“Started?” Schubert asked. “It’s not finished?”

“I wasn’t expecting Krüger or the Beans to make their move so soon after the start of our advance,” Bösch replied. “That being said, it’s better than nothing.” He began reading. “I planned for a few contingencies. This is the contingency where Krüger is still alive and no one knows that he is a member of the Church of the Beanmeister; probably the worst case scenario for us.”

“Why not just expose him?” Rolf asked. “No one would follow him if they know he’s a cultist.”

“We can’t just expose Krüger,” Schubert replied. “If Bösch made an accusation like that with no evidence, no one would—”

“What do ya mean no evidence? We know he’s a cultist, it’s true!”

“All we have is my word, Krüger’s first name on a few letters, and Bösch’s suspicions. That’s not enough to convince anyone, except the people in this room, apparently.”

“Captain Bösch’s word is more than enough—”

“It’d be like Dijon,” Reist said. “Lieutenant Dietrich tried to convince Bösch’s soldiers that he was a coward for wanting to abandon Dijon. It split our forces and ended in a massacre. If Captain Bösch ousted General Krüger for being in the Church with no proof, it’d split our forces again and cause even more confusion. Not to mention that people may see it as an attempt for Bösch to take control of the advance on Bean territory, since Krüger’s in charge of it as of yesterday.”

“Well said, Adaline,” Bösch said. “That means we have to get our soldiers ready for an attack without mentioning the conspiracy by Krüger and the Beans. We should also try to find a way to do that without alerting Krüger to what we know about him and the Beans.”

“Why should we care if Krüger knows?” Rolf asked.

“If we confront Krüger about him being in the Church, he may act irrationally.”

“The Church is huge,” Schubert agreed. “I don’t know the specifics, but there has to be at least a hundred members spanning the different branches in Stuttgart alone. And they’ve been working on something for months… Probably trying to get more people infected.”

Reist looked horrified. “Are you saying that Krüger could kill everyone that’s infected?”

“I wasn’t…” Bösch said, his face growing hard. “But he very well could.”

“And since Krüger is the leader of the Church, he would have the authority to kill the infected if he felt threatened,” Schubert said.

Bösch twirled the end of his mustache. “The less Krüger knows about our plans, the better.”

“Hey…” Rob began. “Silly question, but… do you guys think the beans can listen to us through the infected?”

“Don’t be crazy—” Rolf said.

“I’m not bein’ crazy!” Rob replied. “This isn’t like my brain theory, this is real! If Krüger is workin’ with the Beans, then that means they must have some way to communicate, right? We already know they’re intelligent, so it wouldn’t be crazy to assume that they can, like, learn how to talk!”

“Maybe the Beans are able to subtly influence the people they’ve infected,” Schmidt suggested. “Kaplan wasn’t working with the Beans, but he definitely wasn’t acting like himself after he got infected at the party.”

“But that doesn’t mean that they can’t like, hack into our brainwaves and figure out what we’re thinkin’!”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Just because they’re not talkin’ to the infected people with words doesn’t mean that they’re not communicatin’ with them some other way. If the Beans can understand what we’re saying, then they already know everythin’ that we know, because Greg’s—” Rob paused. Greg had been standing, completely still, in the same position since he had discovered that he was infected, his face shrouded in shadow. “If the Beans can understand what we’re saying, they already know what we know about them. That means we have nothin’ to lose if we tell everyone what we know!”

“It doesn’t, actually,” Schubert said. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt; the Beans can hear and see through the people they’ve infected. That doesn’t mean that our soldiers are going to believe it. And if they did, I think they’d be too busy panicking to stick to whatever plan we end up making.”

“Ok, fine, good point,” Rob replied. “But we should start workin’ under the assumption that the Beans can see and hear everythin’…” Rob looked at Greg.

“It is alright, Mr. Robert.” He turned to look at Rob, his face finally leaving the shadow. He was smiling sadly. “I understand your apprehension, but be not concerned for me.”

“We should work under the assumption that the Beans can see and hear everythin’ Greg can, as well as everyone else who’s infected.”

Bösch looked at Rob. “Are you saying we shouldn’t discuss the plan?”

“Yes, I am.”

Bösch began twirling the end of his mustache. He smirked. “It’s a good thing none of you know when to stop talking, or the Beans would know exactly what we’re about to do.”

“So what, you’re just going to make a plan by yourself?” Schubert asked.

“Leon, the plan’s already mostly completed. I’ll have to make some adjustments, but I could have my soldiers ready to fight the Beans within the hour.”

“You sound confident,” Sauer said.

“I’ve been working on this plan since January. Like I said, this is the worst case scenario; I’ve put the most thought into it.

“Then what do you need us to do?” Reist asked. “If we can’t help make the plan, then I want to help with something else.”

“We could just kick Greg out,” Rolf suggested. “Then the Beans couldn’t hear us.”

“Greg may not be the only infected person here,” Schubert said. “If they can infect us with food, any one of us could be infected. Including Bösch, but it’s too late to work around that. We all get our food from the military, so Krüger could’ve infected it at any point.”

“God damn,” Bösch muttered. “Krüger was in charge of managing the food supplies, and even though the civilians have been starving for months, we’ve always had something to eat. I didn’t even think about that.”

“I’m embarrassed, too,” Schubert said. “I didn’t put together the fact that Krüger chose Saint Nicholas’ Church as the meeting place for the scouting mission report or that they were using the food to infect people, even though it was right in front of me the whole time.”

“This is all besides the point,” Bösch said. “I know what the eight of you can do in the meantime. Thomas, Adaline, Leon; you should return to the Bean Research Facility. You said that Carl was trying to find out how the Beans are multiplying? Get him to explain what he’s discovered, then conduct the research yourselves. Make sure that he doesn’t know anything. Barnabas, Rob, Greg, Marvin…” He paused when he looked at Rolf. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”

“Rolf.”

“Rolf. The five of you should find Lieutenant Olbrich in the eastern barracks. I’ll write a letter for you to deliver calling for all our available forces to meet outside the western gate at midnight… About an hour from now. I’ll explain the plan to everyone then.”

Bösch grabbed a blank piece of parchment and began to write. Without looking up, he said, “What the hell are you people waiting for? Get to the research facility and find out what’s going on!”

The researchers nodded, leaving Bösch’s office without a word.

Bösch signed the paper, then rolled it and handed it to Marvin. “I can’t guarantee that Olbrich isn’t infected. Give this to him anyways. Make sure he knows how urgent the situation is.”

Marvin nodded.

As the soldiers exited the room, Bösch said, “Barnabas. May I speak with you for a minute?”