The Grasshopper (39 page)

“I agree. I admit that I can’t find
any argumentation against your claims. I want to hear your comment
about Pascal’s thinking. I admit that it is my last hope. Will you
tell me, please?” Dr. Palladino asked the Grasshopper.

“I will. Even if Mr. Alexander is
right,” the Grasshopper explained. “even if this third, most
magnificent renaissance occurs, if something that we cannot imagine
were to be created, even then the collective ancient urge to kill
would use it to its advantage.

“The achievements of the human mind
always created newer and more effect deadly weapons. That is how
this command desk, the one that I am sitting at, was created. If it
didn’t exist, the Third Renaissance would only postpone the
agony.

“Think about it. What did the
second renaissance create? It created technologies that the Kaellas
used for their information systems, systems that control every
person, from birth to death. At every moment they know where each
person is, who is communicating with whom, what they are looking up
on the Internet, what their affinities are, what they could
additionally sell them… They erase and change people’s identities,
biographies…

“And that was all made possible by
the technologies from Northern California, Dr.
Palladino.”

Chapter 140

“Dr. Palladino, it was precisely
Mr. Alexander, and especially the unstoppable growth of his
movement, that finally confirmed to me that I’m right,” the
Grasshopper said.

“How is that?” Dr. Palladino
asked.

“Because he wanted to restore
democracy. He often repeated Churchill’s thought that democracy is
the worst form of government, with the exception of all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time. He claimed that this
was valid in Churchill’s time and that it’s also valid
today.”

“And you agree with
this?”

“I don’t know whether one form of
government is better than another. I don’t know the criteria based
on which I would make this assessment. But I do know that democracy
is certainly the most deadly form of all forms of government that
we have learned about so far.”

“I don’t understand,” said Dr.
Palladino.

“I’ll explain it to you. In all
other non-democratic social communities the rulers, dictators and a
few people around them had the opportunity to act on their
instincts to kill. During the entire duration of the regime, both
in war and in peace. Their subjects could act on their instincts
with impunity only during wars.”

“I think I know what you’re trying
to say. That in democracy the instincts of all people come into
play equally.”

“That’s right. The strength of one
person’s instinct or that of a few people, regardless of how strong
these instincts are, cannot be compared to the sum of mediocre
instincts, sometimes numbering in the billions. Which, by the way,
were suppressed in non-democratic regimes.

“This is why they exploded with all
their might when democracy gave them the right of vote. Then people
circle the name on the ballot that told them that they were the
most beautiful, smartest, most superior. The name that told them
that their hour has finally come. That they are now prepared. The
name that promised them that they would plunder, banish, conquer,
kill the other group of people.”

“You say that you are not
interested in the causes,” said Dr. Palladino, “that you draw your
conclusions from the consequences. I don’t see that democracies
conducted more wars that dictatorships. On the contrary. And these
were wars for defending democracy, and for freedom.”

“Every excuse for killing is a good
excuse. And you, Dr. Palladino, place pluses and minuses in front
of excuses. Like every person does. In front of their convictions,
in front of the values that a person believes in, they place a plus
sign. And in front of the values contrary to theirs, they place a
minus sign.

“For example, you consider
democracy to be positive and dictatorship negative. This means that
you believe that democracy would be quite an acceptable excuse for
killing.

“Or for example… remember what the
world was like for most of its existence. It consisted of a finite
number of various groups of people. Now imagine a person X who was
born into one of the groups, let’s say group A, and became its
member by birth.

“Person X places membership in
group A above life. In this membership he finds his excuse for
killing. And he places a plus sign in front of membership in group
A. When group A wages war against group B, person X uses his
membership in group A as an excuse for killing members of group B.
Do you follow?”

“Yes.”

“If that same person X, coded with
identical genes, or created completely identical by God, if you
like, were to be born in group B, placing membership in group B
above life, it would mark this with a plus sign, and would use it
in that same war as an excuse for killing members of group
A.

“This applies to rulers,
commanders, soldiers and civilians alike. Group membership is an
excuse that is very democratically distributed.

“People place group membership even
above the lives of their progeny. Because of it they send their
children to their deaths. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What I said here was not my answer
to your question, why democracy is the deadliest form of
government. Here I just wanted to explain the irrelevance,
pointlessness of your, i.e. everyone’s, pluses and minuses that you
place in front of excuses. The excuse for killing that a person
will use in their life is decided by chance: the time and place of
their birth. The only absolute category embedded in the foundations
of every person is the primal instinct to kill. Everything else is
relative.”

“I understand. According to you all
wars are the same. Tell me, what is this more deadly thing that has
been carried out by the sum of a billion average
instincts?”

“This sum, which was finally made
possible by democracy, actually represents the collective
self-destructive instinct, the Thanatos of humanity.”

“Give me an example from history,
show me a consequence of collective self-destruction.”

“Look around you, Dr. Palladino.
Look at the ecosystem that you spent your life in. Do you know what
nature used to look like?”

“I do.”

“The vast democratic majority,
within all the previously existing groups of people, chose to kill
the planet. The planet was killed by people through the sum of
their deadly instincts.

“Their collective excuse also
represented the sum of small greeds for small prosperities, small
envies, small lazinesses, small disinterests, the sum of small
carelessnesses, conformism and comforts… the sum of small
indifferences for the future of their own progeny.

“Mankind’s Thanatos defeated life
long ago, Dr. Palladino.”

Chapter 141

“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.

Chapter 142

“How you tricked me, Pascal. I’ll
never forgive myself for trusting you,” said Manami, sitting in
their room.

“I tricked you, my love? What are
you talking about?”

“You promised that you would only
touch me… not…”

“Me? I did exactly what you said. I
only touched you. And you, Manami, immediately jumped on me and
started kissing me. It’s your own fault.”

“I did, I admit it. But you knew
that it would be like that. You’re the experienced one, not me. How
could I know that I would lose it like that?”

“My sweet darling. You lost it, did
you?”

“Yes, completely.”

“And now you’d like to do it again,
admit it.”

“I would. I mean, I would never
leave your bed. But perhaps I’m not interesting to you. My body
might not be… You’re used to…”

“Shut up! I really mean it! Once
and for all! For me there is only your body. Only you,
Manami.”

“And you too would never leave my
bed. Tell me that, please… Lie to me.”

“Lie to you? Stop being silly! I
would never leave, but not your bed or my bed. I will never leave
our bed, my love. For days… weeks… our bed.”

“Oh, that was so nice. The best!
How you… I still don’t know what you did to me… I wasn’t at all
aware how time passed… And that’s why I’m angry with you, Pascal!
Two hours! And you knew that and you didn’t care about…”

“Let’s go to my room. I can’t take
it anymore,” Pascal took her by the hand.

“We have to endure it, love, we
have to. We cannot do that here anymore. The children could wake
up, Julius could come in at any moment.”

“Alright, Manami. I won’t caress
you or kiss you… I won’t do anything anymore, if that’s how you
are.”

“Shut up… shut up, please. We
cannot talk about it. We cannot think about it. It is as though
nothing happened. That is how we have to behave.”

“You shut up! Because, if I see
that you are that excited again, I won’t ask you anything. I won’t
listen to you at all, Manami. I will pick you up in my arms and
carry you to my room.”

“There! I knew it!” Manami
shouted.

“So know it! You should know!”
Pascal shouted back at her.

“When you see that I’m excited! Me!
And you’re never excited? You are, of course you are, but not
because of me! I’m not sexy enough to excite Mr.
Alexander!”

“Stop it!” Pascal shouted. “I’m not
excited?! I’ve been burning with desire for your body! I’m mad
about you, Manami! And I won’t take this any more! I keep quiet, I
keep it in, I burn up, I suffer so as not to upset you! Not to
pressure you! I only think about you! Well, I can’t do it anymore!”
Pascal got up from the couch, violently pulled her by the hand and
picked her up in his arms.

“Tell me! Tell me, are you crazy
about me?!” Manami was overjoyed.

“I’m not going to tell you anything
more. You’ll see for yourself,” he said while opening the door to
his quarters.

“Don’t, my love, please don’t!
Really don’t! What if Peter comes in!”

Hearing her words Pascal
stopped.

“Alright, Manami. But if you say
once more time that I’m not excited…”