The Generals
Page 1
PER WAHLÖÖ
The Generals
Born in 1926, Per Wahlöö was a Swedish writer and journalist who, alongside his own novels, collaborated with his partner, Maj Sjöwall, on the bestselling Martin Beck crime series, credited as inspiration for writers as varied as Agatha Christie, Henning Mankell, and Jonathan Franzen. In 1971 the fourth novel in the series, The Laughing Policeman, won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Per Wahlöö died in 1975.
JOAN TATE
Joan Tate was born in 1922 of English and Irish extraction. She traveled widely and worked as a teacher, a rehabilitation worker at a center for injured miners, a broadcaster, a reviewer, and a columnist. She was a prolific writer and translator, well known for translating many leading Swedish-language writers, including Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, Kerstin Ekman, P. C. Jersild, Sven Lindqvist, and Agneta Pleijel. She died in 2000.
Also by Per Wahlöö
Murder on the Thirty-first Floor
A Necessary Action
The Assignment
The Steel Spring
With Maj Sjöwall
Roseanna
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
The Man on the Balcony
The Laughing Policeman
The Fire Engine that Disappeared
Murder at the Savoy
The Abominable Man
The Locked Room
Cop Killer
The Terrorists
FIRST VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD EDITION, JUNE 2013
Translation copyright © 1974 by Michael Joseph Ltd. and Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Sweden as Generalerna by P. A. Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm, in 1965. Copyright © 1965 by Per Wahlöö. This translation originally published in Great Britain by Micahel Joseph Limited, London, and subsequently published in hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1974.
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Crime/Black Lizard and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this edition has been applied for.
eISBN: 978-0-307-74479-1
www.vintagebooks.com
Cover design by Gregg Kulick
Cover photograph © Nick Koudis/Photodisc/Getty Images
v3.1
To MAJ
Contents
Cover
About the Author and the Translator
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
The Generals
First Day
Second Day
Third Day
Fourth Day
Fifth Day
Sixth Day
Seventh Day
Eighth Day
Ninth Day
Tenth Day
Eleventh Day
Twelfth Day
Thirteenth Day
Fourteenth Day
Fifteenth Day
Sixteenth Day
THE GENERALS
On a small island in the temperate zone a court-martial has assembled. Corporal Erwin Velder is on trial for his life. Some of his 127 alleged crimes are military, but others are civil and moral: bigamy, rape and sacrilege. Per Wahlöö’s new novel takes the form of the proceedings of the trial, stretching over three months.
It emerges that this trial is of great political importance to the régime. The result is a foregone conclusion: Velder has been prepared in prison by ‘specialists’ for three years. He is a physical and mental wreck and confesses to all but one of the charges. In reality the court-martial is an elaborate rehearsal of the events of the last eight years. The past and the dead are on trial.
A group of civilised, intelligent men took over the island, we learn, and began to build an ideal state. There were no politics, religion, laws, bureaucracy or taxes. The country was carefully developed and enjoyed great prosperity and general happiness under the loosely exercised authority of the state’s founders. After five years the first cracks appeared with a disagreement in the ruling council. Slow disintegration set in: a secret armed force was built up by one of the rulers and eventually civil war broke out. The rout of the liberal party was followed by full-scale fighting between the ‘fascists’ and the ‘reds’.
At the time the action of the book takes place the country has enjoyed, officially, three years of peace after the cease-fire, but in fact the Generals, who rule with an iron grip, are ceaselessly struggling for power with one another. As the inevitable verdict is pronounced on the innocent, unprotesting Velder, the latest coup takes place.
Record of proceedings at sessions of the
extra-ordinary court martial
opened at Air Force Headquarters
on 26th February
Those present:
President of the Court:
Colonel Mateo Orbal, Army
Members of the Court Martial:
Major Carl von Peters, Army
Colonel Nicola Pigafetta, Air Force
Commander Arnold Kampenmann, Navy
Major Tetz Niblack, Air Force
Prosecuting Officer:
Judge-Advocate: Captain Wilfred Schmidt, Navy
Assistant: Lieutenant Mihail Bratianu, Army
Defending Officer: Captain Roger Endicott, Air Force
Officer Presenting Case: Lieutenant Arie Brown, Air Force
Civil Law Observer: Justice Tadeusz Haller
Witnesses: Max Gerthoffer, Laboratory Technologist Emil Roth, Farmer
Accused: Corporal Erwin Velder
First Day
Lieutenant Brown: Are the members of the court prepared to proceed with the internal section of the session?
Colonel Orbal: Of course.
Lieutenant Brown: Present at the internal section of today’s proceedings are the President of the Court, Colonel Orbal, Major von Peters, Army, Colonel Pigafetta, representing the Air Force, Commander Kampenmann, Navy, and Justice Haller, co-opted to this extra-ordinary court martial as civil law observer and representative of the Ministry of Justice.
Major von Peters: You’ve forgotten yourself.
Lieutenant Brown: Case presented by Lieutenant Brown, Air Force, appointed to General Staff Operations Division.
Major von Peters: Excellent. Continue.
Lieutenant Brown: At non-internal sections of the sessions, Captain Schmidt from the General Staff Judicial Section will act as Prosecuting Officer.
Major von Peters: He’s too soft.
Lieutenant Brown: Assistant Prosecuting Officer is Lieutenant Bratianu.
Major von Peters: Bratianu, he’s a good man.
Lieutenant Brown: The accused will be defended by Captain Endicott from the Air Force.
Major von Peters: Who chose that particular man?
Colonel Pigafetta: I did. He’s under orders, after drawing lots.
Major von Peters: Well, Bratianu’s a good man.
Lieutenant Brown: Justice Haller has asked to be allowed to make a statement.
Tadeusz Haller: May I speak?
Colonel Orbal: What?
Tadeusz Haller: I requested to be allowed to speak.
Colonel Orbal: Of course. Request granted.
Tadeusz Haller: As representative of the Ministry of Justice, I should like to point out that the governmen
t attaches great importance to this session. I need only point out that for more than three years this case has been prepared in different stages.
Commander Kampenmann: Why?
Tadeusz Haller: I’ll be coming to that point shortly. Counsel for the Prosecution will submit one hundred and twenty-seven charges and the documents of the case already amount to ten thousand pages.
Major von Peters: Prosecuting Officer.
Tadeusz Haller: Pardon?
Major von Peters: Prosecuting Officer, I said. Not Counsel for the Prosecution. This is a court martial.
Tadeusz Haller: I beg your pardon. Well, to continue, the considerable care which has been devoted to the preliminary work on this session naturally has a definite purpose behind it. The conclusions and verdict of this court, together with the already existing proceedings and documents, will form the basis of work to be carried out by the civil-military legislature, that is, the Legislative Assembly.
Major von Peters: Don’t talk to us as if we were idiots.
Tadeusz Haller: I beg your pardon. That was indeed not my intention. Well, to continue, although it may seem somewhat superfluous, I should like therefore on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and the Legislature to emphasise with extreme urgency that the case be completed in minutest detail and investigated thoroughly in all its moral, judicial, pardon, military-judicial and psychological aspects.
Colonel Orbal: Who’s treating us like idiots?
Commander Kampenmann: I still don’t understand this exaggerated interest in this particular individual.
Tadeusz Haller: The man whose case is now to be tried has acted as representative for two separate régimes, and, in addition, been a member of two separately organised revolutionary movements. He has served in the armed forces of all of them and has betrayed them all.
Major von Peters: But you can’t betray armies that don’t exist. You ought to express yourself more precisely.
Tadeusz Haller: I … understand your viewpoint. A slip of the tongue. It will not be repeated.
Major von Peters: Excellent. Have you ever been a soldier, Mr Haller?
Tadeusz Haller: With all due respect to this court martial, I feel that that is a matter of irrelevance. More important, perhaps, is that this court has the opportunity to reveal the mental mechanism of an individual who has committed treason against the State, and who both before and during the relatively limited time of the duration of the war …
Major von Peters: What war? You mean the disturbances. You really ought to express yourself more precisely.
Tadeusz Haller: … and both before and during the attempts to overthrow the government, broke more or less every essential moral law fundamental to our ideology, our way of life, and our constitution. That is why the Chief of State has expressed the definite wish that the case be handled with the greatest care and that the motives, impulses and errors of the accused which led to the deeds be investigated and accounted for in the minutest detail. It is also the Chief of State’s intention at the completion of the session to hand over the assembled material to the legislature for closer analysis. The Chief of State has emphasised that point very strongly.
Major von Peters: Why didn’t you say that in the first place?
Commander Kampenmann: I still don’t understand why the sections of this case that lie outside military jurisdiction can’t be dealt with by a civil court.
Tadeusz Haller: As the honourable members of the court are no doubt aware, we are still very much in arrears with the task of legislation. It would have created great difficulties to have had this case tried by a civil court. In addition …
Major von Peters: In addition what?
Tadeusz Haller: In addition, the Chief of State is of the opinion that this task is of too great importance to be entrusted to the representatives of any other authority than the armed forces.
Major von Peters: Well, that’s obvious.
Tadeusz Haller: Especially as other authorities hardly exist. Be that as it may, apart from the psychological analyses for the protection of the moral and spiritual welfare of the people, which can be based on the record of the proceedings of this court martial, the verdict and sentence for each charge on which the court finds the accused guilty, are to be regarded as a precedent and a foundation for civil-military legislation.
Major von Peters: I see. Have you finished now?
Tadeusz Haller: Yes, that is all I have to say.
Colonel Pigafetta: If I’ve understood you correctly, the whole court martial procedure is to be regarded as a military emergency.
Tadeusz Haller: Yes, formally.
Colonel Pigafetta: And your authority at this court martial does not embrace the sections of the case which concern military matters?
Tadeusz Haller: My assignment is to act as judicial adviser and function as an observer.
Colonel Pigafetta: For the government?
Tadeusz Haller: And for the Chief of State.
Colonel Pigafetta: I see … well, no doubt we can come to some agreement.
Tadeusz Haller: I’m sure we can. I beg your pardon, Mr President, I didn’t quite catch what you said.
Colonel Orbal: What?
Tadeusz Haller: I didn’t hear what you said.
Colonel Orbal: I didn’t say anything. I was yawning. Lieutenant Brown, you may continue.
Lieutenant Brown: The procedure of the case includes one closed and one open section. The sessions will be introduced with the open section, to which the general public and representatives of the press, radio and television have access. Is the court prepared to conclude the internal deliberations and proceed to the open section of the session?
Major von Peters: The press? Foreigners, too?
Lieutenant Brown: To some extent, sir. Three foreign news agencies have been granted an audience.
Major von Peters: From friendly nations?
Lieutenant Brown: Naturally.
Major von Peters: You should say ‘naturally, sir’.
Lieutenant Brown: Yes, sir.
Major von Peters: Good.
Lieutenant Brown: In addition, the foreign news agencies are represented by the same journalist as our own mass media are.
Major von Peters: Have any of the general public come?
Lieutenant Brown: No, sir.
Colonel Orbal: It’s dreadfully cold in here.
Tadeusz Haller: It wouldn’t do any harm if a few representatives of the general public were present. Looks better.
Colonel Pigafetta: Arrange that, will you, Brown. There’s bound to be a few people in the messes.
Lieutenant Brown: Yes, sir.
Colonel Orbal: Does it have to be like this? So damned cold, I mean?
Colonel Pigafetta: I’ll try to get something done about it.
Colonel Orbal: This mineral water just makes you colder than ever. And it tastes of sulphur. Can’t you arrange things so that we get something hot to drink? Coffee or tea, or something?
Colonel Pigafetta: Of course. I suggest we go upstairs, to my quarters.
Major von Peters: Switch off the tape-recorder.
Lieutenant Brown: I have no authority to interrupt the proceedings until the members adjourn the court.
Major von Peters: Adjourn the court, Mateo.
Colonel Orbal: The internal proceedings are herewith concluded. The court is adjourned for an hour and a quarter.
Lieutenant Brown: Is this extra-ordinary court martial prepared to proceed to the open section of the session?
Colonel Orbal: Of course.
Major von Peters: Are the general public organised?
Lieutenant Brown: Yes, sir.
Major von Peters: Then you can open the doors and summon the parties.
Lieutenant Brown: This extra-ordinary court martial herewith proclaims the case of the Armed Forces versus Erwin Velder open. Will the parties concerned please take their places. No, you may remain seated until the press and the general public are ready.
Major von Pet
ers: Who’s the journalist?
Tadeusz Haller: Doctor Brandt from the Ministry of Information.
Colonel Pigafetta: Brown, for God’s sake get those men to stop rattling the chairs about.
Lieutenant Brown: May I request the public to maintain silence and order.
Major von Peters: The Air Force. No discipline.
Colonel Orbal: What did you say?
Lieutenant Brown: This extra-ordinary court martial herewith presents the case of the Armed Forces versus Erwin Velder. I call on all parties to rise. You too, Lieutenant Bratianu, please.
Major von Peters: I told you discipline’s always bad in the Air Force.
Colonel Orbal: What? Yes … of course.
Lieutenant Brown: The presidium of this extra-ordinary court martial has for dealing with this case been constituted as follows: President of the Court, Colonel Mateo Orbal. Members of the court martial and representatives of the armed forces, Major von Peters, Army, Colonel Nicola Pigafetta, Air Force, and Commander Arnold Kampenmann, Navy. In the event of non-appearance of members of the court during sessions, they will be replaced by personal substitutes. The case for the prosecution will be submitted by Captain Wilfred Schmidt, with Lieutenant Mihail Bratianu to assist him. The accused is defended by Captain Roger Endicott. The President of the Court Martial will now declare the public section of the session open.
Colonel Orbal: The public section of the session is herewith declared open.
Lieutenant Brown: The parties may now be seated.
Major von Peters: Your name is Erwin Velder?
Velder: Yes.
Major von Peters: Stand up, man. That’s right. Well, what’s your military rank?
Velder: Lieutenant-Colonel.
Major von Peters: For God’s sake, man. Are you standing there insulting the court?
Colonel Orbal: Nice start.
Major von Peters: Captain Endicott. I presume you’re familiar with the documents?
Captain Endicott: As far as has been possible. During the three days in which I have held this appointment …
Major von Peters: That’s nothing to do with it. What’s the accused’s rank in the armed forces?