Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by Greg Keyes

Author:Greg Keyes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2014-07-09T05:30:53+00:00

12

Malakai understood long before they found the tracking devices what had happened, but he also knew Corbin wouldn’t believe him, so he let the whole thing play out. He was pretty sure Clancy had figured it all out, too.

They found the tags in the back of a truck parked in front of a restaurant in the small town of Stinson Beach. Corbin swore colorfully for what seemed like a long time.

“They fricking hosed us,” he said. “Smoked us like a cheap cigar!”

“Maybe we should try again,” Flores said. “Use smaller transmitters. I’ve seen some smaller than a dime.”

“If you did, it was in a movie,” Corbin snapped. “The ones we used are the smallest they make.”

“That’s not even the point, really,” Clancy said. “That point is, they figured out what we were up to, and used our plan against us.”

“Well then, expert,” Corbin said, turning to Malakai, “what next?”

“Drive back to that place you stopped,” he responded. “The bottom of that trail.”

“Right, that makes sense,” the mercenary agreed grudgingly. “Let’s get moving, then!”

They made the drive in silence. When they reached the spot he had suggested, Malakai got out, carefully observing the ground. It didn’t take him long to find the tracks.

“Well, do you know where they’ve gone?” Corbin demanded, hovering over him as he crouched close to the ground.

“Not ‘they’,” Malakai said, after a moment. “Him.”

“What do you mean?” Corbin asked.

“There was only one of them. ‘They’ didn’t figure out what we were trying to do. He did. Or she, perhaps.”

“No need to be politically correct,” Clancy said. “Apes have their gender roles pretty well mapped out.”

“Yes, but we aren’t dealing with apes here,” Malakai said.

“The tracks are human?” Corbin said.

“No,” Malakai said. “It’s the spoor of a chimpanzee. But the mind attached to the foot that made that track is not the mind of an ape. Up until now I’ve believed that the apes had a human leader, despite your assurances to the contrary. I no longer believe that.”

“Couldn’t it have been trained to do this?” Corbin asked. “Haven’t apes been used in robberies or whatever?”

“Sure they have,” Clancy said. “In those movies Flores has been been watching, the ones with the tiny tracking devices.” That earned her a nasty look, but she didn’t seem to care.

“Imagine the sequence of events,” she went on. “He recognized the camera, inferred what it was there for, and then disabled it.”

“You said that wasn’t a big deal.”

“That alone, no. But then he figured out—or at least guessed—what the tracking devices were, and why they were there. He then systematically searched the fruit until he found not one, not a few, but all of the devices. Then he used them to draw us away so the rest of his troop could take the fruit. I’ll guarantee you there isn’t a single piece remaining where you left it. He must have known there was a road over here, with cars on it.

“It’s just too much,” she concluded.

“What are you saying?”

“Malakai is right. At least one of these apes is smart—really smart.

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