"But reasons of Party - You - The lie, the truth - in short -"

"Look, your friend certainly did not care for us..."

"No, I suppose not, but he made a fetish of his opposition and inasmuch as the Revolutionary Part is the opposition... He respected it, in a word... And when he talked with me, when I advised him to talk with Amar - advice that he surely expected from me - he said there was no other way."

"Indeed," the Vice-Secretary said ironically.  "There was no other way: talk to Amar out of the mouth of a revolver."

"Incredible.  Enough to drive one out of one's mind," Cusan said.

"Read the reports," the Vice-Secretary said.

Cusan read them.

"But why kill Rogas?" he demanded.  "Why not hear him, put him on trial?"
"Reasons of State, Mr. Cusan.  They still exit, as they did in the time of Richelieu.  And in this case they coincided, let us say, with reasons of Party... The agent made the wisest decision he could make: to kill Rogas, too."
"But reasons of Party - You - The lie, the truth - in short -" Cusan was stammering.
"We are realists, Mr. Cusan.  We cannot run the risk of a revolution's breaking out."  And he added, "Not at this moment."
"I understand," Cusan said.  "Not at this moment."

Il contesto, Sciascia