The Grasshopper (20 page)

“Yes. The film director was
excellent. I won’t replace him. And I ignited them well, right?
When I said that we would seize the stocks from the Non-Consumers
and hand them out to the Consumers. They’re going to rat them out
like crazy.”

“Yes, Mr. President. I’m sure they
will. Genial, really.”

“Well, Grasshopper, Now I’m at
ease. Thank you for calling me immediately.”

“Did you think that I could hold
out any longer to express my admiration?”

“I didn’t, I didn’t.” Erivan
laughed. “I have to hang up now. My staff is coming.”

Chapter 72

Pascal heard the quiet distant
turning of a lock. Someone was unlocking the door. But not in his
apartment, not his door. Some other door, beyond it. He stood
against the wall. He heard someone’s fast steps come towards his
door. The steps of only one person. No conversation. Someone was
approaching the door alone. This person unlocked the door, opened
it, and stepped towards the bedroom, as Pascal had anticipated. The
person entered from a lit room so Pascal could clearly see who it
was.

“Seneca!” he shouted in
surprise.

“Alexander!” Seneca jolted and
turned towards Pascal. “You scared me! I didn’t expect you… I
though you were still…”

“And where is your…” Pascal fell
silent. “Shut up, Pascal!” he shouted to himself in his thoughts.
“She’s safe, if Seneca is here.”

“Raul? You mean Raul… He is… They
are… well. Come here, Alexander. These aren’t your
quarters…”

“What quarters?” Pascal asked,
entering the large lit room.

“A living room… some kind of
armchairs… a couch… my clothes from the hotel…” Pascal’s eyes
quickly glanced around the room. “It is all together… and a dining
room… table… six chairs… a kitchen,” Pascal was stunned.

Through the door on the wall left
of Pascal, entered the Mayor’s son Peter and immediately behind him
Manami with little Eir in her arm.

“Manami, Peter, come here,” Seneca
said quickly. “These are your quarters,” Seneca pointed towards the
door behind which Pascal had been locked.

“Good day, Mr. Alexander,” Peter
greeted him cordially, passing by him and entering their
quarters.

Manami looked at him, just nodded
as a sign of greeting, walked in after Peter and closed the
door.

“Alexander, I have to immediately
return to my office. Your quarters are over here. Here, take a
look,” said Seneca, opening a third door and standing in front of
it. You have a large room and bathroom… everything that you need.
You can take your clothes from the couch. We brought all of your
things from the hotel room…”

Pascal didn’t move.

“You don’t want to take a look…
alright. You can do so later… in peace. You see… there is a kitchen
too. My wife will cook for you too… She is an excellent cook,
you’ll see… I’m really in a hurry… You just settle in… and
rest…”

Pascal was silent and standing in
the same place where had been in when he saw Manami.

“You can also wait for me here, in
the living room, if you wish. I will come as soon as I can.
Tonight, before morning… I will tell everyone that I will take a
nap in the office, and that I’m not to be disturbed. Ah, yes… I
haven’t explained this. This is Prince Kaella’s shelter. He built
it while he was building Megapolis. It is located between the
television station and your hotel. It has entrances on both sides.
The quarters that you were in were for his family. That is why my
wife and children will be there. And the others, which are now your
quarters, were for his bodyguards. We brought you from the hotel,
and we now came down using the secret elevator in my office. I
really have to go now. People will get suspicious…” said Seneca,
while going out the shelter door.

“Their quarters… my quarters… The
living room… I was lying on her bed… Get it together, man! What are
you doing?! Don’t you have at least a sliver of dignity left? The
man sedates you, drags you to some shelter, he comes… and I? What
do I do? I ask him where his wife is? And when I see her I go numb.
He tells me about Raul… and I don’t even think of asking him.
Instead of hitting him. Hey, this man took me captive, deprived me
of my freedom… and I didn’t say a single word! What will she think
of me? What does she think of me? Well that won’t do, Pascal! That
simply won’t do!”

“Alexander, lock the door! The card
is on the dining room table,” Seneca shouted, quickly making his
way to the elevator door at the end of the corridor.

“Seneca!” shouted Pascal while
running out of the living room and down the corridor after
him.

“Yes?” the surprised Mayor turned
around.

“What is the meaning of this,
sir?!” shouted Pascal, stopping in front of him. “Release me
immediately! Call and open that elevator of yours!
Immediately!”

“Back!” Seneca shouted at Pascal.
“Return to the shelter! You are my prisoner, sir!”

“What prisoner?! Don’t be
ridiculous! Open the elevator! Take me to Raul immediately! Where
is he, anyway!? Why has he conspired against me?!”

“Raul is not in Megapolis. He has
ordered you to remain in the shelter. Go back!” Seneca pushed
Pascal.

“Don’t do this, Seneca! You know
how much I have respected you! And trusted you! Don’t make me hit
you!” shouted Pascal walking backward, pushing Seneca’s hands away
from him.

“Raul is dead! They’re all dead!
All your people, Alexander, are dead!” shouted Manami, running into
the corridor.

Chapter 73

Having ended his communication with
the Grasshopper, Erivan immediately contacted Sigma, the leader of
S Squad. Sigma and his squires, deployed on three fighter
spaceships, was following the Grasshopper’s ship at a
distance.

“Yes, Mr. President?” Sigma
responded.

“Return to Earth.”

“To Earth?”

“Yes. There is no more need for
your mission, Sigma. I’m aborting it. You are needed here
more.”

“Yes, sir, Mr.
President.”

*****

The Grasshopper calmly watched
three bright dots stop on his screen, then move in the opposite
direction from their previous course. Towards Earth.

Chapter 74

Pascal and Seneca froze and let go
of each other. Seneca stopped in his tracks, with his head hung
low, speechless. Pascal took a step towards Manami, stopped and
shouted, looking her straight in the eye,

“What are you saying, ma’am!? What
are these lies?! Why do you think you can use them to keep me
here?!” He turned to Seneca again. “Take me to Raul!
Immediately!”

“It’s not a lie, Alexander,” Seneca
whispered, raising his head. “They are all dead. It’s my
fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Julius! Don’t
say that! None of you knew what Erivan was preparing,” Manami
shouted.

“Erivan?! Erivan killed them?!”
Pascal cried out.

“No… no, not Erivan,” Seneca
whispered.

“Raul crashed their airplane into
the ocean. Or they had all agreed to that. We will never know,”
said Manami, lowering her voice.

“Raul?! Why? Why?!”

“Mr. Alexander, please. Return to
the shelter. We have to tell you everything,” Seneca
said.

Pascal briskly walked past Manami,
entered the living room and turned towards the wall. Seneca and
Manami came in behind him, locked the door and silently watched as
sobs shook Pascal’s shoulders. After a while Pascal wiped his face
with his hands, took several deep breaths and turned towards
them.

“Alright. I’m listening,” he said
quietly.

“Julius, Mr. Alexander, sit down at
the table. I’ll bring you something, let me just see what we have
here,” Manami passed by the dining room table and into the
kitchen.

“A glass of water, ma’am… please,”
Pascal said while taking a seat.

Seneca sat down in the chair across
from Pascal. Manami poured two glasses of water, placed them on the
table in front of Pascal and Seneca and sat down next to her
husband.

“All three of us were wrong, we
misjudged the situation. We were afraid of an assassination attempt
against you, Alexander,” the Mayor of Megapolis spoke quietly,
looking at his fingers, wrapped around the glass. We thought that
the Kaellas were controlling the game, as it has always been. The
two of them believed that too.”

“What do you mean ‘they believed
that too’?” asked Pascal. “Did Erivan do something on his
own?”

“He killed them, Alexander… both of
them. Father and son.”

“Killed? Kaella? And
Prince?”

“Yes. During the interview. He
destroyed the submarine.”

“How? Where were the inspectors?
The bodyguards?”

“Erivan had obviously prepared all
that in advance. He hid the real results of the polls from the
Kaellas. And served it to him at the last moment. He forced him to
panic. Kaella became reckless. I think Erivan’s squads carried it
out. He killed them, Alexander. And President Xing too.”

“Xing, too?”

“Yes. His entire family. Wife and
children. They fired a missile at the presidential motorcade in the
center of Capital City… from your airplane.”

“What do you mean ‘from our
airplane’? I don’t understand…”

“He somehow got his hand on one of
your aircraft… one built by you. From one of your factories… or
from an airport.”

Pascal was silent.

“I gave Raul and your people my
airplane,” Seneca continued. “And a squadron to protect them. But
that was not enough. Because as soon as Erivan declared war
numerous airplanes took off in their direction from several
airports.”

“Erivan declared war?” Pascal
asked.

“Yes. War on the Non-Consumers. He
took over the position of President of Earth, in accordance with
the Constitution.”

“But… you, ma’am, said that Raul…”
Pascal looked at Manami.

“That is the only thing we can
conclude, Mr. Alexander,” Manami answered, “because…”

“When I was informed about all of
Erivan’s squadrons that were headed their way, I immediately called
Raul,” Seneca explained. “And I informed him of everything that had
happened. About the murders of the Kaellas and the Xings. And the
threat against them. I told Raul that I had informed all your
closest cities and that your airplanes were taking off too. That my
squadron would protect them until they arrive…”

“Don’t tell me any more, Seneca.
It’s not necessary,” Pascal whispered through his tears. “My noble
Raul… all of them… Margot… Jagdish… all those young people…
children, they were still children… My faithful Liam… my Citra…”
Pascal fell silent, with his head hung low, covering his face with
his hands. “Erivan didn’t fire on them?”

“No,” Seneca whispered. “Our
squadron created a shield around them. He didn’t fire on them, he
didn’t even try.”

“He didn’t…” Pascal wept. “He sent
planes… to force them down. He wanted me alive. And they crashed
the plane down because… only so… So that Erivan would think… that I
was dead too! You didn’t kill them, Seneca!” Pascal shouted. “I
killed them! I did! It’s because of me that they are dead! They
sacrificed themselves for me!”

Pascal jumped from the chair and
rushed towards the exit. He turned the doorknob.

“Unlock it, Seneca! I’ll kill him!
I’ll kill Erivan! Unlock it!” he screamed.

Seneca got up from the table but
did not approach Pascal.

“As you have said yourself,
Alexander, your friends brought down the plane so that Erivan
wouldn’t learn where you were. So that he would think that you were
dead. So that you would be safe. By leaving the shelter you would
render their heroic death worthless. Make it futile. The last words
that Raul said to me, before he hung up, were ‘Save Pascal, Seneca.
He is the only hope that this world has.’”

Pascal cried out loud. Seneca went
to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said

“Wait for me just until tonight. We
have to talk… after that you will make up your mind. If you want
out of the shelter, I will get you out of Megapolis. I have to
remain neutral in this war. I have to save this city. No one can
know that you stayed in Megapolis.”

“Yes… I will… I’ll wait for you,”
Pascal said quietly.

Seneca went out of the shelter and
locked the door behind him.

“Sir,” said Manami. “Do you need
anything? I have to go to mu children.”

“No… no, ma’am. Thank you. I’ll
retreat there… to those quarters… until the mayor
comes.”

Chapter 75

Sayash was a regular dandy. He
trimmed short his gray hair, with its M-shape receding hairline and
magnificent white beard, a real man’s beard that grew far below his
Adam’s apple and high up on his cheek bones – with a few passes of
the trimmer. In the beginning, when he had just found the trimmer,
in an alley behind a salon, Sayash used to stand at night in front
of a lit shop window to see what he was doing. But that stopped
being necessary a long time ago. It appeared that now he could trim
his bear even in his sleep.