The Grasshopper

Chapter 68

At that moment Raul was napping in his seat. The telephone in the inside pocket of his jacket vibrated twice and fell silent.

“Who’s calling me now?” wondered Raul. He didn’t feel like talking on the phone. This nap was doing him well, this semi-sleep after all the stress that he had been under that day. “And everything ended well. The people are calm… and they are happy, because of all that support for Pascal. They are proud… I see, how proud they are… there… there… and they deserve it…”

“But that’s not my telephone… mine is at my waist… ah, yes… it’s Pascal’s. Forgive me, my friend… I know that you’ll forgive your friend Raul. I even stole your telephone today… So that Kaella, even if he can locate it… he isn’t all-powerful… thinks that you are with us. It doesn’t matter… some journalist got a hold of your number, Pascal, and he’s being a drag.

“Wait, wait… that’s not your telephone. I gave it to Margot… and she placed it in her bag… Yes, I saw her, when she put it in…”

Raul rose up suddenly in his seat and opened his eyes. “Seneca’s telephone! With the secure line. Raul, remember what Seneca said when you were going into that tube! He’ll call me only in the event of an emergency. Pascal! What has happened?!” Raul panicked.

“Seneca didn’t betray him! He didn’t! Why would he call me if he did?

“Pascal, you must be causing problems! You’re awake and you want to into the street. To be killed. Like, you’ll be more useful dead than alive. Tell that to someone else. That won’t fly with your friend Raul. But, you were scared today, my poet, so you think that the Kaellas will calm down if they kill you and that they won’t take revenge on the people. You can’t stand people suffering because of you.

“It’s not suffering, Pascal. There’s been enough suffering. An entire century. The struggle for freedom is starting. And the people need you, alive. Not just as a symbol. Not as an idea in people’s minds, which will be passed on for generations, and which will topple the Kaellas through nonviolent resistance.

“You’re wrong, my friend. When people such as yourself disappear, then those around them craving power ride that wave and pervert the idea, transform it into the opposite. They become the same or even worse than those they were fighting against.

“You tried to trick me this morning that Svetlana left you. The secretaries laughed at me. Seneca will put you on the telephone and you’ll pay for that, Pascal.” Raul looked at his watch.

“Hurry up, Raul. You’re getting chatty… What did Seneca say? First two vibrations, and then exactly five minutes later – a call. To give me time to find privacy, to get away from the staff. Where can I be alone? The toilet is… I can’t go through the salon, people will get suspicious.

“I’ll go to the back, to the tail of the airplane… Hurry up, Raul. The man’s going to call.”

Raul got up and walked towards the toilet in order to take the Mayor’s call and to make it clear to Pascal that he should stop causing problems.

“If need be I’ll also put Margot and Liam… and Jagdish on the telephone… The entire staff, each and every one of them… so that they can tell him the same.”