A few started to look slightly ashamed, as if waking up hung over, and recalling all the stupid things they had done the night before.
“I’m just scared,” a young woman with braids said. “I’m so freaking scared.”
“So am I,” Dreyfus told her. “We all are. These men behind me are. But we don’t just turn on each other like this. We find solutions. I know that help is on the way. Medical help. I’ll see to it. I’ll see to it. It’s going to be okay.”
And he saw belief kindle where the madness had been. If they asked him how he would see to it, he didn’t have an answer for them. And at the moment, he didn’t hold any position of authority, and couldn’t reasonably deliver on his promise.
But they weren’t going to question him, because they wanted to believe. They had seen him on television many times as the chief, and most of them probably knew he was running for mayor, so in their minds he was somebody whose word could be trusted.
Besides, he believed it himself. Come hell or high water, he would do something.
“There’s an easier way to do that,” Clancy said, from over Malakai’s shoulder.
One of the contractors, a young woman named Sela, watched them with a bored expression. Corbin was pacing.
“How so?” Malakai said, staring at the list of businesses on the screen.
She leaned over and took control of the mouse.
“Well, there’s a map, see? I put a point on it here, where we are, then hit ‘search nearby.’ Exactly what are you searching for?”
“Supermarkets. Convenience stores. Any sort of market.”
“Okay,” she said, typing as quickly as she could, despite the awkward angle. She typed in “supermarket” and a series of icons popped up.
“The closest ones are in Mill Valley,” she said. “It’s not that far from the edge of the woods, but the apes would have to cross a lot of urban area. And go through whatever perimeter these guys have set up.”
“You think they’re going grocery shopping?” Corbin said.
“They need fruit,” Clancy said. “We’re just trying to figure out where they can get it.”
“A small group of them could easily breach your perimeter,” Malakai added. “And they are not strangers to urban settings.”
“Okay,” Corbin said, “but they don’t have the Internet. How will they find these places?”
Malakai regarded the man for a moment, wondering just how long he could survive without computers, satellites, cell phones, and all the rest. Not long, he suspected.
“By looking for them,” Malakai said finally.
Corbin’s brow furrowed.
“Sure,” he said. “By looking for them. Why didn’t I think of that? So now what?”
“We call a few of the nearest stores and see if they’ve been broken into.”
Corbin thought about that for a moment.
“Okay,” he said. “Just watch what you say, okay? Communications are restricted.” He punched a button. “And it stays on speaker.”
Malakai dialed the first number on his list.
After a few rings, a woman picked up. Her voice sounded strained.
“Baxter’s Market,” she said. “How may I help you?”
“Hello,” Malakai replied. “I was wondering if you could tell me if your store has been recently burglarized.”
“Is this some kind of security service?” She asked, after a brief pause. She sounded irritated. “Are you in India or someplace? We don’t accept solicitations on the store line.”
“I’m not in India,” Malakai said, “And I am not a telemarketer. I am calling on behalf of the City of San Francisco. We’re doing a survey—”
“Well, skip the survey and put more cops on the street,” the woman said. “Of course we’ve been broken into. Bottled water, medicine, beer, canned goods—cleaned us out.”
“What about fruit?” Malakai asked.
“Fruit? No, they left the fruit. Fruit goes bad. Do you even know what’s going on?” She paused for a moment. “Are you sure you’re not in India?”
“Thank you for your time,” Malakai said, and he hung up.
“What was all of that about?” Clancy asked. “What does she mean by ‘what’s going on’?”
“Never mind,” Corbin said. “Don’t pay any attention—she’s just a store clerk. Make the next call.”
Malakai picked up the phone, then held it for a moment, considering.
“Perhaps one of you should make the calls,” he said. “I think my accent is causing trouble.”
“I’ll do it,” Clancy said.
Her first two calls met with similar, if more courteous results. Yes, they had been robbed. No, the fruit wasn’t touched.
The next call to Hong Tan Market got different results.
“Yeah, all the fruit and pretty much nothing else,” the man said. “They came in at night. They took all the fresh fruit, but they got into the canned stuff, too, and the frozen. All the durian. We’re not a big place, but they got it all.” His voice turned a little suspicious. “How did you know?” he asked. “This isn’t some sort of prank is it? You’re not mocking me, are you?”
“It’s not a prank, sir,” Clancy said. “Did the thieves eat it there? Were there skins or shells scattered around?”
“No, it was just gone. I looked… holy shit! It was the monkeys, wasn’t it? The ones who came over the bridge—”
“Hang up,” Corbin snapped. “Now.”
Clancy looked darts at him, but she turned the phone off and placed it on the table.
“So they’re eating,” Malakai said. “At least for now.”
“Then what do we do, stake out Asian markets?”
Malakai thumped his fingers rhythmically on the table, trying to decide what to say, but it was Clancy who spoke up.
“They’re using a fission–fusion strategy,” she said.
“What’s that?” Corbin demanded.
Clancy looked Corbin straight in the eye.
“I want you to swear to me right now that our mission is to locate these apes so they can be captured, and humanely,” she said.
“Honey,” Corbin said, “I promise on my sainted grandmother’s grave. That’s the mission. We screwed up the other night—and that’s exactly why we brought you two in.”
“Fine,” Clancy said. “Fission-fusion, then. Chimpanzees do it in the wild. When times are good, and they have plenty of food, they gather into larger social groups. When food is scarce, they break up into smaller groups and disperse. I think they’re adapting to this new environment. Instead of completely breaking up, they’re sending out small groups to forage for their larger community.”
“How do you know they aren’t just playing ‘each ape for himself’?” Corbin said.
“Because they didn’t eat any of the fruit where they found it,” Clancy replied. “None. They took it all with them.”
“Okay,” he sighed, pushing back his hair. “So what does this mean?”
Clancy leaned back in her chair.
“So if you stake out the grocery stores,” she said, “you might catch a small group of them, but that’s all. And given how well they’ve been doing at dodging you, I wouldn’t even count on that.”
“So we follow them back to the big group,” Corbin said.
“Yes,” Clancy said. “Well, sort of. It would still be too hard to figure out which stores to watch.”
“You think we should bring the fruit to them,” Malakai said.
Clancy touched her nose with her forefinger.
“Exactly,” she said. “Send someone into town to buy fruit—anything, but be sure to include some durian, if they can find it, and as stinky as possible. Most likely you’ll find it in Thai, Vietnamese, or Malaysian markets, at least in quantity. We can lay a trail of it to a central cache.”