The Generals (20 page)

In the office building, Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson, who lived in the flat above, by the way, were already there. Danica Rodriguez, who was Edner’s secretary, was also there. The polling stations were closed at half-past seven and the count was to begin half an hour later. Eight o’clock, then. There was a teleprinter in the meeting room and as they were counted, the results from the different districts were to come in on that. Aranca Peterson went upstairs and made some coffee. Then we all sat round the big table in the room and drank it. Very little was said but the atmosphere was neither jarring nor hostile. Everything seemed much as usual. Janos Edner was the only one who looked sour and discontented, but he had already seemed sullen for quite a long time. Aranca Peterson was calm and untroubled. She had a fantastically calm disposition anyhow, almost always. All I know is that I saw her lose her temper only once in all the years I knew her. Only Tadeusz Haller seemed to be nervous, but I’d been used to that for quite a time, too. He got up several times and walked up and down the room. The General was very friendly towards the others and absolutely dead calm. I remember that in passing he asked when Ludolf was coming back. Aranca Peterson replied that he was expected in Oswaldsburg on an early morning flight the next day, due in at a quarter past eight. The General said he thought that was excellent. Then they all sat in silence for a while again, but when a little later Edner filled the General’s cup, he said: ‘I must ask you something, Paul. If this utterly idiotic referendum had given the absurd result that the people here had voted no, so that you had become president, what would you have done? Would you have let
loose all the shit that we’ve moved here to avoid? Would you personally have smuggled in political and religious fanatics and thrust Christianity and Buddhism and Catholicism or whatever they’re called on to the people? Would you have set up political parties and forced people into choosing between Fascism and social-democracy and liberalism and communism and all the other idiotic ideologies?’ The General laughed and said: ‘No, I don’t intend to go that far.’ Then soon after that Edner said: ‘Why haven’t you got your uniform on and your steel teeth in?’ The General laughed again and at first said nothing. He was in civilian clothes—it was actually only during the last two weeks that he had been wearing his uniform and decorations—and I think he’d left his dentures at home because they irritated him. He’d told me they rubbed.

Major von Peters
: No, now look here, I can’t stand this a moment longer.

Colonel Orbal
: Let him talk, Carl.

Velder
: I’m sorry but …

Captain Schmidt
: Go on, Velder. General Oswald didn’t reply, you said.

Velder
: Yes. Yes, of course. Well, after a while he said that they were equipment he didn’t usually use amongst friends. Then Janos Edner actually laughed too, but Aranca grew thoughtful and said that she thought that last remark had been a strange thing to say. I presumed she was referring to the fact that the General never went abroad, that he doesn’t like flying, and that because of this he always ought to be among friends. After yet another while, when it was quite quiet, Edner suddenly burst out with: ‘Why the hell have you done all this?’ The General and Tadeusz Haller looked at each other and finally the General said: ‘You can rest assured that there is no evil intent.’ Then Danica Rodriguez said: ‘While you’re here you don’t have to stand on ceremony. Save that for the next time you need to make a speech. I happened to hear one of them, by mistake.’ The General looked at her with distaste. I had a feeling that he’d never liked Dana very much.

Colonel Orbal
: Was that the woman with a moustache? The sexy one?

Major von Peters
: Did a tart like that dare to be so familiar with the General? No, now that’s enough. Am I the only one here
who sees that we must put an end to this deluge of lies?

Commander Kampenmann
: Can’t we agree once and for all to let the accused tell his story without interrupting him all the time?

Colonel Orbal
: You’re being damned officious, Kampenmann. Oh, well, go on talking now, Velder.

Major von Peters
: God, that one should have to endure this, sitting here hour after hour, listening to this swine.

Colonel Pigafetta
: What’s wrong now, Captain Endicott.

Colonel Orbal
: What? What’s the matter with the man?

Captain Endicott
: He seems to have lost the thread, sir.

Major von Peters
: Thank God for that.

Captain Endicott
: One moment. I have some injection ampules here which Doctor Mogensen gave me for just this kind of situation. Give me a hand, will you, Brown. In the thigh, he said. That’s it.

Colonel Orbal
: Do we have to sit here staring at all this? Damned unpleasant. Disgusting.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Not very aesthetic, I must say.

Colonel Orbal
: They’ve stuck it in the wrong place, of course.

Colonel Pigafetta
: My officers are usually capable of carrying out their tasks.

Major von Peters
: They’re experts at opening their parachutes, anyhow.

Lieutenant Brown
: He’s coming round now, I think.

Velder
: On the thirty-fifth day, the communication system between the different defence units began to collapse. We couldn’t reach the bunker system in the west and south-west any longer. The whole of the surface of the ground was burning.

Captain Endicott
: One moment, Velder. You must go back in time. See if you can.

Major von Peters
: He talks like a children’s nurse. Is he supposed to be an officer?

Colonel Pigafetta
: Yes.

Captain Schmidt
: You said you had a feeling that the General had never liked Danica Rodriguez very much.

Velder
: He said nothing to Dana, didn’t reply, but just glared at her. At seven minutes past eight, the first result came in on the teleprinter. It came from one of the smallest districts, near Marbella. Three people there had voted yes and eleven no. At thirteen minutes
past eight, the next one came, from the same area. Three had voted yes and six no. Dana and I—that’s Danica Rodriguez, Edner’s secretary—did the counting. We took it in turns to pull the telex strips off the machine and write the figures up on a large blackboard, where we totted them up. Twenty minutes later, another small district result came in. There the figures were seven-seven. Janos Edner had sat around yawning for a while and at half-past eight he said he was ready to go up to bed. He said to Aranca that she could wake him up if anything interesting happened, or when the count was complete. I remember that Tadeusz Haller stared at him as if he didn’t believe his ears. Shortly before nine, the first Oswaldsburg town district result came in, and there the figures were ninety-six yes and four no. A few minutes later, another one came and the figures were eighty-two yes and seventeen no. That was the fifth district in Ludolfsport, and I remember it especially because it turned out to be an almost exact average figure. Haller was noticeably nervous now, but Oswald took it all quite calmly. Then the figures began to pour in at great speed and all of them showed roughly the same tendency. At about ten, Aranca said she’d go and get some beer and sandwiches, and the General—I remember this especially—went with her to help. When they came down, the figures were seventy-three thousand four hundred and two yes against fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-three no. Everyone had some beer and sandwiches then and we let the teleprinter look after itself, collecting up paper in a heap below. The General and Aranca Peterson and Danica Rodriguez were just as usual, but Tadeusz Haller was very nervous. He didn’t want anything to eat and spilt his beer. Soon after eleven …

Major von Peters
: Are you going to tolerate this, Mr Haller?

Tadeusz Haller
: I suppose so.

Captain Schmidt
: Soon after eleven …

Velder
: Soon after eleven, the count was complete, percentages and all. One hundred and forty-two thousand one hundred and twenty-two had voted yes, and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and six no. That meant, Dana and I calculated, that only seventeen per cent of all the people who could vote had done so. And of those who had, eighty per cent had voted yes and eighteen per cent no.

Colonel Orbal
: Damned difficult to hear what the man’s saying.

Captain Endicott
: With permission from the court, I should like to request a pause in the interrogation to allow the accused to rest his vocal chords.

Major von Peters
: Interrogation—huh.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Yes, Endicott. Granted.

Colonel Orbal
: What’s going on? I ought to have said that, Pigafetta.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Yes, you ought.

Commander Kampenmann
: Are those figures correct?

Tadeusz Haller
: Yes, as far as I remember. With cunning propaganda, they’d managed to persuade over eighty per cent of the population to abstain from exercising their rights as citizens. And the others … well, you’ve got the exact figures in your papers, haven’t you, Captain Schmidt?

Captain Schmidt
: One moment. Yes, here they are. Of all those entitled to vote, eighty-two point four per cent abstained. Fourteen point one voted yes and three per cent voted no.

Tadeusz Haller
: So it wasn’t a vote at all, quite simply. Apathy was so great that most people didn’t even bother to vote in the referendum.

Commander Kampenmann
: There is one point in the accused’s statement that I didn’t really understand. Why were large numbers of the militia not allowed to partake in this referendum?

Tadeusz Haller
: That was a well-considered measure taken by General Oswald. The strength of the militia had been tripled in a very short time. Naturally I was informed on this point, but otherwise very few people knew about it. The General was the only person who had full control over the immigration frequency.

Major von Peters
: You’re talking about the Army, Mr Haller. By this time, the militia had ceased to exist. Otherwise, you’re right, of course. The troops were ordered to stay in their barracks or training areas, and their numbers were held secret. It was a kind of precaution against a coup, should anything happen, a surprise attack, for instance, from outside or from within.

Tadeusz Haller
: Exactly. And if the new troops had taken part in the referendum, they would have to have had ballot papers, to have been included on the electoral rolls, and also the soldiers would have had to leave their camps to go to the polling booths. So the
whole arrangement would have been disclosed.

Major von Peters
: Yes. Briefly, it was a military safety precaution.

Colonel Orbal
: What in heaven’s name is Endicott up to now?

Major von Peters
: He’s busy with his protégé, can’t you see? He’ll start singing him a lullaby soon.

Captain Endicott
: I think we can go on now, sir.

Major von Peters
: One doesn’t think in the forces. Even your men ought to have learnt that, Pigafetta.

Captain Schmidt
: I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Velder—according to a scientifically based opinion given to me by Gerthoffer—is now speaking more or less directly from memory, without being able to make any later thought-constructions or manipulated valuations.

Commander Kampenmann
: How do you know that this opinion is scientifically based?

Major von Peters
: For God’s sake, Kampenmann.

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, yes. Go on, now, so that we get somewhere sometime.

Captain Schmidt
: Please go on, Velder.

Major von Peters
: He’s not that polite even to us. If only we had Bratianu here still, for God’s sake.

Colonel Orbal
: What are you whispering about, Carl?

Major von Peters
: I said we ought to have Bratianu here.

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, I’ll say …

Captain Schmidt
: If the presidium permits …

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, what are you dithering on about, Schmidt? And Endicott, standing there fiddling about with that wretch as if he had a tart in bed with him. Get going, now.

Velder
: Then Janos Edner came down. Aranca had been up to wake him, I suppose. He looked at the figures and then began to swear. His reaction was very surprising. When Aranca said that everything had gone much as they’d expected, he replied that he hadn’t expected to find that there were over thirty thousand people on the island who were so crazy that they sympathized with Oswald and his twisted ideas. And—he said—the other figure was nothing to get excited about either. It just showed that on our island—he emphasised the
our
—there were a hundred and forty thousand individuals who let themselves be duped into partaking in a meaningless
referendum. Aranca gradually calmed him down and then everyone talked for about quarter of an hour, except Haller, who had already gone. Danica Rodriguez asked the General what he considered he had demonstrated with all this nonsense. The General answered absently: ‘Nothing, my dear, nothing …’ Then he yawned and said goodnight to the others. ‘See you tomorrow,’ he said, too. I went out with him and we went to a small apartment which he had a few blocks away. It was a lovely, warm evening and the whole town was calm and quiet. I think the results of the referendum were being broadcast over the radio and television, but no one seemed to bother about them. When we got up to the apartment, Oswald got two beers out of the refrigerator. Then he got out his portable typewriter and typed out something from a handwritten note he’d had in his pocket. I’d seen him making notes on that piece of paper earlier in the evening. He drank his beer as he worked. Then he rang headquarters and sent for a jeep to come and fetch him. He folded up the paper he’d written on, put it in an envelope together with another piece of paper and stuck it up. Then he wrote on the front that it should only be opened on an order which had a code-signal …