The Last Compromise by Carl Reevik Page A

managed to do it and get away with it, even be genuinely liked. While
Russia, when it was doing exactly the same thing, was inevitably pictured as a
violent alcoholic who broke the rules of the civilised world. Maybe Russia did
it too clumsily, too directly. Not smartly enough in an age of mass media. But
the game surely was the same for all countries, large or small. Russia just
happened to be bigger than others. So it behaved like big countries were
entitled to behave, and like other big countries in fact did behave.
    ‘Maybe
they realise this themselves,’ Hans said. ‘And it frustrates them even more.
History hasn’t been exactly easy on them, either.’
    ‘I
know that,’ Siim nodded. ‘Our country landed in a rough neighbourhood.’
    Hans
got a passing waiter’s attention and ordered one more for each of them, so that
the beer would arrive when they’d finish the glasses they had now.
    ‘But
we’re inside,’ Hans said. ‘And right now the problem is not just getting into
the club where you want to be. Now the club doesn’t want you in to begin with.
Just look at the next candidate in the queue. They also used to be in the
Soviet sphere. You think Europe will even open negotiations with them, for
membership in the future?’
    ‘It
has to, at least it has to open talks.’ Siim put both hands on the table. ‘Europe
made a promise. If you are a European country, and if you are able and willing
to follow the rules, you can apply for membership. We cannot go back on that
just because Russia is bullying its neighbours. It would mean to prove them
right.’
    The
beer arrived. They emptied their old glasses, gave them back to the waiter, and
started working on the new ones. They both took a swig, and then another one.
Breathed out.
    ‘How’s
Clarissa?’, Hans asked.
    ‘Good.
Very good. Two more months of research in Holland. I hope all the radiation in
her lab up there won’t make her infertile. We’re thinking about getting married,
and so on. How’s your own sex life?’
    ‘Long-distance.
It’s very safe sex.’
    ‘Is
Julia back in Estonia yet?’
    ‘No,
she’s still doing her fellowship at that hospital. But it doesn’t really matter
if she’s a thousand kilometres away in Estonia, or another thousand away in
some other direction.’
    ‘You
should meet someone here,’ Siim said. ‘See how it works out. If it doesn’t work
out with the girl in Brussels you can still go back to Julia, while she’s so
far away anyway. You can even try out several girls here.’
    Hans
took another swig. No need to act all offended. It’s not like the thought had
never crossed his own mind.
    ‘I
need a favour, Siim,’ he said.
    ‘What’s
the favour about?’
    ‘I
need to make a few phone calls from your office to ask around about something.’
    Siim
put on an evil smirk. ‘Will I get into trouble?’
    ‘No.
It’s just preliminary. If it’s nothing, then nothing will happen. It there’s
something, then there’ll be an investigation and we’ll get everything anyway.
But I can’t call from my own office, and I can’t use the phone of anyone else in
my building, we all have creepy numbers. It has to be innocuous.’
    ‘I
don’t know Hans.’
    ‘Relax,
it’s for the greater good,’ Hans smiled. ‘For our mutual fatherland.’
    ‘Am
I allowed to know what it’s about?’
    ‘I’ll
tell you when I know if it’s something or nothing, I promise.’
    Siim
shook his head, smiling. It meant he agreed. They both took another swig. Hans
had to burp, and this time he only half suppressed it. ‘I should be going after
this one. Lots of work tomorrow. And you have your railroad stuff to do.’
    ‘Ah,
it will get approved with some changes, by compromise as usual,’ Siim sighed. ‘The
national governments want it themselves, they asked for it in the first place.
And the moment they approve it they will turn around and tell their voters that
Brussels is forcing absurd regulations on them. And the voters