The Grasshopper Read Free Page B

around and
walked back to the elevator.

Chapter 7
    Pascal managed to calm Svetlana
down.
    “Let’s go to sleep,” he
said.
    “I don’t want to. I talked about
you, now I want us to talk about me,” Svetlana said.
    “OK. You want me to talk now, how
beautiful you are?”
    “No. I want something else. You
said that you don’t want me to be in danger.”
    “Of course I don’t.”
    “Don’t you think that I put myself
in jeopardy two years ago, when I started working for your
campaign?”
    “I do. But that was just the
beginning. We didn’t even dream that I would become a presidential
candidate. Now the threat is much greater.”
    “At the time, when your team was
being created, I had just gotten my Master’s degree. I could always
choose boys, but you were the man that I wanted. I was fascinated
by the legend of you, your good looks, intelligence, courage… your
huge libido. Your refusal to be tied down by one woman.”
    “Refusal or perhaps inability?”
said Pascal.
    “For me you were a challenge. With
my knowledge and my youth I could have chosen any well-paid job.
And I chose to work for your campaign. A life-threatening job with
paid food and rent.”
    “I didn’t know that. I thought that
you were with us out of conviction?”
    “I guess love and passion are also
a type of conviction, Pascal.”
    “Yes, one could say that. But all
that is not important now. We will talk about it when we meet
again. Don’t hope that I will change my decision. You are leaving
tomorrow. I’m firing you. No more food and rent.”
    “Remember when I took some time off
a year ago?”
    “Svetlana, please, get
serious.”
    “And I sent my friend from
university as a replacement. Do you remember?”
    “No.”
    “Before she came to your
headquarters I deceived her a little. I told her that even after a
one-year effort I hadn’t succeeded in getting you in my bed. I’m
sure you’ll remember her. Her name is Norma.”
    “I don’t remember that
name.”
    “Probably not. But I’m sure you
remember her body.”
    Pascal didn’t answer.
    “Norma immediately reported proudly
to me that she slept with you already on the first
night.”
    Pascal was still silent.
    “On the seventh day of my vacation
I called you up and asked what you wanted: for Norma to continue
working or for me to come back. You said that I should come back,
as soon as possible. I heard something in your voice then.
Something… that I needed so badly. At that moment there was no
happier girl than me.”
    “Svetlana, you yourself say that
you knew what I was like. That I was just a challenge to
you.”
    “I was happy, because you weren’t
with me only because of the inability to move around, the cramped
space, the small number of people that you had been surrounded by
for a long time. I gave you a choice and you chose me; between two
girls, both much younger than you. I wasn’t afraid of older women.
I believed that I could successfully take advantage of your midlife
crisis and your age, and forever capture your age with my
youth.”
    “What are you trying to tell me,
Svetlana?”
    “Pascal, have you ever been with
married women? With the mothers of another man’s
children?”
    “I’ve never answered such
questions. Even in much less important moments. Do you understand
at all what might happen tomorrow?”
    “Have you, Pascal?”
    “I have.”
     
    Svetlana brushed the hair from his
forehead. Holding herself up, she leaned her pear-shaped breast on
his biceps and gently kissed his lips, getting his face wet with
her tears. After that she got up, picked up her thong and bra from
the floor, and said:
    “I’ll take your advice and I won’t
put myself at risk. I’m leaving… tonight.”
     
    Pascal wondered whether it was the
last time that he would be seeing Svetlana’s naked body or any
woman’s naked body.

Chapter 8
    Alpha was going down the stairs,
walking behind Bear and Iceman, two members of his A Squad, who
were carrying the