And now I shall die, he thinks. But at that moment the blink in the wall tells him that the van is coming. His hands begin moving the switches of their own accord. The steel door opens, and at the same time the tiny slithering sound of the van can be heard round the corner out on the open space, as if a snake were gliding along. Then the van comes into view, glides forward and is about to pass. The exhausted young man is standing where the sentry can see him out of the corner of his eye.

He has not yet said everything he came to say. He is standing moving his lips. The sentry can see that he is standing in full view of the van, and he must not do that. No one must stand talking to him, or rather he must not stand talking to anyone, and now the people in the van can see this happening.

‘Get away,’ he says sharply, forgetting who he is talking to.

A wave of pain passes over the face of the young man; he does not manage to say any more. But he goes on standing there. The sentry wants him out of the way. He is just about to grab him and pull him aside – weak and poorly and easy to overpower as he is. Then he remembers the slab on which he is standing: if he moves the alarm bells will start shrilling inside the centre, and in that case he does not know what will become of him. He swings the glass partition up again quickly.

All this happens at tremendous speed while the van is approaching. His fingers are on the switches, ready to close the door.

Then he does not have to think about it any more; it resolves itself. The van has now arrived at its quiet, rapid pace, and is turning slightly in the man’s direction. The man is standing as if he has not done all he came to do, standing irresolute, while fear of the van moves in spasms across his face – and then it is over. The van is close beside him, and he must go on standing here because he has not completed the task he was given. A narrow door flies open and a long arm seizes the young man, gets him in its grasp and drags him in through the door so roughly that his skull thuds against the steel frame.

The sentry sees it happen from the corner of his eye, for he does not take his eyes off the lamp. Now it is even good to be hypnotized by it. He had it coming to him, he thinks. Now he’ll catch it. That’s what happens to the ones who try to stir up trouble. That’s what happens to all those who can’t leave people alone.

The young man utters a brief cry the instant the door flies open and the arm grabs him – for it all happens in the twinkling of an eye. But silence falls just as quickly. As the giant fist drags him in something is stuffed into his troublesome mouth, so that all sound is stifled. And at the same time the narrow handleless door clicks back again and the van continues – on towards the open empty doorway to the centre. The worn-out young man has vanished as if he had never existed.