Chapter 18
1430 Hours
December 20, 1940
Office of the Chief
French Department, European Section
War Plans Staff, War Department
Washington, D.C.
Colonel Moses walked into his small, windowless office, sat down at his worn, Army-issue desk, and leaned back on two legs of the armless chair. Long hours of sitting at his infernal desk had caused his lower back to act up. Stress added to the discomfort. Today, he felt particularly stressed.
Moses had suffered a serious wound in World War I from the powerful shockwave of a close impact of a high-caliber German artillery shell during the very last week of the war. The explosion picked him up and threw him against something solid.
Moses couldn’t remember any detail of the trauma. When he awoke at the hospital three days later, all he coul
