“Sit down, facing zee fireplace,” Kaplan said.

Schmidt and Rob complied, turning two chairs to face the unlit fireplace on the right wall of the tavern. Schmidt sat closest to the bar, while Rob sat to his right, closest to the door.

Kaplan entered, closing the door behind him.

Then there was a soft click. He had locked the door.

He walked in front of Schmidt and Rob, between them and the fireplace.

Dust hung in the air, illuminated by a window next to the door. Shattered long before they adopted the tavern as their meeting place, several wooden boards covered the window, allowing streams of light and a slight breeze to bring the faint scent of spring inside.

Kaplan stood in front of Schmidt and Rob, his face illuminated by a stream of light from the window, the rest of his body cast in shadow. It gave him a disconnected look, as though his head was floating without a body to support it. Without moving, he cleared his throat. “You may be wondering why I locked zee door behind me. Zee answer is simple—”

“Wait…” Rob said. “You locked the door?”

“Quiet, please,” Kaplan said with a dangerous calm. “As I was saying…” He glanced between them, waiting for one of them to interrupt. When neither did, he continued. “You are probably wondering why I locked zee door behind me. Zee answer is simple; you two ‘ave become a problem, and I want to deal with said problem.”

Schmidt glanced at Rob. “If this is because of what I said earlier… It won’t happen again.”

“I get why Barry’s in trouble, but why am I?” Rob asked. “And if I’m in trouble, shouldn’t Marvin be in trouble too?”

“Braun is never going to be a problem,” Kaplan replied. “‘e rarely speaks, and when ‘e does, no one can ‘ear ‘im. No, it is zee two of you I’m worried about… Zee two of you ‘ave been contributing to a growing unrest among zee soldiers under my command, whether you realize it or not. We have one week before we begin zee advance on Bean territory. Zee unrest you are sowing, if left unchecked, is going to result in zee Empire’s plan failing, and zee deaths of thousands. I can’t, with a good conscience, let zis continue any longer.”

“You know, the way you say that makes things sound worse than they actually are,” Rob said. “We weren’t trying to sow unrest or anythin’, sir, we were just voicin’ our opinion about General Krüger’s plan. Don’t we have a right to free speech?”

Kaplan replied, “Do you understand zee influence zee two of you ‘ave? You survived zee November Bean attacks, witnessed zee Beans firsthand, and you found zat Bean on your scouting mission. You are perhaps zee most experienced soldiers on zee western front; zee zings you say about zee Beans carry weight. When you question General Krüger and zee Empire’s plans, people tend to listen, whether you realize zat or not. My influence as a lieutenant is, unfortunately, not very strong. The problem occurs when my men begin listening to you more zan zey listen to me.”

“People don’t listen to us,” Schmidt said. “We barely survived Dijon, and finding that Bean was a fluke. I don’t talk to anyone besides Rob, Marvin, and Gregory, anyways. We’re not sparking any unrest, we just have similar opinions to everyone else.”

“Yeah, no one ever listens to me,” Rob said. “So I have this theory, and it’s pretty well thought out, you know? It’s that the Beans need human brains to—”

“Rob, he doesn’t want to hear about your stupid brain theory—”

“My brain theory isn’t stupid! It’s gonna turn out to be true and you’re all gonna feel pretty stupid! It’s gonna be like how you predicted the Beans before anyone else but no one listened! I’m right about this!”

“Just… Lieutenant Kaplan, we understand our influence now. We’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen again, and we’ll go along with Krüger’s plan.”

“Hell,” Rob added, “we’ll endorse it! Say we heard some behind the scenes details from you and that we’re on board with it. Just please don’t think we’re traitors. We’re not traitors, I swear.”

Kaplan stared at them.

“Lieutenant Kaplan, we really aren’t traitors,” Schmidt said. “We want to kill the Beans and protect our families. Wait, sorry, I keep forgetting to call you sir, Lieutenant Kaplan, sir. I didn’t mean any disrespect, I—”

Without blinking, Kaplan pulled a handgun from his cloak and aimed it at Rob.

“What the hell?” Rob said, putting his hands in the air.

“Stop talking,” Kaplan ordered. “Both of you, shut zee ‘ell up. And put your ‘ands down, Fiedler.”

Rob complied.

“It is peaceful, is it not? Zee quiet, I mean,” Kaplan said.

Schmidt and Rob remained silent.

“I am glad you are starting to understand zee situation you find yourselves in. You know, I ‘ad an entire plan about ‘ow I would start zis conversation. Needless to say, I did not anticipate you two to be so uncooperative. Let me put zis in a way you’ll understand…” Kaplan took a deep breath. “‘ave you ever seen a rat infestation?”