Paris, Élysée Palace
Charles de Gaulle stood rigid, shoulders squared and chin lifted in defiance, as he stared at the sprawling map pinned to the wall of his war room.
Pins and colored strings radiated outward from Paris, crisscrossing Europe, Africa, and stretching as far as Southeast Asia.
Red markers clustered thickly around Catalonia and the Basque Country in Spain, a web of insurgency and revolution rapidly spiraling out of Madrid's control.
To his right stood General Giraud, stiff and proper in his uniform, fingers tapping restlessly on a table cluttered with dossiers and blueprints.
On his left, Prime Minister Léon Blum shifted uneasily, clearly uncomfortable amid the stark military urgency.
"Our agents confirm the Spanish army struggles to maintain loyalty," Giraud reported. "Many officers lean republican, and our agents in Catalonia and Navarre have begun funneling arms to the revolutionaries. The unrest escalates by the hour."
