The Grasshopper (5 page)

The crowd roared “We refuse! We
refuse! We refuse!”

“We will spend as much as we want
and when we want. We will purchase goods and services that we want.
From companies that are capable of offering, through fair
competition in a free market, a product that we need, one that we
like, one that we want. At a price that we are prepared to pay for
them, and not the one that Kaella sets.”

Here the people were shouting more
against Kaella’s name than… One should not complicate things with
products and services.

Pascal got up suddenly, stopped the
recording, angrily threw the tablet on the armchair and frantically
walked around the room. After a while, when his steps became slower
and his hands dropped by his sides, he approached the window.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead on the glass.

Chapter 14

Once again Prince Kaella’s instinct
was not wrong. Babe actually was in a nightgown, carefully laying
outfits for tomorrow on half of the double bed in room
314.

She would wear the first outfit in
the morning, when she meets Prince and Mr. Kaella for breakfast, in
order to discuss the final details before the interview. For this
occasion she chose a beige knee-length skirt and a white
nontransparent broad blouse, which she would button up
high.

She will tickle him with her
modesty. Let Prince only get a hint of things at breakfast, let him
imagine, let his desire grow. Wearing that same outfit she would
leave the hotel immediately after breakfast, while he watches. Let
him think that she would appear before him like that for the show.
And in the afternoon, when Prince raises his eyes as he enters the
submarine’s salon, having let his old father enter
first…

Like two weeks ago when he was on
an official visit to the television station. She didn’t realize
immediately that he had come because of her. She knew of course
that he had come because of her show. He had told the
editor-in-chief so himself. But she didn’t know that he had come
only because of her. Until the moment when everyone from the
editorial board had left the studio and when she said, with her
back turned to him:

“And it is only then, Mr. Kaella,
after a whole day of constant work, that I go into the studio, that
the cameras and lights are turned on…” and showing the familiar set
with a broad gesture of her hand, she turned towards him, looked at
him and stopped.

In Prince’s look she saw, like only
a woman can see, that from that moment on he was only hers. She had
always felt that she would achieve a lot in life, that she would go
very far, but she had never considered such heights, the throne
itself. Babe wasn’t at all interested what it would be like:
official or unofficial, public or secret. She simply knew that from
that moment on, she, Babe, was queen of the world. The Princess of
the planet Earth.

Prince Kaella did not even consider
the possibility that Miss Babe might not open the door to him if he
decided to knock on it even tonight. And she wouldn’t have. Of
course she would not allow for him to see her in plain nightgown.
At one time, later, when she is safely anchored as Princess. And
considering his great desire, if he were to knock right now, which
was certainly possible, then she would…

Babe smiled, creating in her head
an entire scenario of what it would be like. Like, she was just
ironing out the creases, bent over the bed, when she heard a
knock.

“Who is it?” she would ask, with a
seemingly surprised and frightened voice, like one would expect of
a girl alone in a hotel room, if a stranger were to knock on her
door in the middle of the night.

“Prince Kaella,” he would
whisper.

“Oh, Mr. Kaella!” she would shout
out, in a voice that would lose the tone of fear, but would contain
a stronger note of surprise, with a mild, initial note of typical
female excitement.

“You’re not sleeping, Miss Babe?”,
Prince would ask.

“I was just about to, Mr.
Kaella”.

“May I come in?”

“Come in? What do you mean? I’m not
dressed. I always sleep in the nude, Mr. Kaella.”

Babe giggled out loud, imagining
him panting in the hallway, completely shocked by this statement of
hers.

“I understand… well… put something
on.”

“Why, Mr. Kaella? Has something
happened? Is your dad feeling unwell?”

“Hm, no, no… I just
wanted…”

“What? Tell me.”

“Well… I must see you.”

“We’ll see each other in the
morning, Mr. Kaella.”

“I know… I know that, but… I can’t
wait.”

“What can’t you wait for, Mr.
Kaella?”

“I… I… long for you so
much.”

“Mr. Kaella! Tomorrow is an
important day. Millions of people across the Earth will be watching
the interview with you and your father. I have to be focused and I
cannot give in to… Go now, please.”

“What can’t you give in
to?”

At this point she would be silent
and with that silence she would show Prince how much she
reprimanded herself for foolishly betraying and revealing her
immense feelings for him. Of course he would repeat the
question.

“What can’t you give in to? Tell
me… please.”

“Mr. Kaella, this really isn’t the
time for such conversations. In any case, someone might hear us and
tell your dad. We cannot upset him in any way before the interview.
I’m sure you agree with this, right?”

“Well… yes,” Prince said
gloomily.

“And after the interview, Mr.
Kaella…”

“What after the interview? What?
Tell me… tell me…”

“I mean, if you want to, at
all…”

“If I want to?! If I want
to?!”

“Quite. Quiet, Mr.
Kaella.”

“What after the interview? Tell me
already!”

“Then I will open my door to you
and allow you to come in, Mr. Kaella.”

“It’s a pity that he is so shy and
intimidated, and he doesn’t dare knock. Boy, what I would do to
him.”

Chapter 15

That night the new president of
Earth, Erivan, did not sleep either. As soon as he went to bed he
lay on his side and tried to go to sleep. But it didn’t work, he
was too excited.

“Finally…” he thought, raising his
large body and leaning back on the arched backboard, “…finally…
after twenty-five years of being vice president.”

During that period he had also held
the office of President, on several occasions, when Kaella would
get angry enough and stopped being surprised that these grown men
were taking their function of president seriously, and they would
start thinking on their own and making decisions.

Then under order from Kaella,
Erivan would eliminate the incumbent President, making use of media
campaigns and court cases, and in line with the Constitution he
would take his place pending early elections, and after that he
would again retreat to the position of vice president. Into the
shadows of the loyal guardian of Humane Capitalism.

But this time it wasn’t so. And it
would never be again. In the past several years Erivan had been
under a lot of stress and it took its toll on his health, because
Kaella did not take his warnings seriously. From time to time
Kaella would not even read his reports on Pascal Alexander’s
activities and would tell him that he was exaggerating. Alexander
had succeeded in creating a strong Non-Consumer movement. They had
taken power in entire cities and on all the continents. They had
taken factories, started their own production of goods.

When he realized Alexander’s
strength, Erivan stopped realistically and truthfully reporting to
Kaella. It was probably his smartest, one might even say his
ingenious decision. He allowed Alexander and the Non-Consumers to
produce their own weapons and waited for the right opportunity. He
waited for the moment when Kaella would no longer have any choice
and when he would have to chose to finally put an end to the
Non-Consumers. This sixty-two percent support for Alexander, which
Erivan had shown to Kaella only now, on the eve of the elections,
had finally sobered up the old and naïve ruler. He accepted the
proposal for them to carry out an assassination of Xing, when he
goes tomorrow by car to give his election speech, here in Capital
City, and to blame the Non-Consumers for it.

And he had done well to have
already killed the Xings. Zodiac, the pilot of the stolen
Non-Consumer plane, told him that their rockets were not a hundred
percent accurate. If the first projectiles were to miss or only
graze the presidential car, one of the Xings might run out and
escape. Why should he take such a risk if the family was within his
reach the entire time?

“Now it’s really enough, Mr.
President,” Erivan said to himself out lout, smiling because of the
“Mr. President”. “Don’t torture yourself with things that are no
longer important. Rest. Starting tomorrow numerous statesman and
wartime duties await you as President and Supreme Commander of the
Inspectorate.

He got up out of bed and went to
the bathroom. He got a box of sleep medication from the cabinet,
took one pill, greeted himself in the mirror with a dignified bow,
and returned to bed.

Chapter 16

“What am I doing?” thought Pascal
Alexander, removing his forehead from the window. “I’m watching
footage as though I don’t know what I will say tomorrow? After all
these years I don’t know what I will tell the people?

“Well I won’t tell them anything
more! Let them kill me tomorrow! I want them to kill me. Please,
Kaella, don’t steal the elections, kill me… please. If you won’t,
let your son kill me. He won’t give me his Megapolis. Your Erivan
will kill me… if you won’t, Kaella. Kill me… anyone…
please.”

“I didn’t do this because of the
people. I did this for myself. It was I that couldn’t stand you. I
need freedom. Why did you challenge me? Why did you make me into a
leader? Why did you bring me to this damn Megapolis? Why did you
make me meet her? Why did your Seneca listen to her and place
Megapolis before my feet?

“You are right, Svetlana. About
everything you told me tonight. Forgive me, Svetlana, but I’m so
in…”

“Do you see it, Manami… do you see
it with you brief look? And why do you look at me at all? Why do
you torture me, when you cannot be mine?!”

Pascal ran out of the room and took
the elevator down to the reception.

“Mr. Alexander, what has happened?”
a scared young man and young woman at the desk asked.

“Nothing, nothing… I’m just a
little tense… do you have any alcohol?”

“Of course, we’ll get some from the
bar. What do you want?”

“Tequila. Get me a tequila. Bring
the bottle…”

“Immediately,” said the girl and
ran off towards the bar.

“And three glasses,” Pascal shouted
after her. “You’ll have some too, please,” Pascal told the young
man. “I simply can’t be alone tonight.”

Chapter 17

“I’ll go up to my suite to rest,”
Mr. Kaella told Prince and Miss Babe, already leaning with both
shaky hands on the armrests.

Prince nodded to the two bodyguards
who rushed up to Mr. Kaella, held him under his arms, pulled back
his chair and helped him up.

“See my father to his suite and
stay in front of his door,” Prince ordered them.

“Both of us?” one of the bodyguards
asked.

“Yes. I won’t be needing you, and
in any case – there’s a lobby full of inspectors.”

“As you wish, Mr.
Kaella.”

Prince and Babe remained alone,
sitting across from each other at a large oval table set up in the
middle of the completely empty hotel dining room. They had barely
touched the variety of food served in silver dishes. Prince
summoned the waiter without taking his eyes off of Babe.

“Yes, Mr. Kaella?”

“Please, take this away…” Prince
made a circular motion above the table, “and bring us… Are you for
coffee?... or perhaps some juice, Miss Babe?”

“No, thank you, nothing. I’ve had
too much of everything. It’s time for me to go.”

“Go? Already?” Prince looked at the
waiter, who was waiting for his order. “Bring us two
coffees.”

“Immediately, Mr.
Kaella.”

“But, Mr. Kaella…” Babe
protested.

“Miss Babe, I really don’t see any
reason for you to rush… unless you feel uncomfortable in my
company.”

“I’m not uncomfortable in your
company,” Babe answered seriously, without any coquetry.
“However…”

Babe was silent, while four
waiters, under the watchful eye of the maître ‘d, took away the
dishes, plates, cups, glasses, silverware and napkins from their
table.