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the door,
Prince got out of the car and helped his father out. He held him
under the arm as they crossed the gangplank, entered the submarine
and went past the room where the television crew had improvised a
studio control room. All the way to the doors of the grand
salon.
     
    Then, having seen Babe, who was
already standing with her hand resting on the backrest of one of
the black leather armchairs, he let go of his father’s arm, his
eyes and mouth wide open. For Babe was wearing Earth’s flag… She
was draped in the flag… No, no… She was… she… Babe was the flag
itself. The symbol, the meaning of everything… his work, his
creation… his achievements… The reflection, the image of his…
being.

Chapter 24
    In the mayor’s airplane, which took
off from Megapolis with Pascal Alexander’s entire electoral staff,
everything was quiet. No one was talking to anyone. And previously
it hadn’t been so. When they had to leave a city, Pascal would walk
among his associates smiling and say
    “What is it? Why are you moping, my
nomads? I couldn’t wait for them to throw us out. It was a really
boring city.”
    Then everyone would laugh, throw in
their jokes, wisecracks and anecdotes about the particular city.
But this time they had left Megapolis. And in it certainly no one
was bored. They felt the intensive taste of defeat. As though the
defeat was definite and irrevocable.
     
    Even Pascal wasn’t there to joke.
He was in the mayor’s salon, in the forward part of the airplane.
He was getting over a hangover from last night. He was disappointed
because of Svetlana, who had left him. That is at least what their
boss Raul said, when he came out of the airplane salon. And after
that he too wistfully sat in silence on the front seat, next to
Liam, the head of Pascal’s security.
    The other staff members spread out
throughout the large airplane. Only the secretaries sat together,
as they always did. All five of them in two rows, behind their boss
Margot, Raul’s experienced long-standing associate. And Jin, the
assistant to the head of PR, sat alone, far behind them.
     
    Gloria, a dark-skinned girl with a
lavish Afro, one of the five secretaries, got up from her seat and
sat next to Jin, who looked out the window without paying attention
to her.
    “Well?” said Gloria.
    “Excuse me?” said the surprised
Jin. “Well what?”
    “You’re pretending that you don’t
know anything.”
    “Excuse me?” Jin was annoyed by
such behavior. “What are you talking about, Gloria?”
    “What am I talking about? Well,
alright… Tell me, what happened to your boss?”
    “To Svetlana?”
    “Yes.”
    “Didn’t you hear what Raul said?
She left Pascal and quit the campaign,” Jin said
angrily.
    “Well she didn’t,” said Gloria,
when she saw that Jin’s surprise was genuine and that she didn’t
have a clue.
    “What do you mean ‘she didn’t’?”
Jin shouted.
    “Psssst! Quiet, Jin. They’ll hear
us. You see that Raul is hiding it from us.”
    “Hiding what? What’s going on?” Jin
whispered anxiously.
    “I saw her last night.”
    “What are you saying? What did you
see?”
    “You know how it is. I came back
late from the club last night… it’s not important. I went to bed
and I was falling asleep, but I still hadn’t fallen
asleep…”
    “Well, and?”
    “And I hear the elevator. It
stopped on our floor. I jumped out of bed. And I thought ‘He
couldn’t wait. He’s coming for me.’ And Dorika is sleeping next to
me. How will we…? We can’t in our room, get it…?”
    “I get it, and?”
    “I got to the door to tell him to
wait while I got dressed… And the steps went past my door… and they
weren’t men’s steps. I mean, its carpeting so you can’t hear heels…
but I guess I know what men’s steps are like and what
women’s…”
    “And?”
    “And I heard, it seemed to me like
the person was crying… weeping. Quietly… but I heard
it.”
    “OK, OK, cut to the chase.