The Steel Spring (19 page)

‘What happened after that?’

‘The researcher and his assistant demanded immediate permission to carry on working. They hadn’t given up their original idea that the agent, as with other biochemical weapons, could be distributed in a form that meant people were not aware of being exposed to the effects. Moreover, they thought they were at a stage which meant they could soon intensify the impact of D
₅
H so it would remain active for four to six weeks. We let them carry on working.’

He fell silent and tried to catch Jensen’s eye. When this failed, he sighed and said:

‘In the early summer of this year, the inventor informed us that D
₅
H was ready for use. He was called in front of the committee to explain in greater detail what this meant. He explained that he and his assistant had solved all the known problems. The effects of the agent had been extended to about six weeks, after which they disappeared. They had also managed to delay the onset of the effect, so it made itself felt only after two to three weeks. Finally, he had solved the distribution question and established what to use as a vehicle or base. In this he had gone back to various ideas and partial results from
the original research project. The idea was quite simply to dissolve D
₅
H in glue that could then be used for the gumming of stamps or stickers. Need I say more?’

‘Yes,’ said Jensen.

‘The inventor said the costs of production were exceedingly low. He could quickly produce quantities sufficient for the adhesive for many millions of stamps. It would cost no more than the gum normally used on postage stamps. Furthermore, he said, the whole batch fitted into a few glass jars, and the agent would prove invaluable in the event of people needing to steel themselves for a coming crisis. He said that in airtight containers, the agent could be stored for an indefinite period.’

The minister put his head in his hands.

‘We commissioned him to make enough of the product for a normal stamp issue, and keep it at the ready. On the first of August, he told us he had completed the task according to our instructions. He was given a bonus. And there’s not much more I can tell you about the institute’s role in this affair.’

‘That doesn’t answer the question about Steel Spring,’ said Jensen.

‘Yes it does,’ the man said bitterly. ‘The campaign committee for Steel Spring came under a lot of pressure from certain elements within the coalition parties. At the previous election, voter turnout had sunk to below fifty per cent; in actual fact only forty-six and a half per cent of all those entitled to vote did so. The figures weren’t released, but they couldn’t be kept entirely secret from the public. Comprehensive opinion polling showed that the vast majority of people who didn’t turn out to vote and stayed on their sofas were employees in the lower income groups. The party to which I originally belonged was
the strongest element in the grand coalition on which the Accord was based. This socialist and …’

‘Don’t let me hear that word in your mouth,’ the police doctor said fiercely.

‘… and democratic party had taken their votes from precisely those low-income groups. The unfortunate way things had developed meant that some groups began to question whether our party – or to be more accurate our
former
party – was over-represented in the current administration.’

‘So you could be said to have acted in your own interests,’ said Jensen.

‘Not at all. I and everyone else on the campaign committee were working entirely with the best interests of the people in view. We knew that the people were loyal and supported both the notion of accord and our welfare policies.’

‘But fifty-three and a half per cent didn’t bother to vote?’

‘That doesn’t mean they didn’t wholeheartedly support the regime.’

‘What does it mean, then?’

‘That large sections of the people didn’t consider it necessary to manifest their loyalty to the regime. The outstanding results of our practical policies and the high standard of living lulled them into a sense of security.’

‘But wasn’t that security one of the central pillars of the Accord?’

‘They could at least fucking well drag themselves to the polling stations once every four years,’ the minister exclaimed.

‘So it annoyed you?’

‘Yes. And what annoyed us even more was that irresponsible left-wing elements were disturbing the social order. They only made up five or six per cent of the whole population, but were
constantly staging groundless demonstrations and protests. They opposed everything, from the way we packaged the fizzy drinks, which I can guarantee is the most profitable method in the world, to our foreign policy, despite the fact that it’s kept us neutral for more than a century. Thanks to the fact that we don’t get involved in matters that have nothing to do with us and are often happening in faraway parts of the globe.’

He was speaking in rapid gasps and had to stop to catch his breath.

‘Ninety per cent of the population saw these irresponsible factions as just childish, ranting on about the third world and imperialism and international conscience. I’ve said the same things myself in every single election campaign, by the way. And carrying on their propaganda for a revolution that we achieved with a stroke of the pen years ago. But despite all that, people didn’t bother to repudiate or condemn them. Instead they were allowed to attract the young, who knew no better than to believe puerile doctrines coined by simple-minded foreigners. They were even given the leeway to infiltrate one of society’s most important groups of professionals.’

‘Which one?’

‘Not the police. The doctors. Lots of medical students were infected by their propaganda even before qualifying. The loyal section of the medical profession was extremely concerned. When we discovered that this subversion was going on without any reaction from the people, we realised something had to be done.’

‘What?’

‘Steel Spring. We launched Steel Spring. The big loyalty operation that would spur the people into action once and for all. And show how superfluous and irresponsible all criticism
of the ideas of wealth and accord really was. We decided to go in hard with the campaign, using all the means at our disposal.’

‘Was D
₅
H one of those means?’

‘Yes.’

The reply came almost in a whisper, but the next minute the man raised his voice all the more.

‘Why the hell do you think I’d be sitting here giving away state secrets otherwise?’

‘Go on,’ Jensen said tonelessly.

‘The doctors among the campaign leadership recommended it,’ the minister said resignedly. ‘They had tested and analysed the preparation themselves. Like the inventor, they guaranteed it was harmless as long as it wasn’t distributed to any close-knit group of unreasonable, incorrigible people. The decision to deploy D
₅
H was unanimous.’

‘And how was it deployed?’

‘We used it for the gum on the campaign sticker, of course. Can’t you work anything out for yourself?’

Jensen said nothing.

‘We decided that we’d test the first batch on various professions whose loyalty could be guaranteed.’

‘Which ones?’

‘The professional soldiers, the police, the loyal doctors, the electoral societies, the customs service, the loyal youth movements, and staff at the ministries. In order to assess the effect, we timed the period in which the agent would be effective to coincide with intensive propaganda against the antisocial elements.’

‘What other steps were taken?’

‘The chief medical officer demanded that all doctors and medical students recorded as antisocial elements in the secret
service archives be arrested and held in isolation while the campaign was in progress.’

‘Why?’

‘It was felt that there was a risk of one or more of them getting their hands on a stray sticker. And then having sufficient scientific knowledge to be able to analyse the substance and cause a scandal. If the truth got out about D
₅
H, the second phase of the campaign could be jeopardised.’

‘What second phase?’

‘Distributing the preparation to all workers in the low-income bracket in the form of gummed discount vouchers, timed to take effect the week before the election. Conventional propaganda in the press and on radio and TV would culminate in the same period. Experience and test results from the first batch would underpin our plans for the big, crucial push.’

He paused briefly.

‘According to our statistical calculations, that would produce ninety-five per cent voter turnout. More than ninety per cent of people would vote for the Accord. The opposition would be silenced for good.’

The minister gave Jensen an imploring look.

‘You do see, don’t you, that it was all done in the people’s interests? That we meant no harm? That we had no evil intent?’

‘Your calculations turned out to be wrong,’ said Jensen.

‘Yes. And now, with hindsight, it’s not difficult to work out certain causes and effects. Five days after the declarations of loyalty were sent out, the man who had invented D
₅
H died of leukaemia. He was almost seventy, and we didn’t find the news alarming.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘No. We granted him the honour of a state funeral. I walked in the mourners’ procession myself.’

‘When did you realise what was going on?’

‘Personally I didn’t understand until today. Initially, everything looked very promising. But in the middle of October, we started losing control of the situation. People’s reactions were far more violent than we’d expected. The campaign degenerated. Within a week, there were as many murders and manslaughters here in the city as over the whole preceding five-year period. It went so far that the chief of police ordered that violent crime wasn’t even to be recorded. Then we found out the police and military weren’t obeying orders. Or to be more precise, they weren’t obeying our orders but taking their instructions directly from the Ministry of Justice. When we tried to get hold of the inventor’s female assistant, it turned out she’d destroyed all the research notes and the entire stock of D
₅
H. Then she’d committed suicide. On the twenty-first of October we were forced to postpone the elections. I made the public announcement myself. Five days later we discovered that the guards had taken it upon themselves to execute the doctors in detention. By the thirtieth of October the situation was completely untenable; the Regent and virtually all the top civil servants discreetly went abroad or to their holiday homes in distant parts of the country. After the riots on the second of November, things were calm. I came back to the city two days later, along with a number of other government officials in positions of responsibility. We launched an investigation, but there wasn’t time to complete it. The epidemic broke out. Obviously we didn’t see the connection. You know the rest better than I do.’

‘Didn’t anyone in the government or the campaign leadership lick one of those prepared stickers?’

‘Only the chief medical officer. In the interests of research.’

The minister gave Jensen a look of appeal and said:

‘I mean, you don’t send out requests for declarations of loyalty to yourself, do you?’

‘No. That’s right.’

‘Nothing was done with evil intent. Not a single bad thought was thought.’

Inspector Jensen did not reply.

The car containing the minister and the armed guards drove away. They stood there in the circle of light outside the main entrance doors of the terminal building, a few metres from the telephone boxes. Jensen looked at his watch. Exactly twenty-four hours had elapsed since he had stood there the first time.

‘What do you plan to do with him?’

‘It’s not up to me,’ said the police doctor with a shrug of his shoulders.

‘He can scarcely be convicted of any crime.’

‘Capitalism’s a crime in itself. But it’s a paper tiger. If anyone drops a spanner in the works, it’s got nothing to fall back on. People are indifferent to it. They know nothing and understand nothing beyond the narrow sector of their own training. And the alienation makes them incapable of establishing connections.’

‘I saw a camel the other day,’ said Jensen.

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

The temperature had dropped a few degrees and it was snowing.

‘We ought to try to find a cure for leukaemia,’ said the doctor.

‘And now you’re going to socialise this society of ours?’

‘You can bet your bloody life I am, Jensen. And it’s not going to be easy. Plenty of bad thoughts are going to be thought.’