Their names were all the same to him, and they would ask him many questions, as if he was the one who could read the tea leaves and foretell the future, but he knew there was only one question that brought them all the way to his office: “When and how will I die?” It usually came at the end of an exhausting list of questions, to give the impression that it was just one of many. “Should I order an armor-plated car, or don’t I need one?” one of the politicians once asked him. His parliamentary bloc had been assigned only three armor-plated cars, the politician explained; should he fight to
...more
