The Grasshopper (10 page)

“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… motherhood, 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.

“And you, Babe, have now shown how
women and girls can tattoo stockings, instead of putting them on.
Two entire legs, what a huge percentage of the skin’s surface! What
profit there is to be made there!”

Chapter 34

The first time that mom tried to
take Henry out of Liv’s hands was at the end of the season when
they bought him. Liv was a bit over three years old at the time, so
she didn’t remember that. When she grew up her parents told her how
she cried, held Henry to her chest and hid beneath the dining room
table.

That was the first time her dad
allowed her to keep anything from last season in the house and not
hand it over to the Inspectorate to be destroyed. Her mom told her
that because of Henry the house became a place of tension and fear
of a sudden Inspectorate search. Because they would surely find him
and arrest dad.

A sigh of relief came when quite
unexpectedly a law was passed according to which children could
keep one favorite toy from any season, up to the age of
five.

That is why on her fifth birthday
mom tried to take Henry from her hands for a second time. Liv
didn’t remember that either. But her mom and dad later told her
that she never cried as much as she did on her fifth birthday. And
that is why dad, whose favorite girl was more important than
anything, again allowed Henry to remain in the house.

But Liv remembered very well when
she herself, when she was in her sophomore year in high school,
without holding back the tears, handed Henry to dad. She remembered
how dad stood there completely still and was quiet. And mom told
him:

“Take it if Liv is giving it to
you. You’re not going to sacrifice everything for it, are you? If
they find it you’ll never have the opportunity to save other
children’s Henrys. Liv is grown up. Take that penguin.”

That was the only time that Liv saw
her father cry. He said

“I can’t. Henry is… the beginning.
Henry helped me understand. I’ve come this far because of
Henry.”

Chapter 35

“You see for yourself, Miss Babe,
it will not be difficult for me to tell our dear viewers my
memories, because for some time now… You know, when a man gets to
my age and is preparing for the departure, then…”

“
Don’t talk like
that, Mr. Kaella, please. We common people don’t want to even think
about that. You are not at all aware how much the Consumers respect
you, but also how much they love you, Mr. Kaella,” Babe was so
moved and passed her index finger beneath her eye, alluding to a
tear.

“Yes, yes, I’m aware of that. And I
am very happy… and grateful to the people,” Kaella looked at the
camera. “If I didn’t love our people as much as they love me,
everything that I have done and created in my life… would not have
been possible.”

“And you have done the most,
created the most, Mr. Kaella.”

“Behind everything stands the
invincible, unbreakable, carved-in-stone, love for each and every
person, every Consumer.”

“You have done… not only done… but
continue to… even now, at every moment you are doing… something
that is the most grandiose, most magnificent in the history of the
world, Mr. Kaella. You and your honorable ancestors… and of course,
your son, Mr. Prince.”

“Yes. Thank you for these words,
Miss Babe. I wanted to say that in front of our audience, I would
just like to repeat what I have already determined, in summarizing
my life… what I have realized.”

“Go ahead, Mr. Kaella.”

“You see… I would like to mention
my ancestors…”

“Of course,” Babe encouraged Mr.
Kaella.

“My grandfather discovered cosmic
energy at a time when fossil fuels were disappearing, during the
period of bloody wars where people were destroying each others’ few
alternative sources of energy. And he created a system of
accumulating cosmic energy in space, delivering it through energy
beams to cosmic power plants on Earth and transforming cosmic
energy into electrical energy. And he offers this pure energy to
all mankind, without any concern for the differences between them.
And of course people accepted this. That is how our company, the
Kaella Cosmic Energy Corporation, grew and developed. And my father
continued down the same path, building a state. This process was
not easy. At the time not all groups of people wanted to join the
integrated human community. But gradually, weakened by previous
wars, storms, droughts, floods, landslides, earthquakes, pandemics…
without water, without food… without energy, these people toppled
their dictators on their own, and joined. My father dedicated his
life to creating the State of Earth… and that is why I am so moved,
Miss Babe, because a beautiful intelligent young person such as
yourself, is paying respect to my father, our family, our State,
with her entire appearance, her entire being.”