The Grasshopper

Chapter 38

Jagdish came up to Raul and Margot and asked:

“Do you know what I don’t get, Raul?”

“What?”

“Where did this information about such a high percentage of votes suddenly come from? I mean, we did our studies, locally, in our cities, but…”

“Jagdish, we couldn’t get the real picture based on that. We couldn’t even guess that so many people from consumer cities, from places we had never set foot in, with censured media, the Internet… that people there knew about us, about Pascal… Not only that they knew, but that they would vote for him. I find something else odd. That’s what the three of us mainly discussed yesterday. This informant of Seneca’s has been sending him the results of their polls every two, three week, since the beginning of the presidential campaign.”

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier, Raul?”

“We couldn’t. Seneca didn’t want anyone to know about this informant of his.”

“I understand. And how did the percentages change? They increased in time, right?” Jagdish asked.

“They didn’t. That’s what’s odd. The entire time they were around twenty seven, no more than thirty percent for Pascal.”

“And for Xing?”

“Close to forty.”

“So how did it suddenly…?”

“We don’t know. We can only assume that their pollsters this time falsely introduced themselves as being ours or neutral… I don’t know. So the people weren’t afraid to say that they would vote for Pascal. Kaella also received all those periodical results of the polls. And this is now a great shock to him, as it is to us. That is why we concluded, just as you did, that they would try to carry out an assassination.”

“Raul… alright, we understand now. I mean, the situation changed so suddenly with this information about the certain victory in the elections… But, where does this trust of yours in Seneca come from? As Liam said, how do you know that he didn’t immediately hand him over to Kaella?” Margot asked.

“He could have arrested us all and handed us over to Kaella whenever he wanted. At any moment, during all these months. And he didn’t do that. So, you tell me, Margot, what is the most important thing to Seneca?”

“Megapolis,” Margot said.

“Exactly, Megapolis. And had he arrested us, banished us, handed us over to the villains… what would Megapolis have done to him? What would the students have done - all those educated people, experts, scientists, athletes, artists of all profiles, which Megapolis is full of. They would have despised him. Spat on him. He could rule by force, but Seneca is not like that. He loves Megapolis precisely because of those people. Because of the youths, because of the University. That’s all he boasts about. He hands out scholarship, rewards the best students, that’s why I… I mean… that’s why we trusted him… that’s why we trust him to keep Pascal safe.”

“I understand, I agree,” said Margot, already much calmer.

“People…” Raul said loudly, addressing the entire staff. “Calm down, think it over, talk among yourselves… You’ll see that I’m right. And that is only until the elections. We simply moved out of the way. And we got Pascal out of the way. We’re calmly waiting for Kaella’s move. And that’s when we’ll decide how to proceed.”

“Raul’s right,” Margot supported him. “He and Pascal have done the right thing. We can be at ease. There, I’m already completely calm.”