The Third Reich

SEECKT

Today, after a long walk, I told Conrad that when you really thought about it we were all essentially ghosts on a ghostly General Staff, forever performing military exercises on game boards. Scale maneuvers. Remember Seeckt? We’re like his officers, breaking the law, shadows playing with shadows. You’re very poetic tonight, said Conrad. He didn’t understand, of course. I added that I probably wouldn’t go to Paris. At first Conrad thought I couldn’t go because of work and he accepted that, but when I said that at work everyone was going on vacation in December and I had other reasons, he took it personally and for a long time he refused to talk to me. You’re throwing me to the lions, he said. I laughed at that: We’re Seeckt’s trash but we love each other, right? Finally, Conrad laughed too, but sadly.