Waiting for Orders (17 page)

Now, he knew better. Whether or not his spies had deliberately deceived him did not matter at the moment. A mistake had been made which was, he knew, likely to cost him more than temporary inconvenience. Unless he could retrieve it immediately, by getting out of the country within the next few hours, that mistake would certainly cost him his liberty, and most probably his life too.

He had risked death before, was familiar with the physical and mental sensations that accompanied the experience, and with a small effort was able to ignore them. As General Perez came up to him, the President displayed no emotion of any kind. He merely nodded politely and waited for the General to speak.

For a moment the General seemed tongue-tied. He was sweating too. As this was the first time he had overthrown a government he was undoubtedly suffering from stage fright. He took refuge finally in military punctilio. With a click of the heels he came to attention and fixed his eyes on the President’s left ear.

‘We are here …’ he began harshly, then cleared his throat and corrected himself. ‘I and my fellow members of the Council of the Liberation Front are here to inform you that a state of national emergency now exists.’

The President nodded politely. ‘I am glad to have that information, General. Since telephone communication has been cut off I have naturally been curious as to what was happening. These gentlemen’ – he motioned to the paratroopers – ‘seemed unwilling to enlighten me.’

The General ignored this and went on as if he were reading a proclamation. In fact he was quoting from the press release
which had already been handed to the newsmen. ‘Directed by the Council and under its orders,’ he said, ‘the armed forces have assumed control of all functions of civil government in the state, and, as provided in the Constitution, formally demand your resignation.’

The President looked astounded. ‘You have the effrontery to claim constitutional justification for this mutiny?’

For the first time since he had entered the room the General relaxed slighty. ‘We have a precedent, Sir. Nobody should know that better than you. You yourself set it when you legalized your own seizure of power from your predecessor. Need I remind you of the wording of the amendment? “If for any reason, including the inability to fulfil the duties of his office by reason of ill health, mental or physical, or absence, an elected president is unable to exercise the authority vested in him under the constitution, a committee representative of the nation and those responsible to it for the maintenance of law and order may request his resignation and be entitled …” ’

For several seconds the President had been waving his hands for silence. Now he broke in angrily. ‘Yes, yes, I know all about that. But my predecessor was absent. I am not. Neither am I ill, physically or mentally. There are no legal grounds on which you are entitled to ask for my resignation.’

‘No legal grounds, Sir?’ General Perez could smile now. He pointed to the paratroopers. ‘Are you able to exercise the authority of a president?
Are
you? If you think so, try.’

The President pretended to think over the challenge. The interview was so far going more or less as he had expected; but the next moves would be the critical ones for him. He walked over to a window and back in order to give himself time to collect himself.

Everyone there was watching him. The tension in the room was mounting. He could feel it. It was odd, he thought. Here he was, a prisoner, wholly at their mercy; and yet they were waiting for him to come to a decision, to make a choice where no choice existed. It was absurd. All they wanted from him was relief from a small and quite irrational sense of guilt. They had the Church’s blessing; now the poor fools yearned for the blessing of the law too. Very well. They should have it. But it would be expensive.

He turned and faced General Perez again.

‘A resignation exacted from me under duress would have no force in law,’ he said.

The General glanced at the Chief of Police. ‘You are a lawyer, Raymundo. Who represents the law here?’

‘The Council of the Liberation Front, General.’

Perez looked at the President again. ‘You see, Sir, there are no technical difficulties. We even have the necessary document already prepared.’

His aide held up a black leather portfolio.

The President hesitated, looking from one face to another as if hoping against hope that he might find a friendly one. Finally he shrugged. ‘I will read the document,’ he said coldly and walked towards the cabinet table. As he did so he seemed to become aware again of his fellow prisoners in the room. He stopped suddenly.

‘Must my humiliation be witnessed by my colleagues and my servants as well as the foreign press?’ he demanded bitterly.

General Perez motioned to the paratrooper captain. ‘Take those men into another room. Leave guards outside the doors of this one.’

The President waited until the group from the air raid shelter had been herded out, then sat down at the table. The General’s aide opened the portfolio, took out a legal document laced with green ribbon and placed it in front of the President.

He made a show of studying the document very carefully. In fact, he was indifferent to its contents. His intention was simply to let the tension mount a little further and to allow the other men there to feel that they were on the point of getting what they wanted.

For three minutes there was dead silence in the room. It was broken only by the sound of distant machine-gun fire. It seemed to be coming from the south side of the city. The President heard a slight stir from the group of men behind him and one of them cleared his throat nervously. There was another burst of firing. The President took no notice of it. He read the document through a third time then put it down and sat back in his chair.

The aide offered him a pen with which to sign. The President
ignored it and turned his head so that he could see General Perez.

‘You spoke of a resignation, General,’ he said. ‘You did not mention that it was to be a confession also.’

‘Hardly a confession, Sir,’ the General replied drily. ‘We would not expect you voluntarily to incriminate yourself. The admission is only of incompetence. That is not yet a criminal offence in a head of state.’

The President smiled faintly. ‘And if I were to sign this paper, what kind of personal treatment might I expect to receive afterwards? A prison cell perhaps, with a carefully staged treason trial to follow? Or merely a bullet in the head and an unmarked grave?’

The General reddened. ‘We are here to correct abuses of power, sir, not to imitate them. When you have signed you will be conducted to your former home in Alazan province. You will be expected to remain there for the present and the Governor of the province will be instructed to see that you do so. Apart from that restriction you will be free to do as you please. Your family will naturally be permitted to join you.’

‘You mention the house in Alazan province. What about my other personal property?’

‘You will be permitted to retain everything you owned when you took office.’

‘I see.’ The President stood up and moved away from the table. ‘I will think about it. I will let you have my decision tomorrow,’ he added casually.

The silence that followed this announcement did not last long, but one of the newsmen reported later that it was one of the loudest he had ever heard. Another remembered that during it he suddenly became conscious of the presence and smell of a large bowl of tropical flowers on a side table by the ante-room door.

The President had walked towards the windows again General Perez took two steps towards him, then stopped.

‘You must decide at once! You must sign now!’ he snapped.

The President turned on him. ‘Why? Why now?’

It was the Chief of Police who answered him. ‘Son of a whore, because we tell you to!’ he shouted.

Suddenly they were all shouting at him. One officer was so
enraged that he drew his pistol. The General had difficulty in restoring order.

The President took no notice of them. He kept his eyes on General Perez, but it was really the newsmen he was addressing now. As the din subsided he raised his voice.

‘I asked a question, General. Why now? Why the haste? It is a reasonable question. If, as you say, you already control the country, what have you to fear from me? Or is it, perhaps, that your control is not in fact as complete and effective as you would have us believe?’

The General had to quell another angry outburst from his colleagues before he could answer, but he preserved his own temper admirably. His reply was calm and deliberate.

‘I will tell you exactly what we control so that you may judge for yourself,’ he said. ‘To begin with, all provincial army garrisons, air force establishments, and police posts have declared for the Liberation Front, as have five out of eight of the provincial governors. The three objectors – I am sure you will have guessed who they are – have been rendered harmless and replaced by military governors. None of this can come as a great surprise to you, I imagine. You never had much support outside the capital and the mining areas.’

The President nodded. ‘Stupidity can sometimes be charted geographically,’ he remarked.

‘Now as to the capital. We control the airfields, both military and civil, the naval base, all communications including telephone and radio and television broadcast facilities, the power stations, all fuel oil storage facilities, all main traffic arteries, all government offices and city police posts together with the offices and printing presses of
El Correo
and
La Gaceta
.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘In connection with the broadcast facilities, I may mention that while the television station is temporarily off the air, the radio station will shortly begin broadcasting an announcement of the establishment of the new Liberation Front regime, which I recorded two days ago. As I told you before, everything is now under our control.’

The President smiled and glanced significantly at the newsmen. ‘Are the
sumideri
under control, General?’

Sumideri
, meaning sinks or drains, was the popular slang
term used to describe the slum areas on the south side of the capital.

The General hesitated only an instant. ‘The southern area is effectively contained,’ he replied stiffly. ‘The first infantry division reinforced by the third tank brigade has that responsibility.’

‘I see.’ The President looked again at the newsmen. ‘So the civil war may be expected to begin at any moment.’

With a quick motion of his hands the General silenced the chorus of objections from his colleagues. ‘We are fully prepared to deal firmly with any mob violence which may occur,’ he said. ‘Of that you may be sure.’

‘Yes,’ said the President bitterly, ‘perhaps civil war is not the phrase to use for the planned massacre of unarmed civilians.’ He swung around suddenly to face the newsmen and his voice hardened. ‘You have been witnesses to this farce, gentlemen. I ask you to remember it well and let the civilized world know of it. These men come to ask for my resignation as head of state. That is all they want! Why? Because outside in the streets of the city their tanks and guns are waiting to begin the slaughter of the thousands of men and women who will protest their loyalty to me. And the way to bring them out for the slaughter is to fling my resignation like so much filth in their faces!

General Perez could stand it no longer. ‘That is a lie!’ he shouted.

The President turned on him savagely. ‘Do you think they will
not
come out? Why else are they “contained” as you call it? Why else? Because they are my people and because they will listen only to me.’

A glow of triumph suffused General Perez’ angry face. ‘Then their blood will be on
your
hands!’ he roared. He stabbed a forefinger at the newsmen. ‘You heard what he said, gentlemen.
They do what he tells them!
It is his responsibility, then, not ours, if they oppose us.
He
will be the murderer of women and children! Let him deny it.’

This time the President made no reply. He just stood there looking about him in bewilderment, like a boxer who has staggered to his feet after a count of ten and can’t quite realize that the fight is over. At last he walked slowly back to the
cabinet table, sat down heavily, and buried his head in his hands.

Nobody else moved. When the President raised his head and looked at them again his eyes were haggard. He spoke very quietly.

‘You are right,’ he said, ‘they are my people and they will do as I tell them. It is my responsibility. I accept it. There must be no senseless bloodshed. I think it is my duty to tell them not to protest.’

For a moment they all stared at him incredulously. The Chief of Police started to say something, then stopped as he caught General Perez’ eye. If the man were serious this was too good an opportunity to miss.

General Perez went over and addressed the President. ‘I cannot believe that even you would speak lightly on such a matter, but I must ask if you seriously mean what you say?’

The President nodded absently. ‘I will need about an hour to draft my statement. There is a direct line to the radio station here in the Palace and the necessary equipment. The station can record me on tape.’ He managed a rueful smile. ‘In the circumstances, I imagine that you would prefer a recording to a live broadcast.’

‘Yes.’ But the General was still reluctant to believe in his triumph. ‘How can you be sure that they will obey you?’ he asked.

The President thought before he answered. ‘There will be some, of course, who will be too distressed, too angry perhaps, to do as I ask,’ he said. ‘But if the officers commanding troops are ordered to use restraint, casualties can be kept to a minimum.’ He glanced at the Chief of Police. ‘There should be moderation, too, in respect of arrests. But the majority will listen to me, I think.’ He paused. ‘The important thing is that they must believe that I am speaking as a free man, and not out of fear because there is a pistol at my head.’

‘I myself can give them that assurance,’ said the General. The fact that he could make such an ingenuous suggestion is an indication of his mental confusion at that point.