brilliant. I was stubborn. That wasn’t right. Why not? Because he was the son of recent immigrants, so he should have been the stubborn one. I’m from a family which has been here since the time of Rosas in the nineteenth century. That’s a long time for Argentina. So I should have been the brilliant one.’
‘He got into a political mess; you didn’t.’
‘That was where his being an immigrant betrayed him. He was a rebel, but a rebel who wore silk Italian ties, had an apartment in La Recoleta and an imported European car. The ones who got him mixed up in politics were his wife and his sister-in-law. Those two had a very masculine view of history’
‘And you have a feminine one?’
‘Let’s just say I take the conventional female position. I’m passive with regards history. I’m more interested in the biological memory of animals than in the historical one of men. What use is historical memory to us today?’
‘Did he come and see you when he returned to Argentina?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did he want?’
‘I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I’ve no idea. He talked of his work, and how far he had got with it. We’ve come a long way since then, but I offered to help him get his job back here. We don’t make as much as before, because we can’t get any contracts with private firms, and the state pays badly. He was very angry we call this New Argentina. He said it sounded Fascist. But I needed new partners, and they as well as all other Argentines need to believe in Argentina after all the crap we threw at each other or had thrown at us. It was easier before. Can you guess how we managed to live well, very well, and still do? We apply some of what we’ve discovered to making rat poisons.’
With his interior gaze, Carvalho tries to stand back from himself alongside the biologist, to take in the whole of this laboratory built as a prison for rats perhaps out of fear that otherwise they might imprison men. The animals scamper around looking for a way to escape, or perhaps they’re simply imagining it. He hears Améndola trying to tell him something.
‘These rats’ behaviour teaches us not only what we have to do to get rid of other rats, but also what’s needed to save mankind. What we have to do to save the only animal that doesn’t deserve to live. For example, by improving his diet. What do you know about lupins?’
‘That’s strange. It’s the second time I’ve been asked that. Next to nothing. Should we be eating them?’
‘No, the cows will eat lupins, then we’ll eat the cows.’
‘That seems like an idea that’s been tried often before in history.’
Roberto has fallen silent, and Carvalho respects his withdrawal for a few seconds. ‘Raúl. Did he say anything about what his plans were?’
‘What he said was quite a jumble, but he was calm. He talked about rats. He said that when he was a rat he’d been kept in an underground dungeon with a small grating in the roof for air. Sometimes he’d look up and imagine he could see the two of us examining him. You and me, he said, we were there above the grating, looking down at me the rat – and I wanted to behave properly, like a well-behaved rat, even though I might get impatient sometimes, like a rat who looks at his watch, but...’
‘But what?’
‘But he didn’t have a watch. Apparently they wouldn’t let them have watches.’
Améndola seems to be enjoying the thought of the imaginary scene. The well-endowed young woman, possibly an assistant, passes by. Carvalho can’t help admiring her ass and legs again. Roberto notices his interest. ‘That comes from a lot of meat protein. Lots of steaks. Our asses are full of the best of Argentina. Do you want to see the real Argentina?’
Roberto’s eyes go to the poster showing the contented cow. Carvalho follows his gaze. New Argentina it says on the door. Outside the window, motorcyclists dressed as if they intend to terrify circle round. Roberto leads the way and
Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade