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a major television network.”
    I let out a whistle. “Two percent is a hell of a lot! Does he have that kind of money?”
    â€œDon’t be naïve. We’re talking about finance, not business. First buy, then wait and see where the money to pay for it comes from.”
    â€œI get it. And I can also see that the experiment would work only if the Commendatore keeps quiet about the newspaper not being published in the end. Everyone would have to think that the wheels of his press were eager to roll, so to speak.”
    â€œOf course. The Commendatore hasn’t even told me about the newspaper not appearing. I suspect, or rather, I’m sure of it. And the colleagues we will meet tomorrow mustn’t know. They have to work away, believing they are building their future. This is something only you and I know.”
    â€œBut what’s in it for you if you then write down all you’ve been doing to help along the Commendatore’s blackmail?”
    â€œDon’t use the word ‘blackmail.’ We publish news. As the
New York Times
says, ‘All the news that’s fit to print.’”
    â€œAnd maybe a little more.”
    â€œI see we understand each other. If the Commendatore then uses our dummy issues to intimidate someone, or wipes his butt with them, that’s his business, not ours. But the point is, my book doesn’t have to tell the story of what decisions were made in our editorial meetings. I wouldn’t need you for that—a tape recorder would do. The book has to give the idea of another kind of newspaper, has to show how I labored away for a year to create a model of journalism independent of all pressure, implying that the venture failed because it was impossible to have a free voice. To do this, I need you to invent, idealize, write an epic, if you get my meaning.”
    â€œThe book will say the opposite of what actually happened. Fine. But you’ll be proved wrong.”
    â€œBy whom? By the Commendatore, who would have to say no, the aim of the project was simple extortion? He’d be happier to let people think he’d been forced to quit because he too was under pressure, that he preferred to kill the newspaper so it didn’t become a voice controlled by someone else. And our news team? Are they going to say we’re wrong when the book presents them as journalists of the highest integrity? It’ll be a
betzeller
that nobody will be able or willing to attack.”
    â€œAll right, seeing that both of us are men without qualities—if you’ll excuse the allusion—I accept the terms.”
    â€œI like dealing with people who are loyal and say what they think.”

3
Tuesday, April 7
    F IRST MEETING WITH THE EDITORIAL STAFF. Six, that should do.
    Simei had told me I wouldn’t have to traipse around doing bogus investigations, but was to stay in the office and keep a record of what was going on. And to justify my presence, this is how he started: “So gentlemen, let’s get to know each other. This is Dottor Colonna, a man of great journalistic experience. He will work beside me, and for this reason we’ll call him assistant editor; his main task will be checking all of your articles. Each of you comes from a different background, and it’s one thing to have worked on a far-left paper and quite another to have experience of, let’s say, the
Voice of the Gutter
, and since, as you see, we are a spartan few, those who have always worked on death notices may also have to write an editorial on the government crisis. It’s therefore a question of uniformity of style and, if anyone is tempted to write ‘palingenesis,’ then Colonna will tell you not to, and will suggest an alternative word.”
    â€œDeep moral renewal,” I said.
    â€œThere. And if anyone is tempted to describe a dramatic situation by saying we’re in the ‘eye of the storm,’ I imagine Dottor Colonna