The Grasshopper (36 page)

“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?”

“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.”

“It just happened,” Dr. Palladino
answered. “A poker partner had disappeared. After a while I learned
that he had died playing Russian roulette… When the war started…
when snipers appeared in every block, firing squads, widespread
raping of women and girls… when my job became pointless… when the
only thing that gave my life meaning disappeared… I went to play
Russian roulette.”

“And why did hunting killers mean
so much to you?”

“You’ll laugh at me. Because of
Hercule Poirot.”

“The Agatha Christie character?”
the Grasshopper was surprised.

“Yes. I read her books countless
times.”

“Really? Isn’t it boring when you
know who the killer is?”

“No. Even when I read one of her
books for the first time I wouldn’t try to discover the villain. I
would simply let the lady take me wherever she wanted to. I enjoyed
the atmosphere of her novels.”

“And what influence did Hercule
Poirot have on you?”

“He simply said ‘I do not approve
of murder.” And that was the only thing that was truly important to
me, my entire life. The only thing that I care about.”

“And you know why?”

“I know. I admire people who
appreciate, who love life, who rejoice it, enjoy it. I consider
this to a gift that I do not have, and that is why I do not approve
that the lives of such people be taken.”

“You are an interesting man, Dr.
Palladino.”

“On the contrary, I’m very
dull…”

“I’ve remembered something else…
something I’ve wanted to ask you several times, Mr.
Grasshopper.”

“Ask away.”

“Have you read Tolstoy?”

“Of course. Are you thinking of his
thoughts about the importance of individuals in history? If he were
with us today he would know that the role of the individual sitting
at this desk is crucial.”