The Grasshopper (14 page)

“The only one, Mr. Kaella, the only
ones.”

Chapter 48

Bear heard a knock on the window
and turned around. He saw Alpha standing next to the car. He rolled
down the window.

“Hello, Alpha,” he said.

“Why are you sitting there, Bear?
People have been telling me that you’re behaving strangely
today.”

“Probably. And you know best why
I’m sitting in the passenger seat.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You don’t understand? Didn’t you
say last night that everything must look normal, as
usual?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And this morning you killed Barney
because of that.”

“Bear, that is how it has to be.
Everyone understands that, only you…”

“Alpha, I understand it the best,
trust me. So, where’s the adhesive tape?”

“What tape? What are you talking
about?

“Where did you hide it last night?
Admit it. Behind some pillar, under a car.”

“Why do you think it has to be you,
Bear?

“I don’t think so. I’m
volunteering. It is normal and usual that when the President goes
somewhere with his family by car… like today, for example… to hold
the election speech… it is normal for one of us to sit next to
Barney in the passenger seat. So, I’m the volunteer.”

Alpha was silent, and the other
colleagues, when they heard this, one by one entered the two cars
that would escort the presidential car, or put helmets on their
heads and mounted motorcycles.

Only Iceman ran over and
shouter:

“Alpha, we can’t do it like that!
Come on, let’s draw straws… rock-paper-scissors. Why does it have
to be Bear? Why are you being silly, Bear? Get out of the
car!”

“Iceman, please go. It’s difficult
enough. I’ve decided. Go.”

“Everyone in position, Iceman,”
Alpha said. “That’s an order. It has to be one of us. Bear has
volunteered.”

Iceman turned and walked to his
car, without saying another word.

“Alpha, tell me, who did you have
in mind?”

“No one, Bear. I was going to say
that someone should check how the driver is taped…”

“Barney.”

“Barney. And whoever sat…
there…”

“Yes?”

“I’d kill him.”

“So, you’d leave it up to
chance?”

“Yes.”

“And where’s the tape? Time’s
running out…”

Alpha looked at his
watch.

“How much time do we have before
departure? You have probably planned everything down to the minute,
right? There can be no dilemma that the president and his family
were killed by Non-Consumers.”

“There can’t be, Bear. These are
historical moments.”

“Clearly. That is why I want to be
a hero. How much longer?”

“Two minutes.”

“Where’s your tape?”

“Behind that pillar,” Alpha
motioned with his hand.

“You don’t need to waste time to go
to the pillar and back. Here it is. I brought it for you. Hold the
tape, Barney,” said Bear, placing the roll in Barney’s legs. “Take
out your gun, Alpha. You also need to tape me up. Time is running
out.”

Alpha was sweating.

“You’re messing around, Alpha.
Erivan is at his window, he’s looking at his watch and waiting for
the presidential motorcade to leave the garage. And if it doesn’t
leave on time, Erivan will call the Grasshopper.”

Alpha swiftly drew his gun and
fired a bullet into Bear’s head.

Chapter 49

“During the following period of my
life I focused on creating the minimal, cheapest possible State,”
Mr. Kaella continued his life’s story. “Why should the Consumers
and the Company Sectors have to pay high taxes in order to support
some mastodon-like State.”

“There really isn’t any reason,”
Babe agreed.

“Of course there isn’t. And do you
know what else they criticized me for?”

“Is it possible that they
criticized you for something more?” Babe was stunned.

“Of course. There are people whose
malice knows no boundaries. They criticized me because my company
doesn’t pay taxes.”

“Well, that’s something I really
cannot believe, Mr. Kaella.”

“My company can certainly pay
taxes, but it will be then immediately included in the prices of
energy, water, food, treatment, apartments… How can the average
Consumer pay for that? How can they survive?”

“Impossible.”

Babe turned towards Prince, opened
her mouth, rolled her eyes, and sighed like it was very stuffy and
she was struggling for air. She waved her hand in front of her face
as though to cool herself, like she was too hot. She lowered her
hand and reached the lapel of her leather jacket. She drew the
jacket away from her, that is to say from her ample breasts,
because she was obviously getting hot under the reflectors in the
submarine salon.

“Yes, impossible,” Mr. Kaella
confirmed yet again. “That is why I reduced the costs of the state.
I abolished these two parliament houses that had existed
previously…”

“What was all that about?” Babe was
wondered.

Prince leaned his hands on the edge
of the coffee table. That was the only thing preventing him from
jumping Babe before the million-strong audience. Having seen his
reaction, Babe used her other hand to unfasten the button above her
bellybutton, concealed from the old Mr. Kaella by the couch
armrest, and she opened wide her lapel.

“That was nonsense. You hadn’t even
been born back then. You know, back then there were like some
elected representatives who sat in some seats, talked, quarreled.
Like, they would pass laws… and for that they received huge
salaries, which the average person could only dream of. Then they
formed some sort of government, then the prime minister, and the
ministers, and all kinds of agencies, assistants… assistant’s
assistants, secretaries, assistant secretaries… And then elections
every four years. You can imagine how much it cost! I abolished all
that nonsense and significantly reduced the costs of the state. I
left the President of the State, who has a minimal administration.
And the president is elected every ten years, as you
know.”

“Of course.”

Prince stared sideways at the huge
breast, scratching with his nails at the surface of the table and
barely breathing. Perhaps Babe was only pretending to be hot and
that she was running out of air, but Prince was truly gasping for
air.

“How big is it? It’s even bigger
when it’s bare… Bigger than in my wildest dreams… with two hands…
I’ll knead it, squeeze it, slap it…”

“I merged the former military and
former police into a single organization, i.e. the Inspectorate.
This also cut costs. I stopped weapons production. I mean, we
produce a minimum, for the Inspectorate. There are no more wars… I
mean…” Mr. Kaella remembered that he would soon be declaring a new
war.

“It doesn’t matter,” he thought.
“It’s going to be short. I have to explain my ideas, my principles,
to the people.”

“How can I permit wars, Miss
Babe?”

“You can’t, of course.”

From her protruding nipple dangled
another chain with a small Earth.

“You’ll pay for this… you‘ll pay,
when I tug at that Earth. You’ll squeal…”

“I can’t. What does a person spend
in war? A bullet. Or an entire group of people spends only one
projectile. And then what? We lose Consumers.”

“Terrible.”

Prince managed to raise his eyes to
Babe’s face, wanting to appear menacing, to let her know that he
would ravage her, seriously punish her for what she was doing to
him. And Babe, running the tip of her tongue across the edge of her
teeth, studded with silver stars, licking the ends of the upper
lips, clearly showed her Prince how intimidated she was.

“Not to go into all these details –
I reduced the costs of the state to one third,” Mr. Kaella
summarized at the end of his exposé.

“To one third?”

“Yes.”

“Do you hear this, dear viewers? Do
you understand what Mr. Kaella has done for us?”

Chapter 50

Pascal could not believe that the
room wasn’t locked. “What is going on?” he wondered. He left the
door wide open so that under the light of the wall lamp he might
see the room that he found himself in. He immediately saw a switch
on the wall and he turned on the light.

He was in a long narrow hallway,
closer to the left end. In front of him, slightly to the right, was
a door. The only one on that side of the hallway. He approached it
quietly, listening to hear whether there was something behind it.
“Nothing. Quiet,” he concluded. When he tried to open it he
realized that it was locked and that he was in fact Raul’s and
Seneca’s captive.

The hallway was a bit over a meter
wide, and about fifteen meters long. Pascal saw that on the side of
the hallway where he had come out of there were three other doors.
He went to the one next to his room, on the left-hand end of the
hallway, which was also unlocked, and opened it.

There was a bathroom with a
two-sink vanity, which ran along the entire length of the bathroom,
as did the mirror above it. On the opposite side were a shower,
toilet and bidet.

He froze in shock. “Where am I? On
another planet? How is this possible?” The entire bathroom
accessories, colors, vanity design, lighting, tiles… were not only
from some previous season, but were also in some black-and-white
combination. There were incredibly old. Years old.

“Well of course. The room too… I
hadn’t paid attention… the nightstand, lights… it’s all ten years
old… or more.”

He left the bathroom and went down
the hallway, past the door to his room, to the next one. He opened
it quickly, without pausing or listening, not expecting any room to
be locked. It became clear to him that he was imprisoned in some
apartment, a suite, and that the only way out was through the
locked door that was across from his room.

He switched on the light. This room
was narrower than his. It had a bed for one person, a dresser and a
nightstand, a lamp and a pink cover. The last room in the row was
the same size as the previous one. It had two bunk beds with a
light-blue covers, and only one dresser that was the entire length
of the room. But there were no windows anywhere.

“This is underground. Some shelter.
A bunker. For someone important. For several of them… pink… for a
girl… two blue covers… the bunk bed…” he thought. “Two boys… yes,
that’s surely it. The underground shelter that Seneca had prepared
for himself and his family. Nonsense! How could it be for his
family when… he has… She gave him… him… Peter and Eir… one boy and
one girl… she gave him. And not two boys and one girl…”

“What am I doing!? Thinking about
covers and bunk bed! What do I care how many children you gave him?
It could have been one or ten! What difference does it make?!
You’re not mine… and you never will be. And nothing else
matters.”

Chapter 51

The entire time watching on the
monitor the final image that was being aired, in the corner of her
eye, Babe saw that the director of the interview and the guy
handling the video mixer were keeping to their agreement. She had
created a special script – that they must not film when she showed
Prince the lace and buttocks, when she bore her breast, when she
licked her lips. And to show Prince. And they showed
him.

“That wrinkled old lady of his saw
how my Prince looked me in front of the entire world, how he leaned
towards me, how he was going mad. Pack your stuff you old hag and
get out of my palace!”

This deal hadn’t been cheap. She
had to give the two of them half of the fee she received from the
Company sector for fashion accessories.

“It’s ok. I don’t mind. It wasn’t a
great expense. That was the best investment that any girl has ever
made.”

“Miss Babe, do you know what the
False Balance was?” Mr. Kaella interrupted Babe’s
thoughts.

“A False Balance? Of course, Mr.
Kaella. Our history teacher made us learn that by heart,” Babe
smiled.

“Did he? Good teacher. Tell
us…”

“A False Balance was a period
without serious wars…” Babe hesitated.

“When did this period start?” Mr.
Kaella helped her with another question.

“In the second half of the
twentieth century, after some war. I guess the Third...”

“The Second. They still counted
them back then. Just before the permanent war,” said Mr.
Kaella.

“And how long did the False Balance
period last?