Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by Greg Keyes Read Free Book Online Page A

said anything about it.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Apes don’t act like this. Chimps—and most certainly orangutans—they just don’t.”
    “Well,” he said, “you noticed that, did you? So why didn’t
you
say anything?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Yes, you do,” he said quietly, making a decision. “You know these people we’re working for—they can’t be trusted.”
    “I get that, believe it or not. The whole thing is too hush-hush.” She looked uncomfortable. “I’m not sure I want to know what they’re really up to.”
    “Yes, you do,” he told her. “You say you saw me back there, saw something missing in my eyes. But I also saw you. If you did not want to know, you would have already quit. You would be on your way home right now, to your boyfriend, no doubt.”
    That actually drew a half-hearted laugh from her.
    “You really think you have me pegged, don’t you?” she said.
    “Am I wrong?”
    She was silent for a long time, long enough that he thought she might be asleep.
    “No,” she whispered.
    * * *
    Some things couldn’t be avoided, and the weekly dinner with her father was one of them. It wasn’t that Talia didn’t love him, but she knew what he was working up to, and she didn’t really want to deal with it at the moment.
    But she was here, in a steakhouse where she couldn’t afford the entrees, feeling underdressed and very young. She might be almost thirty, but her father had a way of making Talia feel twelve.
    “How’s your fish?” he asked, eying her seared Alaskan char with some suspicion.
    “It’s delicious,” she said. “How’s your steak?” she countered, eyeing the massive Porterhouse.
    “It’ll do,” he replied. He glanced back at her plate. “Your mother would order the fish, too,” he said. “I never understood that.”
    “It’s good,” she said. “And it’s healthy. You’re the heart surgeon. You know this.”
    “My heart is fine,” he said. “My heart is perfect. I’ll probably outlive my grandchildren. If I ever have any.”
    “Okay, we’re not starting on this,” she cautioned.
    “What happened to that fellow, the reporter?” he asked. “I see his articles all of the time.”
    “That’s… that’s ancient history, Pop,” she said. “And none of your business anyway.”
    “You’re my daughter,” he said. “Everything about you is my business.”
    “Well, we’re going to have to disagree there,” she said, studying what was left of her fish.
    There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
    “We‘ve been getting some strange cases in the ER,” she finally said, trying to break the ice, to remind him that she was a doctor, a woman with a profession. “It presents like a hemorrhagic fever of some kind, but it turns out it’s a retrovirus.”
    “You’re a surgeon,” he grunted. “Why are you dealing with viruses?”
    “God, you sound just like… Uh!” She paused and gathered herself. “I’m an ER doctor. I deal with lots of things. I splint broken fingers. I deal with drug overdoses and alcohol poisoning, with the flu, miscarriages, gunshot wounds—you name it, I’ve probably dealt with it on some level.”
    “You trained a surgeon,” he pressed. “I didn’t pay for eight years of college for you to work yourself to death in an emergency room.”
    “I’m paying you back—”
    “Very slowly, Natalia,” he said. “But that’s not the point.”
    “No, it
is
the point, Pop.”
    He sighed.
    “Look,” he said, “I’ve discussed it with the partners. We’re all agreed that you’d make a fine addition to our practice. It is a good practice, and I like the sound of Kosar, Kosar, Drayton, and Hamilton.”
    “I love you, Dad,” she said, looking him straight in the eye. “But no. It’s not what I want to do. I’m doing what I want to do, for now at least.” Then she shrugged. “In the future, who knows? But at the moment this is me.”
    He sighed again, then went back to work on his