The tea was hot. That was good. It was also bitter, and so strong that Galen couldn't see the bottom of his mug, and the combination of those qualities had proven its effectiveness in battling many a hangover from out-of-control student parties. Unfortunately, it didn't help against the burning eyes and pounding headache one got after a night of reading a fading script and brooding over the breakup with one's girlfriend.

Galen had thus sent one of his father's slaves to the council to put in his sick note and taken the day off. He was still moping over his first cup of tea when his mother sailed into the kitchen and poured a cup for herself. She paused, looked into her cup, and added more hot water.

"You'll peel off the lining of your stomach with this brew one day," she said as she sat down opposite of him. Galen smiled morosely and took another sip.

"Oh, I doubt that," he said after his tongue had relaxed enough to form vowels again. "And it does help against the headache."

"Have you been up studying all night again?" Ann added honey to her tea. Galen shuddered slightly with disgust at the sight.

"I just couldn't sleep." For some reason, he didn't want to mention the Book to her.

Ann shot him a knowing look. "You should just go to her and apologize, Galen."

Galen sighed into his tea. "I really doubt that would be enough. Zana is a scientist, Mother - she wants proof." He looked up into her eyes, as calm and unconcerned as ever, and confessed: "She said she couldn't respect me anymore. How am I going to change that with an apology?"

Ann sipped her tea. "Admitting a mistake seems a rather admirable trait to me. Not many people can do that - are you telling me it's not worthy of respect?"

Galen snorted and looked away. "Has father ever admitted a mistake?"

"Oh yes, I can think of at least one occasion." The glint in his mother's eyes matched the amusement in her voice. Galen leaned back, intrigued.

"What happened?"

"That was when he was still courting me. Your father had put it into his mind, you see, that I was the only woman he ever wanted to have in his life. He was terribly jealous, but at that time, we weren't betrothed yet, and when that nice young ape invited me for Summer Dance, I said yes. Your father was livid - he had been so sure I would go with him that he hadn't even asked me." She took another sip from her tea. "He made a terrible scene on the dancefloor," she said thoughtfully.

Galen smiled with anticipation. "And then?"

"Well, I went home with neither of them, and I refused to see him for... I think it was three weeks before he turned up on our porch with the biggest bouquet of flowers I ever had - save for our wedding - and apologized then and there, where everyone could hear him, for making such a scene." She took another sip.

"And then I made him apologize for not asking me out in the first place. I told him that I won't be taken for granted. You have to leave it to your father," she looked pointedly at him, "he never makes the same mistake twice."

"I'm afraid he isn't crazy enough for me to apologize for the scene he made yesterday," Galen muttered. He scowled. "Why is she mad at me for it? I wanted to avoid a scene, not add fuel to the fire."

"She apparently disagrees with you on your tactic," Ann commented and rose to put her cup away. "Anyway, nothing prevents you from coming up with a different one." She leaned down to peck him on the cheek. "I'm going out. Really, Galen, sighing into one's tea has never solved a problem in the whole history of apekind." She called for Mouna, and the human silently appeared out of nowhere, basket already strapped to her back, and helped her into her robe.

His mother was right, Galen admitted to himself after he door had closed behind them. He should seek out Zana (but she didn't want to see him, she said so), seek her out and apologize and promise to stand up to Yalu in the future...

... his father shuffled into the kitchen, looking as rumpled and ill-tempered as ever, poured himself some tea and hunkered down at the kitchen table without a word. Galen winced internally. He should have gotten up and retreated into his room when mother left, but now it was too late. Leaving now would be ill-mannered, and provoke yet another caustic comment from his father. He took another draw from his tea. At least it was bitter enough to discourage small talk.

"Gah! That swill is horrible!"

Well, apparently it didn't affect every tongue.

"What are you doing here at this time of day? Shouldn't you be already at your desk?"

"I've taken a day off," Galen murmured. If he managed to empty his cup, he'd be justified to stand up from the table for a refill. From the stove, it was only two steps to the door...

"Didn't feel like working today, eh? In my youth, we went to work no matter if we felt like it or not. I once had food poisoning - had to jump behind the bushes every two minutes. Did I miss a day of work? No I didn't!"

His father was staring at him from across the table, Galen could feel it. He took another gulp from the bitter brew and gagged. Perhaps he had let it sit for too long.

"No discipline, no sense of duty," his father muttered, "but a sense of entitlement, oh yes, that they have. That they have."

"I'm sure nobody misses me at work, it's unimportant enough not to make a difference, or so you said yourself," Galen couldn't stop himself from saying.

His father snorted. "Even nibbling a pen is more worthwhile than moping over that insolent girl."

For the first time, Galen met his father's eyes. "She's not insolent, she merely defended her point of view. A lot of people aren't used to your... way of debate."

Great Cesar, was he still trying to appease his father?

"She called me a fool... no, wait, she called me a damn fool, at my own table! If that's her 'way of debate,' I've heard enough of it! I don't want to see her in this house again, understood?" Yalu rose to pour out his tea and began to heap fresh leaves into the pot. Now would be a good opportunity to flee.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Galen said through clenched teeth. "It's unlikely that she wants to put a foot over our threshold again, either."

His father was pouring hot water over the leaves. "Well, good riddance!"

It was just like with Kira, Galen suddenly realized, except Zana had been graceful enough to give him a warning. Kira had simply dumped him. Both women had been thoroughly disgusted with his father.

No, that wasn't true. They had been disgusted with Yalu's spineless son.

"Zana actually had a point, you know?" he surprised himself saying. "Why should Gorillas and Chimps not go to university? We already have many fine Chimp scientists, like Zana herself - or Kira, who has become an excellent surgeon... just as I would have, if you hadn't disgusted her so thoroughly that she broke up with me..."

His father returned to the table with the steaming teapot. "What, now I'm responsible for your inability to finish anything?"

Galen's grip tightened around his mug. "Well, it was you who stopped paying for my studies this spring."

"You weren't any closer to your exams than when you began, always adding more courses..."

"And I got excellent grades in all of them," Galen retorted.

"That's not the point," Yalu growled, "you were procrastinating indefinitely, don't take me for a fool, Galen, is that where your girlfriend got that notion from?"

"She's a scientist, she draws her conclusions from the evidence in front of her," Galen hissed.

Yalu blinked.

Galen held his breath. Both men stared at each other across the table.

Yalu leaned back, his eyes narrow. "Say it, I dare you."

Galen shook his head. "You aren't a fool, father - a fool believes in his own lies. You know that our society won't crumble just because one Gorilla out of ten begins to study agrotech instead of tilling his field with a stick like his father did. You just choose to claim that it does out of... I don't know? Political expediency? Personal preference? You like to have a caste around that you can despise, just like you despise me?"

If Galen had hoped his father would deny despising him, Yalu refused to give him that reassurance. He just sat there, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

Well, it was good to at least have confirmation. Galen swallowed. "You promote those lies despite knowing better, that makes you worse than a fool, it makes you a hypocrite."

"Hypocrite." His father repeated the word slowly, as if tasting it, inspecting it from all sides. "Calling me names, at my own table, again - that seems to become a new custom in my house lately. Tell me, what else did she fill you with, except insolence? Did she also infect you with that unnatural love of humans? Like old Zurna?"

Galen stared at him. Rumour had it that Zurna used his humans not just for work, but also for... recreational purposes.

He had heard a lot from his father over the years, but this was a new low.

"I won't stand for that," he finally said softly. "I won't let you insult her like that, and I've had enough of you insulting me every day." He rose. "I should thank you though, for opening my eyes to what's really important to me." He turned toward the stairs.

"So crawl under her skirt, like you always did with your mother," he heard Yalu call after him, "you never change, never stand on your own two feet, you always need a woman to hold your little paw!"

Galen closed the door on his jeering voice.

He stood in his room for a moment, the Book already in his bag, trying to decide what else to take with him. With a jolt, he realized that there was nothing he felt sufficiently sentimental about. He made a last round, scanning the shelves.

No, really, there was nothing. Strange how he had never noticed before.

His father didn't look up from his newspaper when he left the house.

The sun had already vanished behind the horizon and the sky was glowing with indirect light, casting the road and the trees into the shadowless twilight that seemed to originate from nowhere and everywhere at once; during that short time everything stood out sharply, illuminated from within, before all shapes dissolved into the shadows of early evening.

Galen's feet were burning and aching by now, but the hope to find her here quickened his steps again. He had thought he knew all her favourite places by now, but she had never mentioned this one. It had been her father who had described it to him, after Galen had turned up at his door, convinced that she had to be at home after what he had learned at the institute.

"She used to hide up there when she was a little girl, she thought nobody knew of the place. She was so dismayed when I climbed up to her to bring her home." The old man had chuckled a bit at the memory. "It took some time before I could persuade her to come down with me."

Galen hoped he wouldn't have to climb into the tree and talk her down. He didn't know if he had the energy left.

She seemed to have seen him at the same moment he saw her, her white robe glowing in the blueish twilight, her step faltering; then she came running down the path towards him. He stumbled back two steps with the impact, and they both almost fell into the dust.

Her hands were clutching his tunic, so much fabric crumpled between her fingers that it became uncomfortably tight all of a sudden.

"Did you know? Did you know?"

He closed his arms around her. "No, I didn't, I didn't know, I swear, Zana, I wasn't even at work today, I only learned about it when I came by your office..." He laid his cheek on the crown of her head. "I didn't know, and I'm so, so sorry. It's a shame - they were so interesting..."

Zana was breathing into his tunic; not crying, just leaning against him. He could feel the exhaustion in her shoulders, her back.

Finally she looked up to him, her face a blurry pale spot in the dwindling light. "You have to help me, Galen."

"Of course." He squeezed her shoulders. "Just tell me what to do."

"You need to help me get them out."

He stared at her, uncomprehending. "Get them out?"

She breathed out sharply, laid her hands flat on his chest. "I told you I'm not like that, that I don't shrink back... but it's not true, I'm no better than you and I was a fool to call you a coward, I'm a coward myself, and I'm so sorry..." her voice was so unhappy. His heart constricted with compassion.

"No, you were right, I was a coward. You don't have to apologize for anyth..."

"No, you must listen to me! Listen, Galen, I did something..." She let her hands fall to her side, turned away. When she spoke again, her voice was just a whisper.

"... I went to put them down, as I was told, and I told myself it was only right, that it had to be me, because I had been responsible for them. And Peet, he said... he said... but I didn't do anything, this is murder... and it was, Galen, it was murder, and I had volunteered..."

And now she was crying, gulping heavily around the words.

"... and Alan, he said, don't do this, let someone else do it, or it will haunt you for the rest of your life, but I didn't let someone else do it because what difference would it have made? I'd still have been the one to send them, to let them take my place, it wouldn't have made any difference..."

They stood there in the middle of the darkening road, and for a while, the only sounds were the chirping of insects and Zana's laboured breaths. She held up a hand when he started to move towards her, not yet through with her confession.

"... and I dropped the syringes. And then I went back to draw up two new ones and there was still the other bottle standing on the table, you see, the anaesthetic we use for the lab animals when we do surgery on them."

Galen stood and listened, a sense of foreboding growing inside him.

"And, and, I took that one, and I took a smaller dose, and before I left I had Toluq turn them around so that they wouldn't choke on their tongues... I told him this way it would be easier for me to break them open for dissection... he's a Gorilla, he wouldn't know it was nonsense..."

She finally turned to face him, then. "They probably died all the same, from hypothermia, or someone turned them on their back again, or their hearts just stopped, or... but I have to know, Galen, I have to know. And if they're still alive..."

Galen held his head with both hands, trying to steady the dizziness that had settled in it.

"Yes, Zana, what if they're still alive? What if they are still alive? How are you going to keep that a secret?" He grabbed her shoulders, hard. "Can you imagine what will happen to your career, to you, if this ever gets out?"

Zana didn't budge. "I'll tell everyone they've already been cremated. I'll fill out all the paperwork. Nobody will suspect anything!" She shrugged off his hands. "I have to do this, Galen, or it will haunt me for the rest of my life! I understand if you want no part in it," she added sadly.

Galen sighed and shook his head. "Well, perhaps it could work - Urko had checked on them before I arrived there, so you have his word that they're dead, too..."

"Urko!" Zana recoiled with alarm. "We need to go there right now! I don't want to imagine what he could have done to them, completely helpless as they are..." She grabbed his hand and dragged him downhill. His feet screamed in protest.

"But there's nobody there anymore!"

She didn't even turn her head. "All the better, then we won't be disturbed!"

Old Yalu had a nice house in the better part of town, and Urko would bet his best rifle that he also had at least one very nice house in the country. Since he had been appointed to the council, Urko had been able to buy a decent house for Elta and the kids, but he'd never dream of indulging in the kind of upper crust extravagance that the soft-bellied councillors were so proud of. He grunted with disgust. You could only sleep in one bed at a time, eat from one table at a time, and wear one pair of boots at a time. Who in the world needed two houses?

Urko sent one of his men around the back before he knocked politely at the heavy door. He run his tongue over his teeth as if getting rid of a bad taste in his mouth, anticipating the ugly human face he'd have to look at in a moment; but to his surprise, the old Chimp himself opened the door, still in his rumpled morning robe. Urko cast a quick glance to the Western horizon; the sun was already hurrying towards the trees.

Hm.

"Good aft'noon, councillor," he said amiably. "Care to let us in, before the old lady falls out of her window? I doubt she'd survive the impact; not from the third floor."

The councillor blinked at him before his gaze flicked up to the grandma who did her best to look busy with her flowerpots. He frowned at Urko's men waiting silently behind him, but apparently decided that whatever misunderstanding had brought them to his doorstep was best cleared up in the privacy of his living room, because he opened the door wide without a word.

Urko sauntered in with a smile. "Thank you."

His men dispersed at once, calls of "Clear!" - "Clear!" sounding from every room on the ground floor.

"What in the world are you doing here, Urko?" Yalu finally growled, while heavy boots were trampling up the stairs. From the kitchen came a scream. One of his men had found a human. "What do you want from me? I swear, if this is a mix-up, you'll be in so much trouble..."

"Here." Urko held out the warrants without bothering to look at the Chimp. He was studying the china that was displayed in a wooden cabinet. Elta would like something like that, too. Something to score with the other ladies.

"Arrest? 'Possession of contraband'? Galen?" Yalu rounded him and obscured his view of the dainty teacups. "That is ridiculous!" He tossed the search and arrest warrants towards Urko, who made no move to catch them. The papers fluttered to the floor.

"Are you suggesting that Zaius is trying to fuck you over?" Urko asked mildly. Yalu winced at his choice of words.

"No, of course not! This is, this must be a misunderstanding! Nothing that can't be sorted out, I'm sure. I'll talk to him immediately." The Chimp made a half-turn as if he'd change robes and hurry to the council house right away. Urko didn't bother to hide his grin.

"Ah yes, you and him are old friends, right? Well, I'm afraid Zaius is under a bit of pressure from the council right now over that human business. I doubt he'll have much wiggle room in this matter." He clucked his tongue in mock concern.

"Stealing dangerous books from Zaius' private rooms - what was that boy thinking? That's what you get from buying them lads out of draft - a year under the boot of some old Chimp sergeant would've screwed his head on right." Now that rich baby is getting his head screwed off, and doesn't that serve you pampered buggers right?

He leaned down to Yalu in false confidentiality. "You know, hiding or helping an enemy of the state could get not just you arrested, but also that lovely lady of yours. We don't want that, do we? Or lose that nice china and everything else... that would also greatly distress her. I'm married, too, I know how the ladies tick."

"I don't remember opening our house for military training maneuvers, Yalu, darling. Is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Ann was standing in the living room, regal and unflappable as ever. Her human was peeking over her shoulder with huge, frightened eyes.

Urko smiled and gave Ann a polite salute. "Nothing you need to worry about, ma'am. Just a routine operation. We're looking for a criminal on the run. Your husband has assured us of his full cooperation in the matter, haven't you, sir?"

Ann raised a brow. "A criminal on the run? And that needs the head of the police to take care of?"

Sharp as a knife, that lady; and also the only one not being mean to Elta, or so his wife had told him. For that alone, he'd spare her the embarrassment. Let the old leather bag deal with that, in private.

"It's a special case, ma'am. But we're already finished here. Have a nice day." He nodded to her on his way out. Her eyes told him that she wasn't fooled, which made him smile again. How Yalu had ended up with such a fine lady escaped him. Well, he didn't deserve Elta, either. Perhaps that's how it always was.

Outside, he sent Levan on guard duty, and Pelam to get backup from the nearest watchhouse. "If any of those slaves is sent out to warn the lad, I want him tracked. If the lad returns, arrest him."

He took the rest of them to Zana's place.

The silly girl had fled from her workplace after she had to put down her pets and was probably crying into her pillows right now - if Galen wasn't consoling her; Urko hoped he was. That's what a good boyfriend did, right? It would be like picking peaches, easy and so rewarding.

But neither of them were there. The old Orangutan who said he was Zana's father (this caused momentary confusion among the men, until Urko growled something about adoption) sent them to the market, claiming that she might seek distraction after her disastrous morning.

"All right, people, so we know where she isn't," Urko said after the door had closed in his face. "That leaves just the rest of the city for us to search." He rubbed his chin for a moment, deep in thought.

"Prem," he turned to his second in command, "I heard you're quite the charmer, aren't you?" The rest of the troupe sniggered at Prem's wary expression.

"That he is, sir, with da girls and da boys!" someone shouted from the safety of anonymity. Urko chuckled with the rest of them at Prem's frown. The Chimp shrugged and grinned, too.

"Fine. You'll put your talents to good use and ask around at the doctor's place where she'd usually go for lunch, or after work. Favourite spots to hang out, that sort of thing. Pretend you want to ask her out or something. Sooner or later, they'll have to resurface. And we'll be there when that happens."