The Grasshopper Read online

  “Don’t, my friend… please. It’s difficult for me too. For all of us.”

  “Move out of the way, Iceman.”

  “Don’t be crazy…”

  Iceman was silent when Bear drew his pistol from his belt holster with lightning speed and pointed it at him.

  “Move away, Iceman, I’m telling you.”

  Iceman stepped back. Bear closed the door and locked the car from the inside.

  Chapter 45

  “And I created the Association around my Kaella Cosmic Energy Corporation,” Mr. Kaella presented his life’s journey to the viewers. “I sent a public invitation for all companies to join me.

  “Dear viewers, don’t think that everything went smoothly. On the contrary, it was a lengthy process. I traveled the world and spoke to and begged CEOs and managing boards to hear me out. Some did and some companies joined the Association. But they were a minority.

  “At one moment I had had enough of the begging and convincing. I created two prices for my energy: one was for the companies that were part of the Association, and the other, ten times higher, for those that were not.

  “In the following months all the companies either joined or simply collapsed. Miss Babe, perhaps your viewers are confused,” Mr. Kaella looked at Babe. “I am aware that people call the Association of Companies simply the Company, but this is not a single company, neither legally and formally, nor by ownership.

  “My family fully owns only our company, which dear Consumers, provides you with energy, water, food… We later also took over pharmaceuticals, in order to be certain that all people would have access to medicaments, and my son also took over all infrastructural and construction businesses, in order to provide people with new, modern apartments in our planet’s green oases.

  “For the other things, which are not of vital importance in your lives, dear viewers, i.e. in the other companies, which we today call sectors of the Association, our family has only majority, but not full ownership.

  “Well… you yourself know. You all have shares in the sectors for vehicles and transportation, for communication and internet, for consumer electronics, for interior decorating, for retail, for film production… music, for fashion accessories…”

  “Miss Babe,” Mr. Kaella suddenly said loudly. “Had I known that you would look like this today, I would have bought shares in the fashion accessory sector. Thanks to you they will skyrocket after this show.”

  The three of them laughed.

  Chapter 46

  “Forgive me, Liv, for not saving you,” Bear said quietly to her, while they sat back to back. “Your Bear didn’t save you. And you always asked that Bear protect you and follow you everywhere. To drive you to the university, to wait for you after class… to drive you to the movies… shopping… always Bear.

  “Because you knew that Bear would not tell mom and dad about that older student. Nor that you didn’t go to class, but rather to the movies with him. And that you didn’t go shopping alone… nor that you didn’t try on clothes alone in the changing room,” stuttered Bear, as though he was weeping, but his eyes were dry and his gaze was empty.

  “Forgive me Mrs. Xing, for hiding their love from you. But… I knew that you would get worried because he was older… and you wouldn’t let Liv see him anymore… And she would have suffered… But no need, trust me, ma’am. When I noticed it, I immediately checked out the young man. He is an excellent student, his parents are respected experts, decent people. He also has a brother who is much older. Also with a university degree. A good job. Two children. A serious family man. You have nothing to worry about, ma’am. Trust Bear. Do you think that I would allow just any guy to hang around Liv just because she is the President’s daughter? I would have chased them away… and then some. But this boy… he loves Liv very much. Sincerely. And our Liv… If you could only see how she glows when she’s with him.”

  “And ma’am, I didn’t save her. I didn’t save your little Sasha either… I love him too… You taught him well. ‘Mr. Bear’… and he always says hello. And an excellent pupil. Who could he take after poorly? Who? You, ma’am? The President?”

  “I would vote for you, Mr. President. Iceman also promised that he would vote for you. And the others… they say… what do they care… The Kaella’s appoint presidents, no one even votes anymore… And I listened to all your speeches. And excuse me, but I have to tell you where you went wrong. You were like… we’ll change things slowly, one step at a time, over the course of several generations… and so on. You say that this Alexander is dangerous… How did you put it? Radical. Well, you were wrong there, Mr. President. The Kaellas and Erivan actually need someone dangerous. To shoot them in the forehead… like the Grasshopper did to you… us. And you paid for this mistake with your life. And your entire family… Liv…”

  Bear was silent and passed his hand across his face several times. Then he turned towards the driver.

  “But… you play the hand you’re dealt is. Isn’t that right, Barney?” Bear slapped Barney on the knee. “What’s up? You just keep quiet and listen, don’t you? And you can’t wait to run after your cooks and maids, and tell them that Liv has a boyfriend? Right? Admit it. You didn’t even say hello, Barney. You don’t see me. They’ve taped you to the head rest across one eye, so you’re just squinting with the other one. And where’s that big smile when you see me? And you say, ‘where have you been, Bear?’ How do you… that hat of yours…” Bear turned towards Barney, gripped the brim of his hat and moved it up and down. “That’s it… that’s how you greet your friend.”

  Chapter 47

  “And these shares in our companies guarantee you a good life even after you’ve finished working, dear Consumers. They are constantly increasing… our stock exchange does not have, like there once was… bubbles, and then they burst, and shares lose their value and an entire generation of older people is left without a livelihood. You are certain that your shares will always be at least worth the same.”

  “That’s right, Mr. Kaella,” Babe confirmed. “Even average people, thanks to the sale of shares, can extend their lives for months. Here, I am working on a story about a lady, with quite an average income, who fell ill, who isn’t able to work anymore, and who managed to live off the money from the sale of the shares for another two and a half years. Do you hear that, dear Consumers?” Babe looked at the camera. “Two and a half years! She paid her bills, bought the seasonal goods and got treatment. Albeit, she did eat every second or third day… but she had money for the medicaments. Well… in the end she didn’t have enough for the surgery… but that’s normal. Surgery is expensive. I won’t tell you any more, dear viewers. You will see my story. We filmed the lady the day before she went to Euthanasia. You’ll see, a very positive inspiring human story.”

  “There, you see all the things that I have provided for the people. And I can’t wait to see your report, Miss Babe,” said Mr. Kaella, and continued. “It was really funny… You know, some people accused me of being a communist.”

  “Impossible!” Babe was stunned.

  “Yes, yes, Miss Babe. Communist? Me? I, who consider private ownership the greatest sanctity? I mean, not only mine, but that of every person. And when they saw that everything had worked out, that these people were actually the owners of shares in various sectors, then they accused me of being an usurper, an oligarch. They asked why I didn’t go public with company on the stock exchange, so that anyone could buy its shares. Can you imagine that, Miss Babe?”

  “Ridiculous!” Babe shook her head in disbelief.

  Then for a moment she turned towards Prince, smiled at him and with a glance gestured toward her side. His eyes obediently looked down and he saw that Babe, running the tips of her black nails upward from her knee, slowly passed over the haunch, all the way up to the edge of the skirt, and as though by accident raised her skirt even higher, and she tilted sideways even more and he saw… Prince saw… how the black lace ended… and the beginning of her curve… fir
m and protruding… tanned…

  “I can’t take it anymore… Don’t do that to me… Sit like you were before… Clench your knees… I can’t… I can’t anymore!” Prince was going crazy, tearing at the leather armchair with his nails.

  “…that I take risks,” Mr. Kaella startled Babe. “That I don’s sleep at night, thinking about whether that day energy, water, food, pharmaceuticals reached every Consumer, their families, children? That this is decided by some managing board of dispersed owners? Come on, please! Our family discovered Cosmic Energy, brought it to Earth, gave it to the people. We have been proving this humanity for generations. This is simply in our genes. That is what we Kaellas are like, the only guaranteed benefactors of all the people on Earth.”

  “The only one, Mr. Kaella, the only ones.”

  Chapter 48

  Bear heard a knock on the window and turned around. He saw Alpha standing next to the car. He rolled down the window.

  “Hello, Alpha,” he said.

  “Why are you sitting there, Bear? People have been telling me that you’re behaving strangely today.”

  “Probably. And you know best why I’m sitting in the passenger seat.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t understand? Didn’t you say last night that everything must look normal, as usual?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And this morning you killed Barney because of that.”

  “Bear, that is how it has to be. Everyone understands that, only you…”

  “Alpha, I understand it the best, trust me. So, where’s the adhesive tape?”

  “What tape? What are you talking about?

  “Where did you hide it last night? Admit it. Behind some pillar, under a car.”

  “Why do you think it has to be you, Bear?

  “I don’t think so. I’m volunteering. It is normal and usual that when the President goes somewhere with his family by car… like today, for example… to hold the election speech… it is normal for one of us to sit next to Barney in the passenger seat. So, I’m the volunteer.”

  Alpha was silent, and the other colleagues, when they heard this, one by one entered the two cars that would escort the presidential car, or put helmets on their heads and mounted motorcycles.

  Only Iceman ran over and shouter:

  “Alpha, we can’t do it like that! Come on, let’s draw straws… rock-paper-scissors. Why does it have to be Bear? Why are you being silly, Bear? Get out of the car!”

  “Iceman, please go. It’s difficult enough. I’ve decided. Go.”

  “Everyone in position, Iceman,” Alpha said. “That’s an order. It has to be one of us. Bear has volunteered.”

  Iceman turned and walked to his car, without saying another word.

  “Alpha, tell me, who did you have in mind?”

  “No one, Bear. I was going to say that someone should check how the driver is taped…”

  “Barney.”

  “Barney. And whoever sat… there…”

  “Yes?”

  “I’d kill him.”

  “So, you’d leave it up to chance?”

  “Yes.”

  “And where’s the tape? Time’s running out…”

  Alpha looked at his watch.

  “How much time do we have before departure? You have probably planned everything down to the minute, right? There can be no dilemma that the president and his family were killed by Non-Consumers.”

  “There can’t be, Bear. These are historical moments.”

  “Clearly. That is why I want to be a hero. How much longer?”

  “Two minutes.”

  “Where’s your tape?”

  “Behind that pillar,” Alpha motioned with his hand.

  “You don’t need to waste time to go to the pillar and back. Here it is. I brought it for you. Hold the tape, Barney,” said Bear, placing the roll in Barney’s legs. “Take out your gun, Alpha. You also need to tape me up. Time is running out.”

  Alpha was sweating.

  “You’re messing around, Alpha. Erivan is at his window, he’s looking at his watch and waiting for the presidential motorcade to leave the garage. And if it doesn’t leave on time, Erivan will call the Grasshopper.”

  Alpha swiftly drew his gun and fired a bullet into Bear’s head.

  Chapter 49

  “During the following period of my life I focused on creating the minimal, cheapest possible State,” Mr. Kaella continued his life’s story. “Why should the Consumers and the Company Sectors have to pay high taxes in order to support some mastodon-like State.”

  “There really isn’t any reason,” Babe agreed.

  “Of course there isn’t. And do you know what else they criticized me for?”

  “Is it possible that they criticized you for something more?” Babe was stunned.

  “Of course. There are people whose malice knows no boundaries. They criticized me because my company doesn’t pay taxes.”

  “Well, that’s something I really cannot believe, Mr. Kaella.”

  “My company can certainly pay taxes, but it will be then immediately included in the prices of energy, water, food, treatment, apartments… How can the average Consumer pay for that? How can they survive?”

  “Impossible.”

  Babe turned towards Prince, opened her mouth, rolled her eyes, and sighed like it was very stuffy and she was struggling for air. She waved her hand in front of her face as though to cool herself, like she was too hot. She lowered her hand and reached the lapel of her leather jacket. She drew the jacket away from her, that is to say from her ample breasts, because she was obviously getting hot under the reflectors in the submarine salon.

  “Yes, impossible,” Mr. Kaella confirmed yet again. “That is why I reduced the costs of the state. I abolished these two parliament houses that had existed previously…”

  “What was all that about?” Babe was wondered.

  Prince leaned his hands on the edge of the coffee table. That was the only thing preventing him from jumping Babe before the million-strong audience. Having seen his reaction, Babe used her other hand to unfasten the button above her bellybutton, concealed from the old Mr. Kaella by the couch armrest, and she opened wide her lapel.

  “That was nonsense. You hadn’t even been born back then. You know, back then there were like some elected representatives who sat in some seats, talked, quarreled. Like, they would pass laws… and for that they received huge salaries, which the average person could only dream of. Then they formed some sort of government, then the prime minister, and the ministers, and all kinds of agencies, assistants… assistant’s assistants, secretaries, assistant secretaries… And then elections every four years. You can imagine how much it cost! I abolished all that nonsense and significantly reduced the costs of the state. I left the President of the State, who has a minimal administration. And the president is elected every ten years, as you know.”

  “Of course.”

  Prince stared sideways at the huge breast, scratching with his nails at the surface of the table and barely breathing. Perhaps Babe was only pretending to be hot and that she was running out of air, but Prince was truly gasping for air.

  “How big is it? It’s even bigger when it’s bare… Bigger than in my wildest dreams… with two hands… I’ll knead it, squeeze it, slap it…”

  “I merged the former military and former police into a single organization, i.e. the Inspectorate. This also cut costs. I stopped weapons production. I mean, we produce a minimum, for the Inspectorate. There are no more wars… I mean…” Mr. Kaella remembered that he would soon be declaring a new war.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he thought. “It’s going to be short. I have to explain my ideas, my principles, to the people.”

  “How can I permit wars, Miss Babe?”

  “You can’t, of course.”

  From her protruding nipple dangled another chain with a small Earth.

  “You’ll pay for this… you‘ll pay, when
I tug at that Earth. You’ll squeal…”

  “I can’t. What does a person spend in war? A bullet. Or an entire group of people spends only one projectile. And then what? We lose Consumers.”

  “Terrible.”

  Prince managed to raise his eyes to Babe’s face, wanting to appear menacing, to let her know that he would ravage her, seriously punish her for what she was doing to him. And Babe, running the tip of her tongue across the edge of her teeth, studded with silver stars, licking the ends of the upper lips, clearly showed her Prince how intimidated she was.

  “Not to go into all these details – I reduced the costs of the state to one third,” Mr. Kaella summarized at the end of his exposé.

  “To one third?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you hear this, dear viewers? Do you understand what Mr. Kaella has done for us?”

  Chapter 50

  Pascal could not believe that the room wasn’t locked. “What is going on?” he wondered. He left the door wide open so that under the light of the wall lamp he might see the room that he found himself in. He immediately saw a switch on the wall and he turned on the light.

  He was in a long narrow hallway, closer to the left end. In front of him, slightly to the right, was a door. The only one on that side of the hallway. He approached it quietly, listening to hear whether there was something behind it. “Nothing. Quiet,” he concluded. When he tried to open it he realized that it was locked and that he was in fact Raul’s and Seneca’s captive.