THE FORT AT RÉGIMACaptain Valentini received the order to join the regiment stationed at the Fort of Régima, to the south of the city. ‘Everything’s missing in that fort,’ his predecessor had warned him, ‘not just danger or action, but there isn’t even a reason for keeping a garrison there. Orders never reach you. You must look on the High Command the way one beholds a higher power. It’s useless to ask for a sign or an explanation. The High Command won’t remember you until it needs you to go somewhere, or want you to come back, that is if it remembers you’re still out there.’
The Captain was nevertheless glad to go. His departure for that fort essentially presented itself as an opportunity to subtract himself from everything: General Occhipinti and the military parades, the Officers’ Club
