The plaza outside the Palácio do Planalto overflowed with flags and fanfare.
Tens of thousands had gathered in Brasília to witness the live national address by President Calheiros, an address that would, for the first time since the Great War, bind Brazil to the fate of the Western Allies.
The stage was framed in blue and gold banners.
Soldiers in crisp dress uniforms stood in formation along the front, flanking a temporary grandstand erected for foreign dignitaries.
A red carpet stretched across the steps.
Television cameras panned the cheering crowd.
And above them all, from the broken spire of an abandoned clocktower four blocks away, Fritz watched through the glass of an optic, mounted with crude elegance atop a relic of a previous war.
The Brazilian Model 1908 Mauser, rechambered in 7.62×51mm, had been restored and modified.
The bolt handle bent clear of the optic's path. And no markings remained to identify origin or owner.
It was, like all Werwolf tools, a ghost.
