4. Kings of the Exchange

Rodenstock painted all these horrors in his usual, calm, languid tone, and this confused Kriegman: perhaps Rodenstock was only joking?

Listening to the prophecy of the old merchant, Kriegman fidgeted: threw his head back, pulled it into his shoulders, then, stretching out his thin neck, threw his head forward.

“What are we to do?” he asked.

“‘Eternal bread’ must be destroyed, all of it, to the last remnant,” answered Rodenstock. And, lowering his voice, he added:

“And if necessary, the ‘baker’ of this bread as well.”

Now Kriegman knew that Rodenstock was not joking. The old businessman obviously thought it all over and made a decision. That’s why he spoke so calmly about such terrible things. Kriegman felt relieved.

“Can it be destroyed?”

“It is necessary, and it solves the problem. Destroying is always easier than creating.”

“But how? This newspaper reports that an entire fishing village is already eating ‘eternal bread.’ We can’t just blow it, can we?”

“Why imagine such horrors? We will just buy all the bread from the fishermen. These people do not understand its full value. They had never seen a hundred-mark banknote in their entire lives. If you offer them a thousand, they will consider themselves set for life.”

“And what about the inventor, that Professor Breuer?”

Rodenstock paused and then said through his teeth:

“With him, it’s a whole another story.”

Rodenstock looked at his watch and continued:

“My agents are already on the move. I sent the ‘bread’ buyers to the fishing village. And today at nine Meyer was supposed to bring me news of how things are going. But he’s a bit late.”