For two weeks, the plan worked more or less perfectly, but, after that, some of the vigilantes started complaining that they were receiving threatening phone calls, warning them that, if they wanted to live a nice quiet life, they had better turn a blind eye to the clandestine traffic of the terminally ill, and even close their eyes completely if they didn’t want to add their own corpse to the number of people with whose surveillance they had been charged. These were not empty threats, as became clear when the families of four vigilantes were told by anonymous callers that they should pick their loved ones up at such and such a place. And there they were, not dead, but not alive either. Given the gravity of the situation, the interior minister decided to show his power to the unknown enemy, on the one hand, by ordering his spies to intensify their investigations, and, on the other, by cancelling the drip-drip system of letting this one through, but not that one, which had been applied in accordance with the prime minister’s tactics. The response was immediate, four more vigilantes suffered the same sad fate as the previous four, but, in this case, there was only one telephone call, intended for the interior minister himself, which could be interpreted as a provocation, but also as an action determined by pure logic, like someone saying, We exist. The message, however, did not stop there, it brought with it a constructive proposal, Let’s come to a gentlemen’s agreement, said the voice on the other end, you order your vigilantes to withdraw and we’ll take charge of discreetly transporting the dying to the border, Who are you, asked the department head who answered the call, Just a group of people who care about order and discipline, all of us highly competent in our field, people who hate confusion and always keep our promises, in short, we’re honest folk, And does this group have a name, asked the civil servant, Some call us the maphia, with a ph, Why the ph, To distinguish us from the original mafia, The state doesn’t make agreements with mafias, Not on documents signed by a notary, no, Nor on any others, What position do you hold, Department head, That is, someone who knows nothing about real life, But I know my responsibilities, All that interests us at the moment is that you present our proposal to the person in authority, to the minister, if you have access to him, No, I don’t have access to the minister, but this conversation will be passed on immediately to my superiors, The government will have forty-eight hours to study the proposal, not a minute more, but warn your superiors that if we don’t get the answer we want, there will be more vigilantes in a state of coma, Right, I’ll do that, So I’ll phone again the day after tomorrow at the same time to find out what their decision is, Fine, I’ll make a note, It’s been a pleasure talking to you, If only I could say the same, Oh, I’m sure you’ll change your tune when you hear that the vigilantes have returned home safe and sound, and if you haven’t yet forgotten your childhood prayers, start praying now that they do just that, I understand, I knew you would, Right then, Forty-eight hours and not a minute more, But I certainly won’t be the person who speaks to you, Oh, I’m certain you will be, Why’s that, Because the minister won’t want to speak to me directly, besides, if things go wrong, you’ll be the one to carry the can, after all, what we’re proposing is a gentlemen’s agreement, Yes, sir, Goodbye, Goodbye. The department head removed the tape from the tape-recorder and went to speak to his immediate superior.
Half an hour later, the cassette was in the hands of the interior minister. He listened, listened again, listened a third time and then asked, Is this department head to be trusted, Well, replied the superior, up until now I’ve never had the slightest reason for complaint, Nor the greatest, I hope, Neither great nor small, said the superior, who had failed to catch the irony. The minister removed the cassette from the tape-player and started unravelling the tape. When he had finished, he placed it in a large glass ashtray and held the flame of his lighter to it. The tape began to wrinkle and crumple, and in less than a minute was transformed into a shapeless, blackened, fragile tangle. They probably recorded the conversation with the department head too, said the superior, That doesn’t matter, anyone can fake a phone conversation, all you need are two voices and a tape-recorder, what matters is that we’ve destroyed our tape, and burning the original means burning any potential copies too, Needless to say the telephone operator keeps a record of all phone-calls, We’ll make sure that disappears too, shall we, Yes, sir, and now, if I may, I’ll leave you to consider the matter, No need, I’ve already come up with a response, That hardly surprises me, minister, given that you are lucky enough to be a very quick thinker, That would be mere flattery if it didn’t happen to be true, because I do think quickly, Are you going to accept the proposal, No, I’m going to make a counter-proposal, They may, I’m afraid, reject it, the terms in which the emissary spoke were both peremptory and threatening, if we don’t get the answer we want, there will be more vigilantes in a state of coma, those were his words, My dear fellow, the answer we’re going to give them is precisely the answer they’re expecting, Sorry, sir, I don’t understand, That, my dear fellow, is your problem, and I don’t wish to wound your feelings when I say this, but your problem is that you’re not capable of thinking like a minister, My fault entirely, Oh, please, don’t blame yourself, if you’re ever called upon to serve the country as a minister, you’ll see how your brain leaps the moment you sit down in a chair like this, the difference is quite unimaginable, Yes, but I’m a mere civil servant and will gain nothing by nurturing fantasies like that, You know the old saying, never say from this water I will not drink, Right now, sir, you have some very bitter water indeed to drink, said the superior, indicating the burned remains of the tape, When you follow a clear-cut strategy and know all the facts of the matter, it’s not so very hard to draw up a safe plan of action, I’m all ears, minister, The day after tomorrow, given that your department head will be the one to speak to the emissary, he and no one else will be the ministry’s negotiator and he’ll tell them that we agree to examine the proposal they made to us, but will warn them, too, that public opinion and the opposition party would never allow all those thousands of vigilantes to be withdrawn from service without some reasonable explanation, And, obviously, to say that the maphia have taken over the running of the business would hardly be thought a reasonable explanation, Precisely, although you could perhaps have put it a little more diplomatically, Forgive me, minister, it just came out like that, Anyway, at that point, the department head will present a counter-proposal, or what we might also call an alternative suggestion, namely, that the vigilantes will not be withdrawn from service, they will remain where they are now, but deactivated, Deactivated, Yes, the word is clear enough, I think, Oh, indeed, minister, I was merely expressing my surprise, Surprise about what, after all, it’s the only way we have of not appearing to be giving in to the rascals’ blackmail, Even though we have, The important thing is that it doesn’t look as if we have, that we preserve the façade, what happens behind that façade will no longer be our responsibility, Meaning, Let’s just imagine that we intercept a vehicle and arrest the men in charge of it, needless to say those risks were included in the bill that the relatives had to pay, There won’t be any bills or receipts, the maphia don’t pay taxes, That’s just a manner of speaking, what matters is the fact that it’s a win-win situation for everyone, for us because it’s a load off our minds, for the vigilantes because they will no longer run the risk of suffering any physical harm, for the families because they can rest easy knowing that their living-dead will finally be transformed into their dead, and for the maphia because they’ll get paid for their work, A perfect arrangement, minister, One that comes with the cast-iron guarantee that it will be to no one’s advantage to blab, No, you’re probably right, Perhaps I seem a little too cynical, Not at all, minister, I only admire the way in which you came up with such a solid, logical, coherent plan, Experience, my friend, experience, Right, I’ll go and talk to the department head and pass your instructions on to him, I’m sure he’ll give a good acount of himself, because as I said before, he’s never given me the slightest reason for complaint, Nor the largest, I believe, Neither one nor the other, replied the superior, who had finally understood the little joke.