The Grasshopper Read online

  Svetlana was silent for quite a while. Pascal knew how difficult it was for her, which is why he didn’t interrupt the silence. Finally Svetlana sighed and said:

  “You were absolutely right to not allow Raul and the campaign staff to get marry you off for the sake of the presidential campaign. It would be truly an injustice for only one woman to enjoy you, Pascal.”

  “What are you talking about, Svetlana?” Pascal was surprised by such a reaction from her. “What does that have to do with anything? I want you to leave here, you understand?” Pascal asked, turning towards her.

  “I understand,” Svetlana replied. She lay on her stomach, leaned on her elbows and looked at him. “I understand everything, Pascal. It’s all clear to me.”

  “Alright, if that’s true…”

  “I understand that I have to leave Megapolis, I understand that Seneca will take down your stage, I understand that despite all that you will take to the streets and wait for the sniper’s bullet. Pascal, I also understand that after almost two years… of our relationship, let’s call it that, you can calmly tell me your decision and don’t even ask me what I think, what I feel…”

  “Forgive me, Svetlana, forgive me… but I… it cannot be any other way. This is how it has to be, Svetlana.”

  Svetlana suddenly flipped onto her back and covered her face with her hands, trying to hold back the tears. When she calmed down, she lowered her arms next to her body and without opening her eyes, she said

  “We both know that you will not go into the square tomorrow.”

  “I will, Svetlana, I will go.”

  “You won’t, because Raul won’t let you.”

  “Raul? How can Raul stop me?”

  “Raul, Margot… Liam. Liam will stop you. The security guys.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. They wouldn’t dare.”

  “Perhaps they wouldn’t… Raul will call Seneca… His inspectors will arrest you, drive you out of Megapolis.”

  “Seneca could have already done that. I clearly told him today that I would hold a speech to the gathered people. Regardless of how many of them there are.”

  They both lay on their backs in silence, each in their own half of the bed.

  “You know what, Pascal?” Svetlana suddenly spoke out, loudly. “I really don’t care now. It isn’t at all important to me. These are now your things, right? I’m not involved anymore. But all this will be happening tomorrow. And this is my night, Pascal. My last night with you. and it will be the way I want it to be,” Svetlana turned over again, propped herself on her elbows and looked at Pascal. “You didn’t thank you PR for all the votes,” she said with a sad smile.

  “You? Of course I’m grateful to you… And not only to you, to all our people, the entire staff…”

  “No, no, primarily to me. My large screen at your speeches brought you the votes.”

  “Well, I see that you’re joking now.”

  “It wasn’t enough for people to see you from afar, Pascal. I told the cameraman to shoot only your face for the big screen.” Svetlana removed a lock of hair from Pascal’s forehead. “For people to see your dark hair… gentle waves… the lock that falls on your intelligent forehead… and you brush it away without any concern, with a swift movement of your hand… or head. You pull the long hair… on the collar of your shirt… behind your ear. And those lips…” Svetlana ran the tips of her fingers over Pascal’s lips, “beautiful lips, very beautiful… full, juicy… and the chin, the round chin, not aggressive… it is charming, amiable. And you know what actually secured the votes of the women?”

  “Svetlana, please.”

  “Be quiet… just be quiet… This is my night,” Svetlana whispered. “You never thought of it, admit it. That very slightly pug nose of yours. Like that of a boy. It awakes motherly instincts. And your eyes. Dark, deep… ‘Eyes, get the eyes!’ I told the cameraman… because when they look at a person… it is so, like… Every person feels that you are focused on them, that you respect them, understand them… that you know everything about them. And they don’t notice, captivated by those eyes of yours… that at one moment your gaze went through them. It didn’t wander, it didn’t. But it went someplace… only it knows where. Uncatchable, untouchable to anyone else…” Svetlana started to cry.

  “Don’t, Svetlana, please,” Pascal held her to his chest.

  “And then your gaze, Pascal,” continued Svetlana without daring to look at him, fearing that she would see acknowledgment in his eyes, “did in fact stop on someone. It didn’t pass through someone. It reached its place… that it loves. From where it doesn’t want to go… anywhere.”

  “Please, stop cry, please,” Pascal kissed her hair.

  “Tell me… tell me… has your gaze stopped?”

  “Stopped? My gaze? I don’t understand a thing you’re saying, Svetlana, really. You’re too upset. But don’t worry, calm down. I’m sure it will be as you said. Seneca will arrest me and won’t let me go to the square. Raul also would never allow me to. You’re completely right. And this is not our last night. And stop sobbing,” Pascal smiled and raised her face towards his. “I just don’t want to you be in any danger. Tomorrow is a critical, uncertain day.”

  Chapter 6

  Having come out of his father’s suite, Prince Kaella did not go to his room. He took the elevator to the hotel lobby, nodded to the inspectors who were watching the hotel, and walked to the reception.

  “How can I help you, Mr. Kaella,” the receptionist said.

  “I’m interested in whether the members of the television crew were still working or whether they had gone up to their rooms?”

  “Most of them are still working, sir. Only the editor-in-chief and Miss Babe are in their rooms.”

  “Very well. Thank you. Good night.”

  “Good night, Mr. Kaella.”

  Prince got off the elevator on the third floor and walked down the hallway looking for room 314. The head of Babe’s television station, Capital City TV, had booked the same hotel, following Prince’s instructions, and informed him of Babe’s room number.

  He stood in front of her door for a while. There was no sound. Slowly, indecisively he raised his hand as though to knock, then unexpectedly lowered it, turned around and walked back to the elevator.

  Chapter 7

  Pascal managed to calm Svetlana down.

  “Let’s go to sleep,” he said.

  “I don’t want to. I talked about you, now I want us to talk about me,” Svetlana said.

  “OK. You want me to talk now, how beautiful you are?”

  “No. I want something else. You said that you don’t want me to be in danger.”

  “Of course I don’t.”

  “Don’t you think that I put myself in jeopardy two years ago, when I started working for your campaign?”

  “I do. But that was just the beginning. We didn’t even dream that I would become a presidential candidate. Now the threat is much greater.”

  “At the time, when your team was being created, I had just gotten my Master’s degree. I could always choose boys, but you were the man that I wanted. I was fascinated by the legend of you, your good looks, intelligence, courage… your huge libido. Your refusal to be tied down by one woman.”

  “Refusal or perhaps inability?” said Pascal.

  “For me you were a challenge. With my knowledge and my youth I could have chosen any well-paid job. And I chose to work for your campaign. A life-threatening job with paid food and rent.”

  “I didn’t know that. I thought that you were with us out of conviction?”

  “I guess love and passion are also a type of conviction, Pascal.”

  “Yes, one could say that. But all that is not important now. We will talk about it when we meet again. Don’t hope that I will change my decision. You are leaving tomorrow. I’m firing you. No more food and rent.”

  “Remember when I took some time off a year ago?”

  “Svetlana, please, get serious.”

/>   “And I sent my friend from university as a replacement. Do you remember?”

  “No.”

  “Before she came to your headquarters I deceived her a little. I told her that even after a one-year effort I hadn’t succeeded in getting you in my bed. I’m sure you’ll remember her. Her name is Norma.”

  “I don’t remember that name.”

  “Probably not. But I’m sure you remember her body.”

  Pascal didn’t answer.

  “Norma immediately reported proudly to me that she slept with you already on the first night.”

  Pascal was still silent.

  “On the seventh day of my vacation I called you up and asked what you wanted: for Norma to continue working or for me to come back. You said that I should come back, as soon as possible. I heard something in your voice then. Something… that I needed so badly. At that moment there was no happier girl than me.”

  “Svetlana, you yourself say that you knew what I was like. That I was just a challenge to you.”

  “I was happy, because you weren’t with me only because of the inability to move around, the cramped space, the small number of people that you had been surrounded by for a long time. I gave you a choice and you chose me; between two girls, both much younger than you. I wasn’t afraid of older women. I believed that I could successfully take advantage of your midlife crisis and your age, and forever capture your age with my youth.”

  “What are you trying to tell me, Svetlana?”

  “Pascal, have you ever been with married women? With the mothers of another man’s children?”

  “I’ve never answered such questions. Even in much less important moments. Do you understand at all what might happen tomorrow?”

  “Have you, Pascal?”

  “I have.”

  Svetlana brushed the hair from his forehead. Holding herself up, she leaned her pear-shaped breast on his biceps and gently kissed his lips, getting his face wet with her tears. After that she got up, picked up her thong and bra from the floor, and said:

  “I’ll take your advice and I won’t put myself at risk. I’m leaving… tonight.”

  Pascal wondered whether it was the last time that he would be seeing Svetlana’s naked body or any woman’s naked body.

  Chapter 8

  Alpha was going down the stairs, walking behind Bear and Iceman, two members of his A Squad, who were carrying the body of former president Xing, rolled up in a carpet. Having reached the garage, they passed by the parked state cars, ready for tomorrow’s escort and security of the presidential motorcade.

  Leaning on one of the support columns, Alpha silently watched as Bear and Iceman lowered the carpet next to the lifeless bodies of Xing’s wife and two children, who lay neatly arranged on the floor of the garage, wrapped in sheets.

  “They were killed in their sleep?” Bear asked the colleagues who brought the three bodies.

  “Yes,” one of them answered.

  “Why did they have to… the entire family?”

  “Xing would have given his last election speech tomorrow. It was logical for his wife and children to be at his side on the stage. In any case, it is not up to us to discuss this, Bear. It is our job to protect the president,” Alpha said.

  “I see. We’ve successfully protected him.”

  “I won’t allow such sarcasm. It’s our job to protect Erivan. We were just carrying out his orders and allowed the Grasshopper to do his job.”

  “As though we could have stopped the Grasshopper even if we tried to,” Iceman said. “I was relieved when they left, I must admit.”

  The team silently nodding their heads in agreement.

  “Forget about that Grasshopper,” Alpha said angrily, and then continued with a milder tone. “I understand you. It wasn’t easy for me either. We’ve been protecting presidents for years, and now… It’s as though we’ve betrayed ourselves. That’s what high-level politics is like. What can we do? Come on, people, let us… I mean, before rigor mortis sets in… let’s get them in the car.”

  The team reluctantly approached the bodies.

  “In an upright position… Everything has to look like… normal… you understand? And fasten them somehow… I don’t know how…”

  Chapter 9

  The Director of the Tourism Sector was always very cross, but kept it to himself, whenever Mr. Kaella wanted to go for a ride in his submarine, with the large portholes and powerful floodlights, down the streets of one of the many submerged cities.

  Then the Director would have to cancel the excursions of all the tourist submarines to that city, which always caused an outcry among visitors. There were also fewer and fewer people prepared to pay the quite hefty price for such trips, because the submerged structures, exposed to the high level of acidity of the increasingly saltier and warmer seawater, had started to decay and left an unpleasant, almost sickening feeling.

  Once upon a time the tours of the submerged cities were really enjoyable. The buildings were still intact, and the sea life had already been destroyed. There was no seaweed, algae, and whatever it had been called, to stick to them. If some mutant fish happened to swim past the portholes of the submarine, it would not conceal the tourists’ view of the city.

  This time, due to Kaella’s submarine ride the following day, the Director was overcome by a completely different feeling. A feeling of content, for onboard the submarine Kaella would be giving his interview, which would be broadcast live by all the television stations in the State. This means that people, mimicking their ruler and idol, would scurry on excursions to the submerged cities.

  The Atlantis tourist program would most likely generate profit this quarter. Maybe even the next quarter, considering the fact that Kaella would be interviewed by Miss Babe. And after that he would suspend Atlantis. The maintenance costs of the submarines in this acid soup of an ocean were enormous. He would sell the dilapidated submarines to the Inspectorate, for any price. Better than nothing. But not yet, not as long as the marketing effect of the interview still existed. Men would be the best clients, the Director was certain, judging by himself.

  Because just on this night, while making his way along Kaella’s route for tomorrow, he imagined Babe sitting next to him in the submarine, and not Erivan’s squire Charlie, in charge of Kaella’s personal security.

  The sight of Charlie interrupted the Director’s hot fantasies and he got back to work.

  “Mr. Charlie, the cameras will go on and the interview with Mr. Kaella, according to the program director’s wishes, will start at the beginning of this street…” the Director explained.

  Charlie pointed the searchlights into every side street and at every opening on the decrepit buildings large enough to conceal a submarine in. The inspectors had checked this long ago but Charlie had to see for himself too and report to Erivan that there were no intruders in this city.

  Chapter 10

  Svetlana and Pascal stood fully dressed in the middle of the hotel room. Pascal truly didn’t expect such a agonizing parting with her. It wasn’t becoming, nor did they need it after two years of shared struggle for freedom, after two years of intimacy, tenderness in these grueling times.

  “Svetlana, don’t leave like this, please. I’m not pushing you away. I’m afraid for you. Don’t you get it? The mayor also wants you all to leave the city.”

  “It’s alright Pascal. Speaking of the mayor, let’s tell each other… everything.”

  “What everything, Svetlana? What does the mayor have to do with anything? I really don’t understand.”

  “You don’t understand? Pascal, who brought you sixty-two percent of the votes?”

  “Who? What do you mean ‘who’? You said you did… and your screen on the stage...” Pascal tried to joke.

  “Megapolis gave you the lead, Pascal. Megapolis. Mayor Seneca placed at your feet this city of a hundred million people.”

  “Perhaps… Yes, you’re right. But I still don’t understand…”

  “Have y
ou ever wondered why Seneca did this?”

  “Because he understood that we were right. He accepted our ideas. He felt the thirst, the hunger for freedom.”

  “Did he? The man that Prince Kaella appointed director of the most important television station in the State and mayor of his flagship, his Megapolis. The regime man of the greatest confidence suddenly realized that we were right?”

  “That’s not strange, Svetlana. During all these years, how many people in high-ranking positions from all sectors of the Company or from the top of the Inspectorate have crossed over to our side? Without such people who understood, who opened their eyes, we would have ceased to exist long ago. Seneca is only one of them.”

  “You would have convinced me with this explanation if I didn’t know Seneca. He has not accepted our ideas. He also never accepted the ideology of Humane Capitalism. He is not a man of ideas. He doesn’t think about them. He’s an operative, a top-notch operative. You appoint him to a certain position and he develops the best possible system, without ever questioning its fairness, morality, correctness. He is only interested in the optimal functioning of the system. He is a man of assignments. And as such at one moment he refused to carry out the assignment that the regime had given him, and he started carrying out a different assignment, which he was given by someone he trusts, someone he loves.”

  “I agree. You described him very well. Perhaps he has not accepted our ideas, but he is aware that Megapolis is mainly inhabited by the intellectual elite, and this is where the largest university in the world is. The city is full of young educated people. If he were to oppose us, there would be riots. The man is a pragmatist. And you’re going into philosophy. Someone gave him a new assignment, so Seneca changed. What does that have to do with the two of us?