“Oh, God, Randal,” she said.
9
For a moment, Dreyfus thought Maddy was going to slap him.
He could see it in the set of her shoulders, the thin line of her lip. After twenty years of marriage he knew her that well. She was trying to decide.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around him, and hugged him so hard it almost hurt.
“You frigging idiot,” she murmured.
“Look,” he said, “I had no intention of getting into a situation. I just went down there to make an appearance, and things happened.”
She pushed him back and crossed her arms.
“You never do intend to get into situations,” she said. “Yet somehow you always do. God, I thought all of this was over. Twenty years, every day wondering if I was going to have to go identify your body, wondering how I would tell the kids. You finally leave the job—and now this! This is an addiction. You need help.”
“I’m not a cop anymore,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t live in the world. I’m trying to make a difference, here.”
“You weren’t even wearing a mask,” she said. “You might have caught it. This thing.” She waved her arms helplessly, as if the virus was even now all around them.
“If I did, I didn’t bring it home,” he said. “I scrubbed down carefully at the office. Head to toe, and changed clothes. As for the respirator—I’m the ‘don’t panic’ guy, remember? The mayor looks terrified. He wears one of the damn things. I have to be the other guy.”
She looked like she was going to continue, but instead she nodded.
“I know you do,” she said. “I know you do.”
“Hey, Dad, you’re home.”
Dreyfus looked beyond his wife to see John, his youngest.
“Hey, fellah,” he said. “How’s my boy?”
“I’m okay, Dad,” he said. At twelve, John was already nearly as tall as Dreyfus. He had his mother’s cheekbones and his father’s blue eyes, but there was a sparkle there that was all his own, that came from no place but John.
“That was some crazy stuff you did on TV,” John said.
“You saw that, hmm? I hope you weren’t worried. I was never in any real danger, you know.”
“It kind of seemed like you were.”
“What, is the whole family going to lecture me now?”
“I doubt it,” Maddy said. “Edward is upstairs studying with Ellie Song. As long as he’s doing that, he’s oblivious.”
“Yeah,” John said, “he’s been trying to get her to ‘study’ with him for months.” He made air quotes with his fingers.
“I hope they’re studying with the door open,” Dreyfus said.
“It’s open, dear,” Maddy said. “Only by a few inches, but open.”
“What do you think, John, should I go up and check on the situation?”
“I think he would pee his pants if you did,” John said. “So—yeah.”
Dreyfus mussed his son’s hair.
“How about you and I shoot a few hoops, instead?”
“Really?”
“Well, you’re out of school, and I’m taking the afternoon off. It’s been a while since it was just me and you.”
“Yeah, okay,” John said. “Just let me change clothes.”
That night, Maddy reached over for him, and they made love. It was the first time in a while. Life, work, two children—they weren’t kids having sex in the back seat of his car nowadays. Sometimes Maddy seemed more distracted than anything.
But not tonight. Tonight there was an intensity, almost a desperation. His body had no secrets from her anymore, and he loved the familiar feel of her, the sound she made when he touched her just so. He remembered the first time, how exciting her body had been to him, how it had been like uncovering a treasure. Now, years later, he still felt the same way.
When it was over they lay a long time without talking, tracing each other with their fingers.
“I love you,” he said, finally. “Thank you so much for staying with me all of these years.”
“I wouldn’t know what else to do.” She sighed. “And I love you, too. Idiot.”
“Thanks,” he said.
She snuggled onto his chest.
“You looked good,” she murmured.
“Hmm?”
“On TV,” she said. “You looked really good. Brave.”
“Handsome,” he added.
“Well, so-so,” she said. “But you looked strong. Like a mayor.”
“Mayor? Hell, why not a president?”
“Or maybe just an old cop with delusions of grandeur,” she said. “Now go to sleep.”
“You’re going to love this,” Patel told him when he came into the office the next day.
“Well, if you have love,” Dreyfus said, “give it to me.”
“We still haven’t gotten to the bottom of why House is using outside contractors, but apparently one of his aides loosens up a lot after a few drinks with a pretty girl.”
“I don’t want to know who this pretty girl is, do I?”
Patel shrugged. “I don’t know her. Someone Karen hired. Won’t be an issue.”
“Okay. So what did he get loose about?”
“For one thing, there are a lot more apes up there in the woods than we’ve been led to believe. It’s not ten or twenty. It’s hundreds.”
“Hundreds?” Dreyfus frowned. “Really?”
“But that’s not even close to being the best part.” Patel paused for dramatic effect. “They can’t find them.”
“They can’t find hundreds of apes? Well, it’s not so odd that they would want to keep it quiet, then. If hundreds of killer apes were on the loose and I couldn’t find them, I wouldn’t want anyone to know about it, either.”
“Yup,” Patel said triumphantly. “I figure we hold a press conference at the entrance to the park. He accused you of weakening the police force, but here you can demonstrate the total incompetence of his contractors. More than a week, and not a single ape captured or killed.”
“Hold it,” Dreyfus said, staring at the newsfeed.
The death toll in San Francisco was now over ten thousand.
“Why is House worried about monkeys in the woods, when this is going on?”
He stared at the screen. “What does he know that we don’t?”
“We can use this,” Patel said.
“Uh-uh,” Dreyfus said. “There’s another shoe, and I want to hear it drop before I get mixed-up in this. No press conference.”
He looked at Patel’s disappointed expression.
“Leak it instead,” he said.
Caesar felt uneasy as he led his group to their rendezvous with Rocket.
The chimpanzee had been leading the humans off over the mountain again, trying to make it appear as if the troop was farther and farther away from the city. It seemed to be working—although they still guarded the forest edge, no human hunters or their flying machines had been seen in the last day or so.
He spotted Rocket up ahead, at the clearing where they had agreed to rendezvous. He swung over to meet with him. The other chimp seemed excited.
Went far, Rocket told him. Over mountain, much farther.
And?
More forest. Trees smaller. Human roads, but no machines.
Caesar tried not to show his disappointment. He had hoped the deep stands of redwood continued on, so they could move farther, deeper—away from their enemies altogether. Still, if there was more forest in that direction, and fewer humans, it might be worth moving the troop, even if the trees weren’t as large.
The longer they stayed in the same general location, the sooner they would be found. They still had wounded, but most had either died or grown stronger. More kinds of food had been discovered—mushrooms, nettle, bark, berries, insects, and salamanders in the rich black dirt that moldered on the large limbs of the trees. Small animals to hunt. Even honey had been discovered in one tree.