London, Whitehall.
The incessant tapping on the desk was enough to set anyone's teeth on edge, perfectly reflecting John Russell's state of mind. He had no idea what Britain's Intelligence Department was even doing.
After all these years, Vienna's fast communications network still hadn't been built. Meanwhile, news from Paris could reach London within a day.
Considering how dense the railway networks of Austria and the German Confederation were, it took less than five days to travel by train from Vienna to Rotterdam, then take a ship to London.
Yet the British Empire's intelligence service had taken a full five days. John Russell couldn't help but start questioning its competence.
But that was because the new prime minister himself didn't understand the process. Intelligence had to be approved before it could be transmitted. Just two rounds of review took two days, and with changing trains and waiting for ships along the way, three days was already fast.
Still, this also showed from another angle that Britain didn't yet take Austria seriously enough as a rival. It paid far more attention to its old adversaries.
Take the way intelligence was transmitted, for example. Reports from Vienna to London had to pass through layer upon layer of review. Even important information, such as Austria sending troops into Switzerland, had to be confirmed according to procedure first.
But news from Paris could be sent through wartime channels. It only needed a preliminary check; the complicated review and confirmation procedures could be bypassed, and the intelligence sent straight to the prime minister's office.
There was another thing that greatly annoyed John Russell. Only two weeks ago, the war had still been at a stalemate. How had it suddenly ended, with everyone already divvying up the spoils?
And what was this German Confederation, anyway? Wasn't