“There’s the exit!” gasped MacDonald. “Up ahead. Keep going.”

The end of the tunnel was lit by a stronger and brighter light. It streamed down into the gloomy darkness like a yellow beacon. They headed eagerly for it. Faster and faster. There were mutants pounding at their backs.

And then they were out. In the ruins. Running down a deserted city street. Disappearing into the melted buildings.

Kolp was livid. His expression was twisted with anger and frustration. He confronted the captain of Security. He raged at him. He bellowed like a wounded bull. He strode and waddled around the man and berated him. He vented his fury on the poor hapless captain, as if he were one of the apes himself.

“You had a hundred armed men!” cried Kolp. “You know these corridors down to the last nut and bolt. Yet they escaped! They escaped! You cretinous troglodyte! You filthy, slime-wallowing, trash-eating son of a worm! You let them escape!”

The captain of Security was as badly scarred as the rest of the men. He looked at Kolp and the rest of the council nervously. “They were fast, sir. And smart—the chimp surprised us, Governor. He found another exit.”

“But he’s only an animal!” shouted Kolp. “Nothing but an animal!”

“No, Governor,” said Mendez. “He’s more than an animal. He can speak. So can they all.”

Kolp was scornful, “Hah! It takes more than the ability of speech to make a creature human!” He scowled, his scarred cheeks creased with pain.

“Speech makes them intelligent,” insisted Mendez. “It gives them the power to manipulate ideas. Intelligence may not make them human, but it might make them humane. Perhaps they came in peace.”

“They were armed!”

“Maybe only for their self-protection.”

“You were looking at the same monitors I was, Mendez,” snapped Kolp. “Did that look like self-protection to you?”

“Yes, it did. They only fired back after they were fired on.”

“You’re soft on apes, Mendez,” Kolp snarled. “And stupid! They shot out one of our cameras. That’s an act of war! And you saw how they hunted down our men and shot them in the back! Those apes are savages!”

“I still say we ought to let them return in peace.”

“So they can raid us again? And again?” And then Kolp stopped. “Return?” he asked. “To where?”

“To wherever they came from. They must have a settlement somewhere.”

“Yes,” agreed the governor, stroking his uneven beard. “Yes . . . They must have a place somewhere—but where? Where do they live? We ought to know,” he muttered to himself. “They might try to come back. Now that they know we’re still alive, they might try to exterminate the rest of us.”

“They came with few provisions,” chimed Alma. “They can’t live too far away.”

“Which way did they head?” Kolp asked.

The captain of Security was relieved that Kolp was no longer raging at him. “They headed northwest, Governor,” he said quickly.

“Ahh, yes. Good. Organize scout parties. Collect all the equipment that will still work. Follow them. Find their hideout.”

“Yes, sir. Right away, sir!” The captain saluted and wheeling about on one heel, hurried out.

Mendez looked at Kolp. “Why?” he asked.

Kolp grinned at him. “So that we can exterminate them.” He rubbed his hands together and giggled. “Won’t that be fun?”

FIVE

Aldo stood on the ridge and peered out into the desert. Somewhere out there lay the Forbidden City. Someday, someday . . . He sniffed the air and curled his lip. Someday he would lead an army out there!

Behind him, the other gorillas sat at a small, almost burned-out fire, muttering and grunting, picking their fleas and cracking them.

Abruptly, Aldo stiffened. “Quiet,” he barked to his troops.

Eyes narrowing, he looked out into the desert. Was there something out there? Other gorillas moved up to look, too. They sniffed at the wind.

Far out, almost lost in the sparsely vegetated terrain, were three figures, too distant to be identified. His hackles rose, and he growled deep in his throat. Were they men or apes? “Look . . . there!” he pointed. The other gorillas looked, then reacted. They snorted, they snuffled, they flared their nostrils and fidgeted; they bounced up and down, they grunted, they made noises. They squinted and sniffed and became excited. They stamped their feet and pounded the ground.

“Quiet!” snapped Aldo again. His eyes narrowed to slits. The short, fat one must be an orangutan; yes, he could tell by the way the paunchy little thing waddled. The one on the other side, the one who was limping, was definitely a man. Aldo sneered. The third figure was walking like an ape. Too skinny to be a gorilla. Must be a chimp. Hmf. What were they doing out in the desert, anyway? The desert and the city were forbidden.

Aldo growled orders to his troops. They backed down off the ridge, out of sight.

As Caesar, Virgil, and MacDonald came climbing up the hill, the gorillas came charging down the slope and flung themselves on the trio.

“Hey, what . . .?” cried Virgil, as he disappeared under the thundering black bodies. They went tumbling down over the rocks.

There was the flash of a drawn sword.

Caesar was yelling, “Stop . . . it’s us . . . it’s Caesar!”

“Caesar?” Aldo frowned. “Stop,” he called. “Stop.” He said it without urgency, only curiosity. “Caesar?” The scuffling muttered off into embarrassed silence. The two apes and the man stood up, brushing off the dirt.

“That’s some welcome,” said MacDonald wryly. “We should have stayed in the city. Definitely.”

“I imagine Aldo was hoping we’d stay there indefinitely,” remarked Virgil.

Aldo came down the slope toward them. “Why were you there? To visit the city is forbidden.” His manner was grim.

Caesar was just as cold. “I know. I forbade it.”

“Then why . . .?” Aldo frowned in puzzlement. This did not make sense to him.

“Aldo,” said Virgil. “If a king forbids his subjects to wear a crown, that doesn’t mean he can’t wear one himself. Caesar is Caesar. He went to the city for a purpose.”

“What purpose?” Aldo was suspicious.

“I went looking for my past, but I found our future.”

“Huh? Explain.” The big gorilla was aggressively insistent.

Caesar snarled irritably. “You wouldn’t understand.” He started to shove past Aldo.

But Aldo stopped him. He raised his sword and pointed it directly at Caesar’s heart. “Aldo will make the future—with this.”

“No,” Caesar shook his head. “With that, Aldo will find himself in the past.”

MacDonald smothered a smile, but Virgil laughed out loud. The trio moved up the hill and on toward Ape City.

The gorillas snorted in contempt and moved back toward their outpost. Not a single one noticed the three mutant scouts who had been tracking Caesar all the way from the city. The mutants began moving away from the outpost, circling it widely to move toward Ape City.

The Ape Council meeting was divided into three sections. There were ten representatives of each species. The orangutans were older and more staid; Virgil was the youngest member. The gorillas were all brutish young males; Aldo was chief among them. The chimpanzees included both males and females; they all had kindly faces.

Caesar, Lisa, and Cornelius entered and took their seats on a dais before a table on which were stacked the apes’ laws, a set of hand-lettered parchments. Caesar was deep in thought. He hugged Cornelius fondly and bade him keep quiet, then he called the meeting to order. He rapped the table for silence. “My friends, I have convened this extraordinary meeting of the council in order that I might report on an action that I deemed necessary: a reconnaissance expedition to the Forbidden City . . .”