trips, he had secretly used a hidden compartment to transport special forces and spies to Britain. But because Britain was in desperate need of supplies and food, although they were still wary of this smuggling ship from Germany, they had never made a serious effort to inspect it.

Officers had, on a whim, inspected some of the hidden compartments on previous occasions and found either gold or the women and children of wealthy families. After a few times, they couldn’t be bothered with such shady dealings anymore. But this time, the hidden compartment held over 120 scientists and engineers, and even dozens of boxes of blueprints. And of course, with the city in chaos from the German special forces attacks, no one was paying any attention to a German smuggling ship.

Both sides were paying close attention to the other’s scientific and technological development, both wanting to seize the other’s century of accumulated knowledge. As the saying goes, it is impolite not to reciprocate. And so it was.

Published: 2025-08-25T04:12:36.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-11T13:57:13.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c443-it-is-137276243

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