“Please,” Valls implored.

“But of course!” said Hendaya, walking over to the bars.

Valls stretched out his remaining hand, a plea on his face.

“In fact it brings good news today. To tell you the truth, it was when I read it this morning that I thought you deserved a proper celebration.” Hendaya flung the newspaper inside the cell and headed up the stairs. “All yours. You can keep the candle.”

Valls fell upon the paper and grabbed it. The pages had gotten all tangled when Hendaya threw it, and it took him a while to put it back in order with a single hand. When he’d managed to do so, he drew the candle closer and skimmed over the front page.

At first he couldn’t make out the letters. His eyes had been confined to that place far too long. What he did recognize was the full-page photograph. It was a snapshot taken in El Pardo Palace. He was posing in front of a large mural, wearing the navy pinstripe suit he’d had tailored in London three years before. It was the last official photograph Mauricio Valls’s ministry had distributed. The words emerged slowly, like a shimmering image underwater.

Breaking News

A Great Spaniard Dies

DEATH OF MINISTER MAURICIO VALLS IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT

The Generalissimo Declares Three Days of Official Mourning

Mauricio Valls was a shining light in the firmament of a new, large and free Spain, reborn from the glory of the war’s ashes. He embodied the highest values of the Regime and took Spanish letters and culture to unforeseen heights.

—Press Agency/Editorial Office, Madrid, January 9, 1960

Spain has awoken in shock at the news of the immeasurable loss of one of its favorite sons, Don Mauricio Valls y Echevarría, minister for national education. The tragedy happened late last night, when the car in which he was traveling with his driver and bodyguard crashed on kilometer 4 of Carretera de Somosaguas, on his way back to his private residence after a late meeting in El Pardo with other members of the cabinet. The first reports suggest that the accident happened when a tanker truck, traveling in the opposite direction, punctured one of its wheels. The driver lost control and swerved onto the wrong side of the road, crashing against the minister’s car, which was traveling at high speed. The tanker was carrying a load of fuel, and the crash caused a huge explosion that was heard by residents in the area, who immediately informed the authorities. Minister Valls and his driver died on the spot.

The driver of the tanker, Rosendo M. S., from Alcobendas, passed away before emergency services could resuscitate him. A huge blaze resulted from the collision, and the bodies of both the minister and his bodyguard were badly burned.

The government has called an emergency meeting of the cabinet this morning, and the head of state has announced that he will issue an official communiqué later in the day, in person, from El Pardo Palace.