The Grasshopper Read online

  “Of course,” said Babe. “We are all immensely grateful to Mr. Prince for this. Mr. Prince, can you please tell us briefly what is the essence of your struggle?”

  Babe was sitting in the middle of the couch with her legs tightly together, her body turned towards Prince. Only her head was faced the old Mr. Kaella. Being aware that during this introductory part he was being constantly on camera, Prince struggled with himself and held his eyes fixed on Babe’s face, as was becoming of a respectful interviewee. The two little Earths that dangled from Babe’s face wouldn’t let him be. Even from this distance, a lot closer, he could not see where the chains were anchored. He couldn’t see any rings. “They must be covered by the thick blue eye shadow around her eyes,” he concluded, and stopped thinking about it.

  But when Babe looked at his father he noticed something else. A tattoo behind her right ear. The tattoo was very discrete. Like a chain of barely visible symbols, in a color that was just a shade darker than her skin, arranged in an arch that followed the contour of her ear, which was completely covered in golden star-shaped rivets.

  Chapter 30

  Pascal was waking up. But he didn’t open his eyes nor did he move any part of his body.

  “I won’t move. Let them think I’m not awake. Maybe they’ll talk. Maybe I’ll hear them.” But he didn’t hear anything: no one’s breathing, movement, clothes rustling… nothing.

  He recalled Mayor Seneca at the end of the hallway. “He was just standing there, waiting for me to approach him. And I was just thinking about… not revealing myself… for him not to notice, not to suspect anything. And I didn’t pay attention at all… It can’t be! That wasn’t Raul. No, Raul would not join up with Seneca against me. Not only with Seneca, with anyone. Except… to save me from… myself. Raul knows me. He saw… it was clear to him that I actually wanted to die. That I was practically committing suicide. And he didn’t allow it. He saved my life.”

  “I really can’t hear anything. Silence. Absolute silence. How long have I been unconscious?” Pascal wondered. “I can’t hear the rotors of a helicopter, airplane engines… I don’t feel any vibrations… shaking. I’m not in a car, in some trunk. Or maybe I am? Just that the vehicle is standing still, that it isn’t moving. Am I still in Megapolis? Or did Raul take me with them? And we might already be there… in one of our cities. Or are we waiting for the airplane to take of? But… this silence… is so absolute. If the vehicle is stationary… it isn’t an airport or a parking lot… no one is passing by… there’s no sound of the wind… no sound at all. No smell. Smell?”

  Only then did he realize that he smelled something. Stale, right next to his nostrils. “There is some kind of cover beneath my cheek. I can feel it on my skin. It’s soft… I’m lying on a bed. On my right side. It isn’t the cold floor of some cell. And it’s completely dark. If there was any light I’d see it through my eyelids. I’m sure I would. But the darkness is absolute… Is this a grave?”

  Pascal abruptly opened his eyes. And it was as though he hadn’t. The darkness truly was absolute. He pushed himself up on his elbow. He felt a pain in his arm and thought of Raul again.

  “Raul, who gives you the right to decide about my life? Who are you to save me from myself? Not even you, Raul, after all these years… the struggle, everything… you don’t understand. Freedom is above everything else. Not only freedom from Kaella. The freedom to live as you want and die as you want. You don’t understand… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry at you. Nor at Seneca, or anyone. You can’t learn these thing, that is something you have to be. I would never prevent you from dying, my friend. For any reason. Regardless of whether I knew the reason or not. Regardless of whether I understood your reason or not. I would never in any way limit your freedom. To decide about you instead of you. I’ll explain it to you. You’ll set me free. When you come… to bring me food and water.”

  Chapter 31

  “Why are you asking me, Babe?” Prince thought to himself. “Talk to my father, let me watch you in peace.”

  And he told Babe in front of the camera:

  “Well… I wouldn’t… I really wouldn’t want to take valuable time from my father and you. There will be other opportunities for those topics.”

  “You know, Miss Babe, my son is very modest,” Mr. Kaella explained. “He never wants to talk about himself and his achievements. Not only in public. He is the same within the family. And he always has been, since he was a child.”

  “That is the characteristic of great people, I think, Mr. Kaella.”

  “That’s right. That is why I will sing some praise for my son, if you permit.”

  “Of course, of course. Please, Mr. Kaella.”

  “Through his struggle with the ruthless nature my Prince is saving humanity, while we await the arrival of the ice age. And one day when it comes it will be much milder than ignorant people fear, precisely thanks to the greenhouse effect. It will be like a slightly colder winter from the past. And we will easily adjust to it. Industrial production will turn to making heating appliances instead of cooling appliances. Transportation means will adjust to snow and ice instead of sand and rocks, and there will be countless, I mean countless, other changes and adaptations. And what is the main thing that this new industrial drive will bring?”

  “Jobs and preservation of the Balance.”

  “Bravo, bravo, Miss Babe. And let someone try and tell me again that beauty and intelligence don’t go together. Of course – the Balance. That is my greatest achievement, the pinnacle of my life.”

  “Mr. Kaella, the Balance that you have established in society, which you yourself say is the pinnacle of your life, is such an important topic, the most important topic. I would like to give it more time. Actually, I would like for you to tell us your life’s journey. Please describe how you made it possible of us, people, Consumers, to live peacefully in a balanced community of man.”

  “I will. I agree with you, Miss Babe, here…”

  “Just one moment, please, Mr. Kaella. I would like to first briefly ask Mr. Prince how he succeeded in protecting people from such a fate, from the forever lost settlements, like the ones that we can see outside the submarine? What is your intention when you selflessly invest, building modern poleis and making it possible for people to resettle?”

  “Alright, I’ll answer you. But really shortly. Unfortunately we inherited from our ancestors the greenhouse effect. Due to the climate changes food production and sources of drinking water inevitably relocated. Had food and water have had to be distributed to remote old human settlements under such conditions, it would have caused huge and completely unnecessary additional expenses. The development of modern poleis in the vicinity of food and water will allow people to satisfy their existential needs at the lowest possible price. We live in such a historical time. After the ice age, the mild one, as my father explained, the Earth will be once again become soaked and deserts will become fields, there will be plenty of drinking water throughout the planet. And then, once again, our descendants will be able to build their settlements wherever they want. I am only using basic logic for us to adapt in the most rational manner to the conditions that nature has imposed on us during this period.”

  “You are right, Mr. Kaella. Your son is too modest,” said Babe.

  “That is what he is like. There’s nothing we can change about it,” the proud father said.

  “But we can admire him,” said Babe and nodded slightly, looking at Prince with eyes full of admiration. “And now, Mr. Kaella, I’d like to ask you to describe your life’s journey to our viewers. Before the interview I received countless messages, emails, letters, in which Consumers demand that I ask you this and that, so… and I think that you will answer all these questions if you tell us as many of your memories as possible.”

  “Alright, Miss Babe, I will. Well …”

  Chapter 32

  “As you know, Seneca yesterday prohibited Pascal’s speech. You saw that they dismantled the stag
e this morning,” Raul explained the newly-created situation to his team.

  “He stabbed us in the back ahead of the elections. That was all planned long ago. And we naively believed that he had crossed over to our side, that he had turned against Kaella,” said Jagdish, head of the analysts.

  “It’s not like that, Jagdish. Seneca yesterday received reliable secret information from Kaella’s Company that Pascal was winning by a landslide with sixty-two percent of the votes.”

  “Bravo!”

  “Victory!”

  “Sixty-two?!” the team were jumping out their seats with excitement.

  While he watched them, Raul slightly shook his head and smiled. At the same time he calmed them with a hand gesture indicating that they should be seated.

  “First of all I would like to congratulate you. Without you, without us, this would not have been possible. On the other hand… Margot is right. I have known Pascal the longest and the best. And Pascal is… Pascal. He is different than us, than other people. In his own world… in his ideas. No, no, not ideas… in his dreams. You know what I mean… The Third Renaissance that he is dreaming of. After Tuscany and Northern California… a dreamer. But that is why he is Pascal. That is why he moves millions… he teaches people how to dream. It’s true that he says what we prepare for him, what we write for him. Specifically, these are the bills you are paying to Kaella, your children will pay them… He speaks in our ordinary words. But he speaks them. People aren’t ignorant. They know all that even without our speeches. But they don’t know, they don’t believe that it can be any different… That their children can live a better, freer life than theirs is. A life filled with meaning, purpose. Only when Pascal tells them, only then do they believe. Only Pascal can give raise to people’s hope, after an entire century of slavery.”

  “Raul, we know this. Where is Pascal?” Margot asked quietly, seeing how difficult it was for Raul.

  “Pascal is under Seneca’s protection.”

  “Under Seneca’s protection?!” Liam shouted. “Who is Seneca protecting him from? From himself? From his inspectors? How do you know that he hasn’t already handed him over to Kaella? The mayor of Megapolis, Prince’s Megapolis, is protecting Pascal! Raul, you’re out of your mind, man!”

  “Perhaps. That was what I decided. That is what we decided.”

  “Who is we?” Margot asked.

  “Seneca and I… and Pascal,” lied Raul. “I can’t tell them everything. I have to lie to them, I have to calm them down,” he thought feverishly.

  “Pascal too? Are you sure, Raul?” Margot sensed Raul’s insecurity.

  “Well, Margot, do you think, can you even imagine Pascal staying against his will? That I took part in his arrest?” Raul lied more convincingly.

  “I can’t. I’m sorry,” Margot said.

  “When we heard this information, these high percentages in the polls, all three of us came to the same conclusion,” Raul continued.

  “That Kaella would have Pascal assassinated?” Jagdish asked.

  “Yes, that’s right. And we assumed that he would do that during his speech. In front of the entire world. Seneca was convinced that it would be the Grasshopper that does it, their most bloodthirsty killer.”

  “Why? How did he draw that conclusion?” Liam asked.

  “Because he received information that the Grasshopper had disappeared off the face of the earth. No one, not even the top state leadership had any clues as to his whereabouts for past five months. Seneca assumed that the Grasshopper was in Megapolis the entire time and that he was waiting for his opportunity. In his style. To strike suddenly.”

  “So the three of you concluded that the Grasshopper was in Megapolis and that he would kill Pascal, and then Pascal stayed there to make the Grasshopper’s job easier. Unbelievable!” Liam fumed.

  “Liam, Liam… calm down. Think about it. Now Kaella thinks that Pascal is with us on the plane. That was most important to us. That is why Seneca gave us his airplane. So that you could not see on the satellite footage that Pascal did not get into the tube. That is why you waited for me for so long in the VIP lounge under the roof of the hotel. For the three of us to get organized, for it to look like Pascal too left the hotel and got on the plane. Kaella is now waiting to see where we will land, and to send the Grasshopper or some other assassins after us.”

  “Or he will attack our airplane,” said Liam.

  Everyone stopped breathing after Liam uttered those words, but no one commented.

  “He won’t,” said Raul. “During the first half hour of our flight not a single airplane took off from any of their airports. In any case, we are being escorted and protected by Seneca’s squadron. A ground-based rocket shield has also been created around our airplane.”

  “Really?” asked Margot. “Liam has got me scared.”

  “Yes. They are protecting us just in case. Seneca insisted on it, although all three of us agreed that Kaella would not attack the airplane.”

  “Why?” asked Liam.

  “Because, Liam,” Jagdish answered instead of Raul, “then it would be clear to the entire world that we had been shot down by Kaella, that is by the State, and he cannot allow himself this. Perhaps one of his snipers might take a shot at Pascal and the inspectors would never find him. Or they might kill him and state that it was some fanatic who hated Pascal… or something similar. If it were clear that Kaella killed Pascal, the entire free world would rise up against him and Kaella would fall sooner or later. This is clear to me now, when I heard this truly incredible percentage of the votes. I am so proud people, I’m so happy because of this…”

  “We are all! We all are, Jagdish!” the team shouted.

  “Forgive me, Raul, for explaining instead of you… but I’m so excited… I’m certain that this is how the three of you thought.”

  “We did, my dear analyst,” Raul smiled. “And I’m glad that you said it, that we are thinking alike. That you don’t hold it against me or Pascal… And you, Liam, what do you say now?”

  “You want to hear what I have to say, Raul?”

  “I do.”

  “I can’t wait for the Grasshopper to come after us. To get him in our crosshairs. That’s what I say.”

  Chapter 33

  When Prince’s father started to answer in great detail, and when the red lamp on the camera pointing at Prince did not go for while, he finally allowed his eyes to slide down from Babe’s face.

  To watch the struggle between her leather jacket and her huge bosom. Babe’s breasts tried in vain to expand more, to rid themselves of the large lapels. And the jacket forced them, ample as they were, to get closer to each other and remain tightly fixed.

  “You don’t have a bra, you don’t have one… I see. And you always wear one. You want to drive me mad… that’s what you want. Only those buttons…” Prince thought in anger about the two done-up black buttons above and below Babe’s bellybutton. “I’ll undo them. I’ll slowly… I won’t even touch the jacket. It will slide off on its own from your… They’ll defeat your jacket, because they want me to see them, for me to…”

  It was no longer important whether a women’s bust was a gift from mother nature or not. Implants no longer meant that breasts became two motionless stone orbs. No, today’s breasts shake, bob while you walk, gave way to hands, fingers…

  “How I will cuddle them, squeeze them, pinch them… I won’t stop! Why doesn’t at least one of the lapels shift a bit to the side, it takes just a bit… so that I can see your… It doesn’t have to be a whole one, not everything… that will be tonight… But at least part, just a little piece of your nipple? No, the lapel won’t budge. It won’t, that’s the way you did it, set it up…” and only then did Prince notice two discrete Earths on the jacket, embroidered in black thread.

  “Exactly in the place… like two nipples! Babe, you… with those wonderful, enormous breasts and such nipples, you symbolize the essence… Earth… fertility… buxomness… nipples, milk… motherh
ood, birth… new life, new…”

  “…generations of Consumers,” the old Mr. Kaella completed his sentence.

  “Why do you sit so humbly? Why do you clench your knees when in all your shows you cross your legs? I can always see your thighs… and now you won’t let me. Why do you have those fishnet stockings, if you won’t let me…”

  Prince stopped. He quickly glanced at Babe’s bare arms beneath the short sleeves of the jacket. He had not paid attention previously because it had been so common. But now he thoroughly studied two dragons tattooed on her upper arms. Then he looked again at her fishnet stockings. Then at the two flowers tattooed on her forearms. Then again at her fishnet stockings. “But…”, Prince couldn’t believe it. “But, Babe… you… the stockings… Those aren’t real stockings! You’ve tattooed them! Bravo, Babe, bravo! What an idea! What a change! What a business move! That’s the type of woman I need! Who will fight with me side by side!”

  “What a fight it was,” Prince thought. Not a fight but a true war for the prevention of permanent tattoos. Even the law prohibiting them did not help. How many people did they have to arrest and publicly remove, skin, peel their permanent tattoos off. There could be no compromise. No one could be permitted to permanently usurp the most commercial space in existence, the human skin. But it was worth it. It instilled fear. Even today, not even Non-Consumers dared have permanent tattoos.