“You did this.” The voice sounded rough, not quite human. “You did this.”
“I saw the picture. Simon, I am so sorry about Joe.” What was he dealing with here? Shock? Rage? Overwhelming grief?
“How much human will the terra indigene keep? Well, you showed them the answer, didn’t you? You showed them this as an example of what it means to be human.”
Monty didn’t have time to brace for the attack before Simon grabbed him and slammed him against the bookshelves.
“We tried to work with . . .” Simon snarled. “We . . . tried. But you did this!”
More than grief. More than rage and shock.
“What are you afraid of?” Monty asked. “Us? Humans?”
Simon released him and stepped back, shaking his head. “Fear you? You’re going to be as good as extinct soon. Why should we fear you?”
Monty swallowed hard. “Did Meg tell you that?”
“No. Jean did.”
Gods above and below.
Vlad stepped out of the back of the store. “Simon, Meg was looking for you.” He glanced at the counter. “She’s at the Liaison’s Office now. You need to convince her to go home, let someone else take care of the mail and packages today. The humans will be talking. She doesn’t need to hear more than she already knows.”
Simon looked around, as if wondering why he was in the bookstore. “I didn’t mean to be gone long. I . . .” He headed for the back of the store, but he stopped and wouldn’t meet Monty’s eyes. “We learn from other predators. Remember that, Lieutenant.”
Then he was gone, and Monty was left alone with Vlad. “Is there anything any of us can do to help?”
Vlad walked over to the checkout counter. He took one copy of the Lakeside News off the stack, folded it, and placed it under the counter. “You could get rid of the rest of these. I’d rather not put them in our recycling bin. Too much chance of someone seeing what they shouldn’t.”
“Of course.” He’d take them to the station. He didn’t think Eve Denby would want the front-page photo in her recycling bin either. “Anything else?”
“What else do you think the police can do?”
“I wasn’t asking as a police officer.”
Silence. Then Vlad said softly, “Ask again in a couple of days.”
Monty left the bookstore, dumped the newspapers in the backseat of the patrol car, then walked across the street to the Denbys’ apartment.
Mother Court was in full swing at the breakfast table as the young wrongdoers tried to get their sentence reduced.
Wrong day to ask about watching TV, Monty thought.
“No means no,” Eve said.
“But I got hurt,” Robert protested, displaying his scabbed elbows and knees before pointing out the bruises caused by Nathan’s teeth.
“If there are any further outbursts over your sentence, you will be held in contempt of court, and ‘no dessert’ will be added to your sentence.”
The girls, Monty noticed, were keeping very quiet. And judging by the look in Lizzy’s eyes, he needed to have a talk with her about the injury she might cause if she whacked someone—like Robert—with Grr Bear since her new buddy had a wooden head and paws.
Then again, the boy was being a bit woodenheaded too.
“As your father, and your attorney, I advise you to accept the sentence you already have and not give the court any reason to add to it,” Pete said.
That ended all discussion. Monty accepted a cup of coffee and a piece of toast—and wondered how much longer those things would be an ordinary part of a meal.
After the children went to their rooms to make their beds and do a general tidying for inspection, Eve poured more coffee for the three adults.
“We heard,” Pete said quietly. “Saw just enough of the morning news to . . . Gods.”
“Anything we can do?” Eve asked.
“A question to ask in a couple of days.” Monty rose and put his cup and plate in the kitchen sink. A moment later, Eve stood beside him.
“What happens in a couple of days?”
He looked out the window at a pleasant summer day. Then he sighed. “I wish I knew.”
CHAPTER 40
Moonsday, Juin 25
Computers in select newsrooms in each region of Thaisia chugged away as they downloaded a digital photo sent from the newspaper in Bennett. When the download was complete and a copy printed out for editors to review, most laughed harshly or swore or looked at coworkers and said, “What the . . . ?”
The photo was of a sign made from old boards nailed to a post. Painted in red were the words WE LERNED FROM YU.
Intuit editors had a very bad feeling when they saw the photo, and they sounded an alarm to all Intuit communities within reach. Most of the editors in charge of the newspapers in human cities decided it was some kind of prank to waste front-page space, but some sent a reporter to check out the potential story.
And a few television stations, after receiving the photo, sent reporters and cameras to Bennett to find out about the sign as a follow-up story to the Humans First and Last movement’s triumphant land reclamation.
CHAPTER 41
Windsday, Juin 27
A young television reporter watched the land rush by as the train sped toward the town of Bennett.
“Think that’s the same sign?” another reporter asked, pointing out the window.
WE LERNED FROM YU.
“Didn’t learn much,” someone else in the car said with a sneer.
The young reporter looked around the car and frowned. Reporters and their cameramen from various newspapers and television stations were the only passengers. Sure, there had been a travel lockdown in the Northeast by the loony governor, but that was over and done—just some kind of political maneuver. And there had been other people boarding the train in Shikago. Maybe the railroad had reserved a car for reporters?
WE LERNED FROM YU.
The reporter checked his watch. Another of those signs and the Bennett railway station just minutes away now.
Funny how the Bennett newspaper editor who had sent that first photo hadn’t responded to e-mails or phone calls from any of the TV stations or newspapers that sent out reporters for the follow-up story. It was almost like the man couldn’t be bothered with them after sending out that lure.
The train pulled into the station.
No passengers waiting to board. No station personnel in sight.
The young reporter disembarked with the rest of the newsmen. An odd silence filled the station, a silence that seemed to seep into his skin and awaken a primal understanding.
The newsmen left the station in a group, looking for a taxi or bus so they wouldn’t have to haul their equipment. What they found were cars in and around the streets, many parked haphazardly, as if the drivers had left the vehicles in a hurry.
No people walking. No music coming from radios or television programs drifting out of open windows.
Some stores were closed. Others had lights on and doors open.
A cameraman suddenly stopped and gasped, “Gods above and below.” He ran down an alley toward whatever he’d spotted, and the rest of the newsmen followed him to open land beyond the buildings.
The young reporter caught up to the others and stared at the mound of bodies. Young. Old. Some wearing the uniforms of their profession. Others wearing casual clothes. In front of the mound was another of those signs: WE LERNED FROM YU.
It’s the whole town, the reporter thought, feeling his gorge rise in response to hearing someone else throwing up. Something killed the whole town and piled the bodies to imitate the Wolf packs that were wiped out by the HFL, down to the last pup.
He shuddered. “They’re still here,” he whispered as he backed away, trying to look everywhere at once—and wondering if any of the humans in the town had seen what had killed them. “We have to get back to the train, have to get away. They’re still here.”
Cameramen shot a bit of footage. Newspaper reporters snapped digital photos. But the fear of the train pulling out of the station and leaving them behind snuffed out any desire to do a live report in a dead town.
As they hurried back to the train station, the young reporter heard a sound that might have been the wind in the nearby trees—or the sound of something laughing.