The Grasshopper

Chapter 19

Julius Seneca, the mayor and director of Megapolis TV, watched from his office on the last floor of the tall building as a torrent of people converged on the square from four avenues.

He ordered the Megapolis Inspectorate to use force only in extreme, isolated cases. For example, looting, torching, the breaking of shop windows. This would in any case be done only by delinquents.

The citizens of Megapolis would not. Nor would he ever use force again them. Megapolis was not made up of its magnificent buildings, avenues and squares. Megapolis was made up of its citizens. They are Megapolis. And he is their mayor.

The ring of the telephone pulled him from his thoughts. He picked up immediately.

“Yes, Raul?”

“Mr. Mayor, as we expected, he is not giving up. He will hold his speech,” Raul said, breathing heavily, while walking down the stairs from Pascal’s room to the hotel lobby.

The mayor didn’t respond. He wasn’t surprised. “Each of us is fighting his own battle,” he thought.

“Mr. Mayor, do you hear me?”

“I hear you, I hear you.”

“He’s in a worse mood than he was yesterday. Svetlana has left him. It seems that it has completely crushed him. The man simply won’t accept any arguments.”

“What Svetlana? What does that mean now?”

“Svetlana… you know… she sometimes came with us to your place for meetings.”

“How? She is a very young woman.”

“She is. And that is what has crushed him. He feels terribly old and tired, he says.”

“But these are things not becoming a presidential candidate. Such a gentleman. I am very surprised.”

“You didn’t know that? He’s been chasing women his entire life. That is to say, they’ve been chasing him. And now he has been dumped.”|

“Alright, alright… leave that. These are Mr. Alexander’s personal affairs,” Mayor Seneca interrupted the conversation on this topic.

“Perhaps it is better like this. The two of us have an agreement, Mr. Mayor.”

Mayor Seneca didn’t answer.

“Mr. Mayor, you promised me,” Raul was concerned because of Seneca’s silence.

“Alright, Raul, we’ll do it…” Seneca finally spoke.

“Thank you, truly,” Raul sighed a sigh of relief.

“What did Mr. Alexander say, when will he go to the square?”

“He didn’t say anything. The stage is gone. Your inspectors have surrounded the hotel. They are appealing to the people to disperse from the square. Pascal is in a strange state, Mr. Mayor. He’s very nervous. He’s going to take a shower, get dressed and go to the square as soon as possible.”

Seneca was silent.

“Mr. Mayor?” Raul was uneasy again.

“Listen to me carefully, Raul. I will not send the bus to take you to the airport.”

“But, Mr. Mayor…”:

“It’s too risky. Many people would be involved. I’ll send you my airplane.”

“Your airplane?”

“Yes. My airplane has a wide opaque tube, like a large hose. For the event of an emergency, for evacuation. The airplane will hover over the hotel and lower the tube to the roof. Your people have to attach its opening to the door that leads to the roof, so that nothing can be seen. Do you understand what I mean?”

“I do. So that no one can see who all is entering the tube.”

“That’s right. In the tube there is a conveyor belt. There are straps that you use to attach yourself to it and it raises you into the airplane. You can also attach your suitcases.”

“Excellent, Mr. Mayor.”

“I’ll send a squadron of fighter planes to protect you,” Seneca said and hung up.

“It’s better that it turned out this way,” Raul thought. “Much better.”