The senator’s smile disappeared like a lightbulb being snapped off. “All right,” he said. “You think about it. You’ve got twenty-four hours. I want your answer by this time tomorrow.”

Jake nodded and got to his feet. As he followed Perez back to the waiting car he thought, They’re giving me the carrot-and-stick treatment. Tenure is the carrot and Monster’s the stick.

Decisions

DECISIONS

Perez stayed at the lodge; Jake rode up front beside Monster back to the campus as the sun set behind the woods and the shadows of evening crept over the land. By the time they reached the city it was fully dark.

Monster was in a good mood as he drove, reminiscing about the old days in the neighborhood.

“You remember the time those spics tried to throw a picnic in our park?” he asked, grinning widely.

It was a public park and the Hispanic kids had a perfect right to use it, but the guys from Jake’s school didn’t want them there and a major battle ensued, kids belting each other all over the grass, picnic tables upended, baskets of food turned into bludgeons, the air filled with blood and screaming and bilingual curses. Jake had hung back at the edge of the fight but Monster had waded right in, jovially cracking heads. The wails of police sirens finally sent everybody scampering. By the time the cops arrived the only people in the park were unconscious or too battered to get up from the grass—plus some cranky old farts who told the cops what had happened.

“I remember this one guy in the park,” Monster was giggling as he spoke, “pulled a switchblade on me. Thought that gave him the edge. I just grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm right out of his shoulder socket. I bet the poor jerk still can’t use that arm.”

Jake stayed silent. The happy days of youth, he thought. I wouldn’t live through them again for all the money in the world.

But then he thought, Maybe Monster’s trying to tell me something. Maybe he’s trying to remind me of what he could do to me if Perez or Leeds tells him to. Jake shook his head. No, Monster’s not that subtle. If they tell him to break my head he’ll do it, but he’s not shrewd enough to try psychological warfare on me.

“I seen your apartment building,” Monster said as he pulled up in front of the campus garage. “Nice-lookin’ place.”

Compared to what? Jake asked silently. Maybe compared to the row houses they both grew up in the building looked pretty good, but next to Tomlinson’s mansion or even Amy’s swanky condo his apartment building was seedy, run-down.

Jake opened the car door and started to get out, but Monster grabbed his shoulder. Turning, Jake saw that Monster was smiling at him.