Mezzo, who is coming tonight?

MEZZO
The pope of meritocracy. The saint of school elevation. The minister himself!

HAMMER
And the godfather of this year’s graduates.

MEZZO
A hero. Do you think he’ll get back into teaching?

MARTEAU
If he notices our loss, he’ll take away our accreditation. A hero? Pfff, he’s a fraud. They offered him the Ministry. I’ll die within the year, he said. Bullshit. He’s been taunting us from his ivory tower for ten years. As for me, I’m rotting in this school whore.

MEZZO
The minister… Tonight… What joy.

Hammer takes Mezzo’s hand, as if she were blind, and makes her touch a wall.

HAMMER
What a catastrophe. This school is a treasure. Admire the courtyard, Mezzo, the 17th century sculptures, the frescoes and marble everywhere. A nugget. A palace rebuilt several times, redone for centuries.

MEZZO
The minister will arrive shortly. We won’t bow our heads, we’ll present it to him. You and you, Grattin and Alphonse, I’ll put you in charge of finding her. A nice cross-functional team. We are lucky to be working with this institution. In all these arabesques. Other schools don’t have this privilege.

HAMMER
This is all coming to an end. We will have to charge less. Without his signature, we will socialize. We will democratize, we will relocate.

MEZZO
Dios mio!

HAMMER
This mediocre future is assured if we do not find it.

MARTEAU
If the ministry lets us have the usufruct of this place, it’s because of our results in the beêêc. But tonight, the curtain rises. The deception will be discovered. They’ll stick their noses into the curricula. The corrected statements, the enhanced resumes… We’ll be laughed at!

MEZZO
What if we start the choir when the mayor arrives? He won’t feel like snooping anymore. Grattin’s music is so funny. I can’t wait to see it.

HAMMER
Don’t you understand? Little fool. This is war. We are short of generals.

Marteau takes a mirror out of his pocket and admires himself. Mezzo thinks and then falls down.

MEZZO
I understand. It makes sense. We’re going to lose everything.

Mezzo starts to cry.

HAMMER
Let’s optimize, Mezzo. Let’s be proactive. We must act; and quickly. The Minister is on his way to Babylon.

MEZZO
I propose, I suppose… It paralyses me to propose…

HANDKERCHIEF
Don’t tire yourself out! That was rhetorical. We rush to find it. You and me, intelligence and silliness. Watch out for Grattin’s and Alphonse’s behinds. We’ll get to engineering before they do.

MEZZO
But the director made them the instigators of the investigation.

HAMMER
We’ll beat them to it. Not a word. Hush!