“When did you first recognize your instinct to kill?” Dr. Palladino asked the Grasshopper the following day.
“A day before my fifteenth birthday. At 7.10 p.m.”
“That was a strong, impressive feeling if you so clearly recognized it and remembered the date and time.”
“Yes, it was,” said the Grasshopper and continued. “There’s something different about you, Dr. Palladino.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“From your question. When did I first feel the urge to kill? Isn’t that one of your usual patterns? Your usual method of operation?”
“Yes, it is.”
“At the beginning you said that you were dropping all of that, that you were approaching me unconventionally.”
“Yes. I am intentionally returning to traditional methods, because you fit the profile of a serial killer. I’ve had such a case. And that is why I have to thoroughly prepared for our next conversation.”
“Do you? And how long will that take, Dr. Palladino?”
“As long as it takes.”
“You think that I will allow this?”
“Yes, I do. And during that time you will switch off your deadly rays and charge the power plants on Earth that you still haven’t destroyed.”
“The two of us are quite different, Doctor.”
“In what way?”
“I kill on an industrial level, efficiently. And you apparently enjoy the anguish of the victims, and you want to give them a moment of hope. Let them relax a little, have some water, eat something. Let them gain some strength for the long and painful death.”
“I’m not listening to you. I know that you will do as we have agreed.”
“Agreed?”
“Yes. Tell me now, what happened on the evening before your fifteenth birthday?”
“I was on my way home from basketball. I took a shortcut, a narrow alley between some warehouses and garages. And I heard the excited shouts of three boys…”
“What were they doing?”
“I recognized them, they were from my school. Two years younger than me…”
“What were they doing?”
“They were passing a cat between them, holding it by the tail and smashing it against the garage wall.”
“You had the desire to join them?”
“No. I had the desire to kill them.”
“Alright, Mr. Grasshopper,” Dr. Palladino got up from the chair. “I will now retire and prepare for our last conversation. I will call you when I am ready. Goodbye.”
Dr. Palladino reached the door and looked at the Grasshopper one more time.
“Turn the people’s power back on,” he said and left the presidential office.
YOU ARE READING
The Grasshopper
Science FictionImagine living in a world where Consumerism is the constitutional order, and where the Inspectorate is in charge of destroying goods whose season has passed, so as to maintain the Balance. In this world you can survive only if you work and buy goods...
