The Generals (18 page)

Colonel Orbal
: Bratianu is first class.

Commander Kampenmann
: What happened?

Captain Endicott
: Velder collapsed and had to be taken to the military hospital. I’ve just spoken to the doctor and he couldn’t guarantee to have Velder on his feet by tomorrow.

Major von Peters
: What sort of doctor?

Captain Endicott
: Surgeon-Lieutenant Mogensen of the Naval General Staff.

Major von Peters
: Take a note of his name. You’ll have to see to this, Kampenmann.

Colonel Orbal
: This really is the limit.

Major von Peters
: You can go, Endicott. We must have an internal discussion on this matter.

Colonel Orbal
: Exactly.

Commander Kampenmann
: What are we going to talk about now, then?

Major von Peters
: I don’t like this business. Not a bit. It’s almost as if someone were having us on. Colonel Pigafetta, is this Endicott absolutely reliable?

Colonel Pigatetta
: Are you sitting there saying straight to my face that you’re questioning the loyalty of my officers?

Colonel Orbal
: Now, now, keep calm, you two.

Major von Peters
: I just wondered how the hell we can try and sentence a murderer, deserter and traitor who, without punishment, uses every opportunity to malinger and give himself breathing space to find new lies. If he isn’t falling over on to the floor, he’s sitting sleeping in a wheelchair. And both Schmidt and Endicott treat him as if he were a new laid egg.

Commander Kampenmann
: A lightly boiled egg, people usually say.

Major von Peters
: To hell with what people usually say. What’s actually wrong with the swine?

Tadeusz Haller
: I think I can dispel your uncertainty on this matter. Velder has in fact spent the last three weeks in the military hospital. After five days’ interrogation by the Security Service, he was practically dying. Fortunately, Lieutenant Bratianu realised at the last moment that he was adding yet one more blunder to his previous ones, and he had Velder taken to hospital. The doctors had an extremely difficult job, and it was only by the skin of their teeth and great efforts that they finally managed to keep him alive.

Major von Peters
: Pretty meaningless occupation, I should’ve thought.

Tadeusz Haller
: I don’t think the General shares your opinion on that point.

Major von Peters
: You seem to be suspiciously well-informed, Haller.

Colonel Orbal
: Yes, you seem to know everything. But I bet you’ve never heard this one before. Once when Speedy Gonzales …

Major von Peters
: For Christ’s sake, Mateo, at least wait till we’ve switched the tape-recorder off.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Before I forget, Mr Haller. It would be a good thing if we could meet an hour earlier than we agreed to this evening.

Tadeusz Haller
: That’s fine by me.

Major von Peters
: Oh, so there’s to be high jinks at the Air Force again, is there?

Colonel Pigafetta
: Not at all. Just a little bridge evening with the family.

Colonel Orbal
: Bridge evening. Doesn’t sound much fun.

Commander Kampenmann
: Shouldn’t we adjourn the session.

Colonel Orbal
: Yes. Yes, of course. This extra-ordinary court martial is hereby adjourned until … what’s the date the day after tomorrow, Carl?

Major von Peters
: The seventh.

Colonel Orbal
: Until Wednesday the seventh of April at eleven o’clock. Then the wretch gets an extra day to pull round.

Lieutenant Brown
: Those present, Colonel Orbal, Colonel Pigafetta Major von Peters, Commander Kampenmann and Justice Haller. Officer presenting the case, Lieutenant Brown.

Commander Kampenmann
: I hear that disturbances in the Eastern Province have broken out again.

Major von Peters
: The plastics factories, as usual. Nothing serious.

Colonel Pigafetta
: I haven’t had any reports on that.

Colonel Orbal
: There’s no need to be so sour about it. We don’t need the Air Force. The emergency regiment in the second military area has already cleared things up. The whole mob were back at their machines within an hour.

Commander Kampenmann
: It seems that these things have begun to happen somewhat frequently of late.

Tadeusz Haller
: Remains of the bad old days, gentlemen. Exactly what this trial can eradicate at root. Or rather, the legislation the verdicts on Velder will lead to.

Colonel Orbal
: Oh, yes. Call in the parties, Brown.

Major von Peters
: Velder, for God’s sake pull yourself together now.

Velder
: I’ll do my best, sir.

Major von Peters
: For Christ’s sake, man, stand to atten … to think that I’ve lived to see this, too. A corporal sitting like a sack of potatoes when you speak to him.

Colonel Orbal
: Get going, now, Schmidt.

Captain Schmidt
: I request to be allowed to continue the questioning of the accused from the point where it was interrupted on Monday.

Major von Peters
: Granted. Push him forward, Endicott.

Captain Schmidt
: Corporal Velder. You say that General Oswald’s speech of the twenty-seventh of November—i.e. the speech which we heard read out word for word in this room—was decisive to your actions. Why?

Velder
: I realised that the General’s attitude had changed and that he was preparing to smash something which not just he himself, but I and many others had created together.

Captain Schmidt
: Why do you use the expression ‘changed his attitude’? Don’t you understand that the General has always had the same attitude, but for the public good and in consideration of the perpetuation and security of the nation, he had been forced to keep a good countenance in the face of evil?

Velder
: I didn’t realise that at the time, anyhow.

Captain Schmidt
: You just thought that the General was wrong then, when he attacked immorality, irreligiousness and slack administration?

Velder
: Yes, sir.

Captain Schmidt
: That should be sufficient to demonstrate the accused’s receptivity to spiritual and moral rearmament.

Colonel Orbal
: What do you keep mumbling about, Schmidt? I can’t hear a word you’re saying.

Captain Schmidt
: I beg your pardon, sir. I was pointing out the state of moral dissolution which Velder—like so many others—found himself in at the actual time.

Colonel Orbal
: Oh.

Captain Schmidt
: So as early as the twenty-seventh of November, then, you decided more or less unconsciously to desert and to commit high treason. And yet you remained in the service for some time onwards. Why?

Velder
: I didn’t know what was going to happen. And although I didn’t like the General’s ideas, I didn’t see through his plans.

Captain Schmidt
: What were conditions within the militia like at the time?

Velder
: The new officers tightened up discipline. Both original militiamen and new recruits were driven very hard. The training was intensive.

Major von Peters
: A true word at last. Never have bunches of
blackguardly civilians been transformed into active troops so quickly. It …

Velder
: But both officers and men were kept in their garrison areas. No leave was granted.

Major von Peters
: Velder, if you interrupt me once more before I’ve had a chance to finish was I was saying, I’ll draw my pistol and shoot you through the head.

Colonel Orbal
: What’s going on now? Why are you shouting like that, Carl?

Velder
: I beg your pardon, sir. I don’t understand …

Captain Endicott
: May I interject here that the doctor has said that since his last interrogation, Velder has been affected by aphasic disturbances. Contacts fail to function between his hearing on the one side and his speech organs and certain centra on the other.

Major von Peters
: To hell with that. If he interrupts me again I’ll shoot him.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Show at least a grain of sense, von Peters.

Major von Peters
: What the hell did you say?

Tadeusz Haller
: Gentlemen, gentlemen …

Colonel Orbal
: Quiet, Carl. Velder, show respect to your superiors, whatever you’re suffering from. Go on, Schmidt.

Captain Schmidt
: Were you present on any occasion when the General spoke to the nation.

Velder
: Yes, on every occasion. The referendum was held on the twelfth of December. During the two weeks before it, the General made six speeches; three broadcasts on radio and television and three in public, in Oswaldsburg, Marbella and Ludolfsport. I was with him all the time, as I’d been posted as his personal bodyguard. Yes, indeed I was there and it was then I realised that it was exactly that, seeing him as he spoke, close to as well, which influenced my actions.

Colonel Orbal
: Some people shout and others mumble like old women. What a performance.

Colonel Pigafetta
: It is, in fact, very difficult to hear what the accused is saying.

Captain Endicott
: We’re working on acquiring a strengthener, sir. Some kind of throat-microphone.

Captain Schmidt
: How could the General’s appearance influence you?

Velder
: It was something to do with his bearing. And his look. When you saw him close to, you realised that he really meant every word. Believed it all. He seemed taller, broader. His eyes shone. His teeth flashed.

Major von Peters
: Of course the General meant what he was saying. Why should he say it otherwise? I’ve never heard such bloody nonsense in my life.

Captain Schmidt
: And this influenced you in a negative direction? Made you betray the General?

Velder
: Yes, I’m convinced of that. He made an impression that was almost overwhelming. All the speeches ended with the same phrase: ‘Listen to me, listen to God’s truth.’ In some way, that frightened me.

Captain Schmidt
: I would like to draw the court’s attention to this in particular. Velder’s mind as well as the minds of many others were so twisted by heresy and inverted moral values that the truth frightened them and offers of help bred hatred and aversion instead of gratitude.

Colonel Orbal
: What?

Velder
: Strangely enough.

Captain Schmidt
: Why do you say that?

Velder
: Strange that he frightened me, I mean. I’d known him for many years. I’d always seen him as someone quite different. Friendly and quiet. Not at all impressive. Least of all vain. Almost careless in his dress. Never one for giving orders and blustering. I suddenly realised … I mean that then I thought I understood that the desire for power had always been in him and it’d kept in step with his progress. I mean that now the country really was something to rule over. To reform and change.

Captain Schmidt
: So that was the way you took the General’s efforts to save the nation?

Major von Peters
: It’s repulsive listening to all this.

Captain Schmidt
: Nonetheless, it is valuable for the future. Well, Velder, did the General talk to you at all during those weeks?

Velder
: Yes, of course. Every day. We knew each other well. He was always talking to me.

Captain Schmidt
: During the preliminary investigation, you
made special mention of a conversation that occurred a week before the referendum.

Velder
: Yes, on the fifth of December. He asked me if I wanted to be an officer.

Colonel Pigafetta
: Just one moment. You maintain that the General offered you a commission?

Major von Peters
: This is too much, even regarded as a lie. I refuse to concern myself with this.

Velder
: Yes, he asked me if I wanted to.

Captain Schmidt
: And what did you reply?

Velder
: That I would prefer not to. He looked at me with a sort of smile then. Ambiguous, they used to say, I think. Then he mumbled: ‘Well, perhaps you’re not suitable.’ Soon after that he gave me a sealed envelope and said that I wasn’t to open it until I received a certain order in code. A code-signal, really.

Major von Peters
: That may well be true. That secret Army order was distributed just about then. I didn’t think, of course, that it was for corporals.

Velder
: Then the General said: ‘It’s ninety-nine per cent certain that you won’t need to open that envelope. A week tonight, you can burn it.’ He meant the day after the referendum.

Major von Peters
: Have you by any chance observed, Captain Schmidt, that the accused’s behaviour is beneath all comment. He hasn’t given a formal reply to a single one of your questions. He keeps saying ‘he’ about the General, and maintains the General used his first name. Are you going to tolerate such things?

Captain Schmidt
: In consideration of Velder’s general condition and how easy it is for him to lose the thread, I prefer that his replies are factually correct. This is hardly the right occasion to start insisting on military regulations.

Major von Peters
: What do you mean? Kindly spare me your sarcasms. An apology would be in order, I must say.

Commander Kampenmann
: Schmidt, apologise to the major.

Captain Schmidt
: I apologise for my thoughtless choice of words.

Major von Peters
: Good. Continue.