"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 02" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

down the page. BURNED ALIVE FOR ADULTERY', read
one. The story described how a husband in Genova had
caught his wife with another man, poured petrol over
them both and set them alight. He abruptly folded the
paper up and tucked it under his arm. Not that he had
anything to worry about on that score, of course. He
should be so lucky!
As a bus approached the stop, the various figures whn
had been loitering in the vicinity marched out into the
street to try their chances at the lottery of guessing where
the rear doors would be when the bus stopped. Zen did
reasonably well this morning, with the result that he was
ruthlessly jostled from every side as the less fortunate trieci
to improve on their luck. Someone at his back used his
elbow so enterprisingly that Zen turned round to protest,
almost losing his place as a result. But in the end justice
prevailed, and Zen managed to squeeze aboard just as the
doors closed.
The events reported in the newspaper had already had
their effect at the Viminale. The approaches leading up to
the Ministry building were guarded by armoured person-
nel carriers with machine-gun turrets on the roof. The
barriers were lowered and all vehicles were being carefully
searched. Pedestrian access, up a flight of steps from the
piazza, was through a screen of heavy metal railings
whose gate was normally left open, but today each person
was stopped in the cage and had to present his or her
identification, watched carefully by two guards wearing
bulletproof vests and carrying submachine-guns.
Having penetrated these security checks, Zen walked
up to the third floor, where Criminalpol occupied a suite of
rooms at the front of the building. The contrast with the
windowless cell to which Zen had previously been con-
fined could hardly have been more striking. Tasteful
renovation, supplemented by a scattering of potted plants
and antique engravings, had created a pleasant working
ambience without the oppressive scale traditionally associ-
ated with government premises.
'Quite like the old days!' was Giorgio De Angelis's com-
ment as Zen passed by. 'The lads upstairs are loving it, of
course. A few more like this and they'll be able to claw
back all the special powers they've been stripped of since
things quietened down.'
De Angelis was a big, burly man with a hairline which
had receded dramatically to reveal a large, shiny forehead
of the type popularly associated with noble and unworldly
intellects. What spoiled this impression was his bulbous
nose, with nostrils of almost negroid proportions from
which hairs sprouted like plants that have found them-
selves a niche in crumbling masonry. He was from the