Sanchís’s voice drowned in a howl when the man operating the generator clamped the pincers on his testicles. “Please, don’t hurt me, no . . .”

“Don’t cry, man, we haven’t done anything to you yet. Come on, look at me. Look me in the eye.”

Crying like a baby, Sanchís looked up.

Hendaya was smiling at him. “Let’s see, Sanchís. I’m your friend. This is just between you and me. No secrets. You help me, and I’ll take you home to be with your wife, which is where you should be. Don’t cry, man. I don’t like to see a Spaniard cry, for fuck’s sake. The only people who cry here are those who are holding something back. But we have nothing to hide here, have we? There are no secrets here. Because we’re among friends. I know you’ve got Mauricio Valls. And I understand. Valls is a bastard. Yes, yes. I can say that: I don’t have any qualms about saying that. I’ve seen the documents. I know Valls was forcing you to break the law. Making you sell shares that didn’t exist. I don’t know much about these things. Can’t get my head around all this finance stuff. But even someone as ignorant as me can see that Valls was forcing you to steal for him. I’ll tell you clearly: this individual may be a minister, but he’s a shit. And believe me, this is something I do understand, something I have to see every day. But you know what this country is like. You’re valued according to what friends you have. It’s like that, I’m afraid. And Valls has lots of friends. The sort of friends who are in charge. But everything has a limit. There comes a point when one has to say: Enough. And you’ve wanted to take the law into your own hands. Look, I understand. But that’s a mistake. That’s what we’re here for. It’s our job. Right now all we want is to find that rogue Valls, so that everything is cleared up. So you can go home to your wife. So that we can put Valls into jail once and for all, and he can answer for what he’s done. And so I can go off on holiday—it’s high time I did, I tell you. And then we forget about it all. You do understand, don’t you?”

Sanchís tried to say something, but his teeth chattered so much the words were incomprehensible.

“What are you saying, Sanchís? If you don’t stop shaking, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“What shares?” he managed to articulate.

Hendaya sighed. “You disappoint me, Sanchís. I thought we were friends. And one mustn’t insult one’s friends. This is not going well. I’m making it easy for you because deep down I understand what you’ve done. Perhaps others wouldn’t understand, but I do. Because I know what it’s like to have to put up with this sort of rabble who think they’re above everything. So I’m going to give you a second chance. Because I like you. But just a bit of advice from a friend: sometimes one has to know when it’s not a good idea to get all cocky.”