The Grasshopper Read online

  “Probably,” Dr. Palladino agreed.

  “Or imagine Prince, sitting in my place, at the command desk, watching live satellite feeds. Watching Non-Consumers taking out wads of money and gold bars from the vault beneath his palace. Or David from his garden, or The Night Watch from his hallway, or the Mona Lisa from the wall over his bed. What do you think, which buttons would Prince press at that moment?”

  “All of them.”

  “And…”

  “Forgive me for interrupting you, but what happened to all those masterpieces? Erivan demolished the palace…”

  “Yes, he demolished it. And he tried to build higher colonnades. As though Kaella wouldn’t have done so, if the construction could support them. Charlie removed the artwork to a safe place on time. In the underground depots of Erivan’s squads. I wouldn’t allow anyone to lay a hand on them. Only I can destroy such beauty.”

  Dr. Palladino sighed a deep sigh and lowered his head.

  “Why don’t you light a cigarette, Doctor? Charlie tells me that you are a heavy smoker.”

  “I myself don’t know why,” said Dr. Palladino, taking out a pack of cigarettes and lighter from his jacket pocket. “I guess because this is the presidential office.” He lit the cigarette and took a drag.

  “That is how you still perceive that space? And you’re still sitting in that uncomfortable chair, as you did on the first day. Why don’t you sit in the armchair?” the Grasshopper asked.

  “I don’t want to.” Dr. Palladino took a small silver dish from the stylish dresser and sat back in his chair. He lay the dish in his lap and put his ashes in it.

  “May I continue, Doctor?” the Grasshopper asked.

  “Yes, yes… of course…”

  “Thank you. Consider any ruler in history who lost the war. And at the ends of the epochs every ruler lost it. Imagine the enemy capturing his castle or city, his residence… and he’s sitting at this table. What would the ruler do? Any of them?”

  “The same. They would all do the same.”

  “And don’t you think that the Kaellas were aware the entire time of the weapon that they had at their disposal? Their last interview reminded me of that. Did you watch it?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Kaella said that he had reduced the State’s expenses by merging the army and police into a single organization – the Inspectorate. And he didn’t merge them. He abolished the military, in the classical sense. The inspectors spent their entire time searching people’s apartments and preventing petty crimes. Or they would stifle an uprising or protest. That is why he stopped producing weapons. He produced minimal quantities, and only conventional weapons. Why? Because he knew that no one could do anything to him, that he could ultimately come and sit down at this table.”

  “You’re right. It all fits. They were aware of what they had in their hands.”

  “Exactly. Just like all rulers, the Kaellas lived in their own world. And that’s why they didn’t sense the threat on time. That is why they allowed the unintelligent but wily Erivan to mislead them and outmaneuver them. And I clearly saw the course of events and the end of civilization. The destruction of the planet. And I wondered, why would the Kaellas have to do that? Why wouldn’t I do that?”

  “Because you didn’t want to be their victim? Because that would be an insult to your intellect?”

  “No, because I wanted to be the executioner. Because I wanted to lower the curtain. And I will be a victim. I told you that I would kill all life. And as you can see, I too am alive.”

  “Unfortunately.”

  Chapter 132

  “In that largest city in the world…” Sayash told the children sitting around him, during one of the breaks on their voyage.

  “Megapolis,” Hideaki reminded him.

  “Yes… there are many streets…”

  “We know that!” the children shouted.

  “Pssst! You’ll wake Lucky!” Sayash hushed them.

  Lucky was lying on his back in Sayash’s lap, and Sayash was stroking his stomach.

  “Well, you know that…” Sayash continued with a whisper. “But you don’t know what there is in those streets.”

  “We know that too. Shops…

  “Monuments…”

  “Advertisements…”

  “Cars…”

  “Stoplights…”

  “Newsstands…”

  “Crosswalks…”

  “Cafes…” the children went on.

  “Yes, yes… there is all that. But that’s not important.”

  “I know what’s important, Mr. Sayash,” said Zita.

  “What?” Sayash asked.

  “There are many dumpsters.”

  “Bravo, Zita!” Sayash shouted out, waking Lucky, who was on his feet in an instant. Sayash immediately took him in his arms and stroked him with one finger between the ears.

  “I’m sorry, Lucky. Please forgive me. But they made me so happy! These children of ours are really smart.”

  Lucky looked at the children and wagged his tail. It seemed that he wasn’t angry at all.

  “Mr. Sayash will change your clothes. We’ll find all kinds of things in those dumpsters. You’ll take off those stained shirts. What class did you have before the fieldtrip? Art, wasn’t it? You got it all over your shirts. And all of you the same color. What kind of art is it if they give you only one color? I have a bone to pick with your teacher when we get back from the fieldtrip. Hmm, art with only one color… although it is bright red… but still…” Sayash wouldn’t stop bickering.

  Chapter 133

  Seneca had spent the previous night in the shelter with his wife, for the first time since the beginning of the war. The following morning Pascal didn’t come to breakfast.

  “Sir, breakfast!” Manami said loudly, standing in front of the door to Pascal’s quarters.

  “I won’t be having breakfast!” Pascal said from behind the closed door.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Alright, sir, as you wish. Peter, you’ll have two eggs, right?”

  *****

  “Sir, lunch!” Manami said loudly, standing in front of the door to Pascal’s quarters.

  “I won’t be having lunch!” Pascal said from behind the closed door.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Alright, sir, as you wish. Peter, help Eir get into the chair.”

  *****

  “Sir, dinner!” Manami said loudly, standing in front of the door to Pascal’s quarters.

  “I won’t be having dinner!” Pascal said from behind the closed door.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Sir, you haven’t eaten anything today. Are you ill?

  “No.”

  “Peter’s anxious because you haven’t left your quarters all day.”

  “I’m not ill.”

  “Peter thinks that you’re angry at us.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You hear that, Peter? The gentleman isn’t angry at us.”

  “So why doesn’t he come out? He doesn’t have to eat,” Peter whispered to his mother.

  “Peter asks why you don’t come out to the dining room? He says you don’t have to have dinner.”

  “I won’t be coming.”

  “Sir!” Manami said even louder. “Peter has been thinking about your strange behavior all day. The child might even think that you have an argument with his father last night. And perhaps you are angry at him, since you say you aren’t angry at us. Do you understand?”

  After a few moments Pascal opened the door, came out into the dining room, passed by Manami without looking at her, and sat down at his place at the table. He stroked Eir on the head, raised his eyes towards Peter and smiled at him, unsuccessfully.

  “I’m not angry at anyone, Peter. Why would I be? I’ve just had enough of all this. I’m a bit nervous… and I don’t want to spread it to you. Do you understand?�
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  “Well… I understand. And when will you be over that?”

  “Leave the gentleman alone, Peter. Eat your dinner. It will get cold…,” said Manami, placing a plate in front of Pascal.

  “I won’t be eating,” said Pascal.

  Chapter 134

  “You call me an absolute killer, which is certainly true,” the Grasshopper said. “but above all, I see myself as the only honest killer. I have removed from my face the masks of all of their excuses and I didn’t put on a new one. I have announced the end of the masquerade and asked the courtiers to leave. My honesty and the chance circumstance that I remained alone and untouchable at this command desk have made me the absolute killer.”

  “Chance circumstance?” Dr. Palladino was surprised. “But you told me that you strived to get to that room.”

  “Yes, that is true.”

  “It is interesting that you didn’t choose a technical vocation, so that you would be hired there.”

  “I didn’t because I was already a philosophy student. And not only because of that. I had to train myself to kill. How could I, as an engineer in the Command manage to kill the entire crew?”

  “I understand.”

  “That is why I decided to impose myself on Erivan. For him to recruit me into his squads. I started actively doing track and field, I wrote papers celebrating Humane Capitalism, ratting out Non-Consumers to the Inspectorate, and so on. And he bought it. It later turned out that I was an excellent squire. With my Ph.D. I finally gained Erivan’s trust. Of course, in direct communication with him I constantly catered to his ego.”

  “Where do you see the chance circumstance?”

  “There were a number of them. It could have happened that despite all my efforts I was not recruited, or that I was average, an unnoticed squire. There were countless dangerous situations where I could have been killed. It could have happened that Erivan didn’t trust me entirely, that he didn’t send me to the Command.”

  “You could have taken a spaceship on your own and come to the Command under some pretext, even earlier. Wasn’t that feasible? You didn’t have to wait for Erivan to kill the Kaellas.”

  “Without his letter of authorization I wouldn’t have been able to get past the Command’s shield. It is impenetrable. Erivan has sent ships against me in the meantime. Of course, I destroyed them as soon as they took off, but even if they reached the Command or any of the collectors in the energy system, they would not have been able to penetrate the shield.”

  “You didn’t talk about the ships with Erivan. At least not on the recording that I saw.” Dr. Palladino was surprised.

  “We both pretended that it wasn’t happening. And that was in the very beginning, when I started switching off energy to Consumer cities too.

  “It became clear to him then that he had lost. And just like any ruler who had lost, who was powerless, Erivan too escaped into his own world. He hid in his image of himself.

  “These images actually represent the rulers’ last excuses to kill. Because of them they killed in the most demented fashion, using the means that were still available to them.

  “And I helped Erivan decorate his image with jewels from the abundant treasury of the history of mankind.”

  Chapter 135

  “I told Julius last night to go to bed immediately,” Manami started, as soon as Peter had gone to sleep.

  Pascal got up from the dining room table and started for his door.

  “Come back!” Manami said in a commanding manner.

  Pascal stopped for a moment, then slowly turned around and sat in his place, eyes fixed on the table.

  “I returned to the kitchen and did some more work. After that I went to the bathroom and stayed there for a while. Much longer than usual.”

  “Why are you telling me that? What do I care?” Pascal muttered, without raising his eyes.

  “When I finally went to my room, Julius was fast asleep.”

  “And when he woke up?” Pascal whispered, looking at his fingers, intertwining them nervously.

  “I don’t know when he woke up and left. I was sleeping and I didn’t hear him.”

  “You’re not lying?”

  “I’m not lying.”

  “How… how can I believe you? How can I be sure? How can I go to sleep?” Pascal said in a fast whisper.

  “I know how,” Manami said calmly.

  “How?”

  “Look me in the eye and you will be sure.”

  Pascal finally raised his eyes and saw her two magnificent honest eyes looking back at him. He smiled.

  “Do you believe me now?” she asked.

  “Yes. Thank you, Manami. Thank you very much.”

  “How did you survive it, Pascal?”

  “It was horrific! I was going mad, mad I say! Had you not cleverly warned me that Peter would tell his father how I was behaving, I wouldn’t have come out of my room until he came around again. And then I would have left here for good. Because, Manami, I couldn’t survive another night like that.”

  “I didn’t mean that,” Manami smiled.

  “No?”

  “I asked how you survived without seeing me all day?”

  “Manami… my love…” whispered Pascal, caressing her with his eyes.

  “Well, for that look you deserve dinner. You’d better eat while I look in on the children and put on my nightgown.”

  “And what will happen next time, Manami?” Pascal asked as soon as she sat down next to him. “He hasn’t spent a single night here so far. I guess that’s why I’ve convinced myself that he never will. And that’s why I’m asking you now, Manami, what will happen the next time that he lies next to you?” Pascal jumped off the couch. “What do I care if you didn’t make love! I won’t let him lie in your bed! I won’t let him touch you! I won’t let him even look at you anymore!”

  Manami got up and tried to hug him.

  “Let me go,” Pascal pulled out of her arms. “What use do I have from your hugs? Answer me, Manami!”

  “Pascal, this is too important to discuss this way,” said Manami in a serious tone. “It will be the way that the two of us agree on. When the two of us make up our minds.”

  Pascal sat down on the couch.

  “So, we have to discuss it,” he said. “You won’t tell him that he can’t sleep in your bed.”

  “I’ll tell him, if the two of us agree on it.”

  “There it is again! If the two of us agree on it! As the two of us agree! I have nothing to discuss with you! I’ve clearly said what I have to say! I won’t let him enter your room!”

  “Alright, Pascal. Then that’s settled. There, you see how quickly we reached an agreement?”

  “What did we agree on?! We didn’t agree on anything!”

  “Yes, we’ve agreed. The next time that he sits here at this table and when he says that he will spend the night here, I’ll tell him in front of the children that I won’t permit him, because I’m in love with you and that only you can sleep with me.”

  Pascal didn’t say anything.

  “Why are you silent now? That’s what we’ve decided and that’s it. We won’t talk about it any more,” Manami concluded.

  “And what will happen then?” Pascal asked quietly.

  “I don’t know. Whatever happens will happen. We’ll think about it then,” Manami said in a calm voice.

  “It can’t be like that, Manami. I can’t do that to you; for him to take the children because of me; to separate you from them… that’s out of the question.”

  “My darling, my darling…” Manami caressed him. “I didn’t want to have to convince you. I wanted you to think for yourself. And why didn’t you sleep all night, silly? Why did you pout all day? Didn’t you hear Julius say at the table how tired he was? Don’t you know, my love, where Eir sleeps?”

  “I thought that you moved her to the other room.”

  “I didn’t. She slept between us.”

  “Really?”

 
“Really.”

  “And what if he comes once and… wants to be with you… I can’t even say it!”

  “Then I’ll tell him everything, Pascal.”

  Chapter 136

  “How then did you get name Grasshopper?” Dr. Palladino asked. “Because you stalked your victims and waited unnoticed for days, until the right moment? And then you pounced like a grasshopper from the grass?”

  “Grasshoppers are herbivores, Dr. Palladino,” laughed the Grasshopper. “Its not because of that. That’s what people say. Erivan called me Grasshopper because I held the record at the Megapolis University for the high jump. He was keen on giving squires the names of animals.”

  “But it’s true that you enjoyed completely surprising your victim?”

  “Enjoyed? I wouldn’t put it that way. I did that whenever it was possible, so that I could see the victims eyes the moment that they saw me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because at that moment, which is very, very short, you see true, genuine, primeval, original fear. That is the moment when reason becomes aware that the end of life has come. The next moment the fear is gone and it is replaced by horror, disbelief, powerlessness, sorrow, despair, begging, prayer, anger, defiance, hatred, panic, hysteria… something else. But never sadness. People aren’t capable of being sad. Have you ever been sad, Dr. Palladino?”

  “I don’t know. In that sense, and it seems that you have somehow isolated sadness, that you give it special meaning – I think I haven’t.”

  “You certainly haven’t. No one has. But let’s put that aside. I’d like to ask you something else, Doctor. Why were you playing Russian roulette? Charlie told me that he found you in the middle of a game.”