Ščepán shakes his head. If he may say so, he has a different opinion. Fake executions derange a person being worked over. If he could suggest something, it would be better to make night and day the same for him. The light has to be on at all times. He has to be woken up every hour and told to report, “Prisoner number so and so, cell number such and such, number of prisoners one, I report that nothing out of the ordinary has happened.” And the same in an hour’s time. Does Rácz see what he means?
Rácz smiles contentedly. He likes it.
Ščepán assures him, “He’ll be done in two weeks. Then you come in and be all upset. Pretend, you understand, just pretending. You scream, ‘What are you doing to this man? How dare you? Release him this instant! Right now! What sort of mediæval methods are you using here?’ And so on. The person we’ve worked over will fall in love with you and will follow you like a little doggie.” Ščepán smiles. He has a lot of experience. He remembers interrogating people who are in power now. That was a long time ago. It’s hard to believe now. Would Rácz like to hear spicy details about subversives and enemies of the state they used to work over? “We wouldn’t let our state be attacked.” And today they’re high up in government, in parliament. Oh, Ščepán could tell you a lot about them.
Rácz shrugs. He’s not interested in politics. His politics is right here. But he’s happy to be dealing with professionals. And now down to business. Here’s the money he promised. The stoker gives Ščepán a package of thousand-crown banknotes. The lawyer will be having company. Rácz needs Ščepán and his people to take out of circulation a few inconvenient people. Rácz thought at first that he could do a deal with them, but now he realises that it can’t be done the easy way. They only understand the hard way. They have to be caught one by one and put in the cells. Ščepán and his people have three days to do it. Rácz will let them use the minibus. Can any of them drive? Yes? Then everything is fine. They’ll have to kidnap and lock up all the gypsies from around the Ambassador. “And then do the same to the Albanians, particularly the leaders. There are three of them: Bekim Bahmuci, Ahmet Sočila, and Enver Murcijča. They’re easy to spot: they’re all as dark as coal and expensively dressed. That’s all. Then we’ll see.” Rácz finishes his Heevash Reygahl and waves to the waiter. “My secretary has the keys to the minibus,” he tells the ex-secret policemen as they leave. “You know him from the last job: he’s called Ďula. And now I have to go; I’ve got work to do.”
Rácz lets the secret policemen think about their new mission. He’s going to wait for Lenka. She sat her examinations successfully; she has time for Rácz now. He’s invited her to his suite for lunch. The meals will be brought from a nearby Asian restaurant. He’s very busy; he can’t afford to leave the hotel.
Rácz looks at his watch. He still has time. He could use it somehow, but before every date with Lenka he is exhausted, no good for anything, but turned on by her, unable to concentrate. He would rather spend the time in the bath, up to his neck in hot, perfumed water; with a member that has not been satisfied for a long time, and that gets an erection after any accidental touch.
* * *
Freddy Piggybank got up early, while it was still dark. Soon daybreak came and with it objects took on blurred, slimy contours. A low grey sky did not promise a nice day. A thaw was setting in; the day started with tinkling in the gutters. The pavements and the parking lot are slippery. Here and there under the trees remain dirty piles of snow, awaiting their end. All the dirt and mess hidden under a thick layer of snow has risen to the surface. The drunk with the hat is not lying on the car park any more. As soon as the snack bar people and their slummy booths were removed, Freddy decided to clean up, to dispose of the paper, paper cups and plastic trays in the rubbish bin. He was unable to awaken the drunk, so he waited until nightfall and dragged him off to the hotel yard, where he hid him under a thick layer of snow. Freddy does not need complications. Now all he wants is to start up the car park again. He has to forget the bad times. Whatever happened, happened. He can’t remember what happened to him when the snack bar booths were there, anyway. The drunk had to disappear and that was that.
The car park in front of the hotel is still empty. It is light outside the window of the trailer. Freddy is awake and is eating sausages and beans from a tin he has quickly heated up. He knows that he won’t be able to finish his meal in peace, but that’s fine by him. Business is business. Through the window he sees the first car enter the lot. Freddy quickly wipes his mouth, jumps up and throws down his spoon. He grabs his red bag, slings its leather strap over his right shoulder and resolutely sets out into the miserable daylight.
* * *
“Yes, Hokusai,” Rácz says, putting his chopsticks aside, having learned how to use them just to please Lenka. He lifts the tiny bowl of unsweetened green tea to his lips. He hates unsweetened tea. He drinks tea only when he has a cold and then he makes himself a quart of sweet rose hip tea with local rum. But what won’t a great man do for the love of his life?
“Divine Hokusai,” he adds dreamily and then falls silent again. He lets Lenka talk as much as she wants. He’d rather think about something else. He’s decided: he’ll screw her today. Taking this decision makes his mouth dry and the food tasteless. He hasn’t had a woman for a long time, ever since he kicked Silvia out. Lenka has to realise that she’s got to sleep with him eventually. Rácz is very happy that he had the idea of lunch with her in his own suite. He looks at the Chinese waiter standing straight by the wall. “Leave the bottle of that… that fruit juice of yours here,” he tells him. “Then you can go.” The waiter bows and puts the bottle of plum wine in a heater.
Rácz feels his member slowly swelling. Lenka looks especially lovely today.
“Lenka,” he says, when the waiter vanishes from the room. He lifts a glass of sweet, lilac-coloured liquid. “I love you,” he proclaims. Lenka raises her glass. They toast each other with the hot liquid. Rácz takes her hand with the glass and makes her put her glass down on the table. He takes out of his pocket a neatly wrapped little box and hands it to her.
Lenka’s eyes widen in anticipation. “What is it?” she whispers in astonishment.
Rácz smiles. “Take a look,” he says.
It’s a gold ring with a diamond the size of a pea.
“I ordered it from Oppenheimer’s in Vienna,” says Rácz.
“I can’t accept it,” says Lenka. “It’s gorgeous,” she adds immediately.
Rácz embraces and kisses her. Lenka’s lips are inexperienced. At the last moment she can’t help moving her head away to avoid Rácz’s moist fleshy lips, swollen with lust.
“Do you know why diamonds are so beautiful and precious?” she asks and gently pushes the stoker’s probing fingers away. “Because a diamond hides the mystery of the entire universe. In its structure you can find everything that you need to know about the origins of our planet.”
“And how about us? You and me?” asks the stoker, red-hot with desire and the heated plum wine.
Lenka does not answer. Lost in thought, with an Egyptian statue’s mysterious smile, she twirls the precious ring around her finger.
Rácz targets her lips and savagely forces his tongue between them. At first he encounters the ramparts of her white teeth, but after squeezing her and bending her waist back like a blade of grass, he makes her mouth open in a suppressed sigh. Lenka’s tongue is also inexperienced, but Rácz brings it to life with his caresses. For a second, Lenka manages to free herself from Rácz’s devastating embrace.