People die.
Like all those people in the Twin Towers.
Like Zach’s dad.
“You’re still the best chance I have to find out who killed my dad,” Zach said. “And I
am
gonna find out.”
“But even if you don’t, you still gotta keep fighting.”
There was the sound of sirens in the distance.
Zach said, “So why did you drop in on me this time?”
“I have some new information,” the old man said. “When it does happen, it’s going to be in New York.”
“Here?” Zach said.
“Here,” Mr. Herbert said. “C’mon. It’s time for class to begin.”
“What,” Zach said, “now you’re my teacher?”
The old man winked at him again.
“Think of me as Yoda,” he said, “just with an edge.”
They spent the next hour looking for secluded areas of the park, something that wasn’t so easy to do on a beautiful day.
“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Zach said.
“Because you still don’t know how good you are,” the old man said. “Or bad.”
Zach thought about the guy outside the subway station, wondering if the old man knew about him.
“What does that mean?” Zach asked.
“You’re both, Zacman. And you’ve got to
use
both, just the way your father did. It’s part of the deal.”
They found an empty spot in the woods behind a statue of a sled dog named Balto. They worked on the East Green, a huge lawn up near 72nd Street and Fifth.
At one point, Mr. Herbert disappeared into the woods near the Navy Terrace, which overlooked another one of Central Park’s ponds.
“Where are you going?” Zach said.
“You’ll find me.”
“I haven’t played hide-and-seek in a long time,” Zach said.
“Imagine your friend Kate needs you,” the old man said. “Imagine that up good.”
Zach closed his eyes and remembered that morning Kate went by herself to the park. He felt something inside him focus.
He opened his eyes. Zach was able to look across the water and into the woods and spot Mr. Herbert immediately, like he had x-ray vision.
When the old man came back, he said to Zach, “Next time it might not be a game.”
They practiced a few more times, Zach acing every test. It got to the point where Zach could hone in on Mr. Herbert from anywhere. Once he figured out how to do it, how to focus his energy, it was almost too easy.
Finally, they ended up near Bethesda Fountain, another rock formation.
“Are we done?” Zach asked.
Mr. Herbert said, “For today.”
“Good,” Zach said, and stretched out on his back, suddenly exhausted by everything.
But he was excited, too; he couldn’t help it.
He was smiling.
“What’s good?” the old man said.
“Just thinking of something one of my friends said at school today.”
It was a lie. Maybe Mr. Herbert knew. If he did, Zach didn’t care.
He was smiling because something Mr. Herbert had said before turned out to be right on the money, not that Zach would ever admit that to him:
Zach
hadn’t
known how good he was.
Not even close.
The old man stared at Zach as though he could see right through him. Then he, too, smiled.
“You may just be ready, Zacman.”
33
THE
rally for Senator Kerrigan was scheduled for the last weekend in June, in the famous section of Central Park between 79th and 85th known as the Great Lawn.
Zach’s mom told him she had been a teenager when the singing team of Simon and Garfunkel had given a free outdoor concert on the Great Lawn. She and her girlfriends had gone and felt as if most of the city went with them that night.
“They said it was half a million people in the crowd,” Elizabeth Harriman said.
“To see two guys sing?”
“It was a big deal at the time because it was a reunion concert.”
“New York makes everything bigger,” Zach said.
“Paul Simon has agreed to sing before Senator Kerrigan speaks in June,” his mom said. “It’s that big of a deal.”
“You think he can help you pull half a mil this time?” Zach said.
“Oh, Lord no,” she said. “But we think there might be a couple hundred thousand. That’s how much momentum the campaign has picked up over the last month.”
Zach high-fived her. “That’s my mom right there, ladies and gentlemen, talking about the big ‘Mo.’”
“C’mon, you know it’s happening,” she said. “I’ll bet kids are talking about the campaign in your school.”
“Actually, they are,” Zach said. “Most kids think Senator Kerrigan is cool. And the political geeks who are really following it talk about Vice President Boras like he’s Darth Vader.”
“Good,” his mom said. “It’s nice to hear they totally get it at the Parker School.”
Zach was a week from the end of school, two more finals to go. But he’d done his studying before he came home today, so now in the early evening they were waiting for Uncle John to come over for dinner, the first time he’d been to the apartment in a few weeks. As usual, he’d been traveling.
And for the first time in his life, Zach had been glad about Uncle John’s absence. There was something between them now, some barrier, whether it belonged or not.
Tonight, though, was different, from the time Uncle John stepped out of the elevator. Tonight it was as if he was determined to be the old Uncle John, being funny about all the candidates in the campaign, smiling through the dining table debates with Zach’s mom about Senator Kerrigan and Dick Boras, maintaining that Boras was better qualified to be president.
“Maybe you should go work for the man,” Zach’s mom said.
“And risk the wrath of Elizabeth Townsend Harriman?” Uncle John said. “I am stubborn, madam, but not stupid.”
“I was watching you when Bob Kerrigan spoke here,” she said. “You were as engaged by him as anybody else in the room.”
Zach was sitting next to Uncle John, who poked him lightly with an elbow now and winked. “Nobody fakes sincerity better than I do,” he said.
“Except Dick Boras,” she said. “The man’s a menace.”
“No, he’s a realist,” Uncle John said. “Of all the candidates, he’s the one who truly understands best how dangerous the world has become, even better than his boss in the White House. Not just a dangerous world, but fragile at the same time.” He looked at Zach and said, “It’s like a ball game, where you’re always one play away from winning or losing.”
Zach’s mom hung with him. “You’re saying Bob Kerrigan is somehow
oblivious
to how dangerous things are?”
“Dick Boras wants to win for the good of this country. That’s not enough for Bob Kerrigan. He’s more concerned that people like him. He’s
desperate
for it. Dick Boras doesn’t care if you like him or not. He doesn’t particularly care if you love America. He just wants things to work better. He gets things
done.”
“Are you saying he wants to get the trains to run on time?” she said. “Isn’t that how dictators used to sell themselves?”
Uncle John laughed, waved his napkin like a white flag. “I give up,” he said. “I’m the lawyer, but every time we have this conversation, I feel as if I’m the one on trial.”
“And at least you’re not being an old crab about things this time,” Zach’s mom said.
“At least I’m consistent,” he said. “You know I used to have this same argument with your husband all the time.”
Zach didn’t know if Uncle John knew about his dad being Senator Kerrigan’s running mate, even though he acted like he knew everything. But Zach wasn’t about to bring it up.
Zach’s mom asked Uncle John if he had time for coffee and he said no, it was such a nice night he was actually hoping he and Zach could go for a walk.
“I’ve been an absentee uncle way too much lately,” he said. He looked at Zach and said, “So, you up for it? Could be some kind of mondo banana split at the end of it.”
“Yeah, man.”
Zach’s mom said fine with her, she had some calls to make anyway. Uncle John promised he wouldn’t keep Zach too long. Then Elizabeth Harriman kissed them both on the cheek and she was gone.
It was in the elevator when Uncle John turned to Zach and said, “This isn’t about going for ice cream.”
“Didn’t think it was.”
“We need to talk,” Uncle John said.
They walked up Fifth when they got outside. Once they were out of earshot of the doorman, Uncle John got right to it.
“I don’t know what kind of nonsense the old man has been feeding you about picking up where your father left off,” he said. “But you’re not ready to do that.”
“How do you know that the old man has been feeding me anything?” Zach said.
“It’s my business to know things,” Uncle John said, “ whether you want me to know them or not.”
“You never told me I was supposed to let you know every time Mr. Herbert dropped in on me,” Zach said.
“And you, young Zachary, should have enough common sense not to have to be told.” He put his hand on Zach’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.
“Maybe I would share more things with you if you weren’t so hard to find.”
“I’m not mad at you,” Uncle John said.
“Same,” Zach said.
“It doesn’t change the reason we’re having this talk,” Uncle John said. “You’re
not
ready.”
“For what?” Zach said.
“You’re too smart to play dumb with me, Zachary. You know what I’m talking about. You’re not close to being ready to be the kind of game changer your father was. Someday, yes. But not now.”
“Mr. Herbert says the two of you have never agreed on anything. Him and you, I mean.”
“Finally,” Uncle John said, “we agree on something.”
They had taken a right turn, were walking the short block toward Madison.
“But
you
made it sound like more than just a disagreement, Uncle John. You said he was the enemy
.”
“In my world, Zachary, the enemy is anybody I don’t trust. Your father always trusted ‘Mr. Herbert’.” He air-quoted the name with his fingers. “I, on the other hand, never did. He always said he was on your father’s side. I never believed that for a second. I frankly always thought his endgame was trying to convince your father to work for the other side.”
“For the Bads?”
“Yes. For the Bads.” He put quotes with his fingers around “Bads.”
“You both make them sound like some kind of army,” Zach said.
“And wouldn’t be wrong,” Uncle John said.
“Do they have some top-secret headquarters?” Zach asked.
Now they were walking south on Lexington. But somehow this didn’t feel like aimless wandering to Zach, a knock-around night.
They were going somewhere with this.
“You mean, where are they?” Uncle John said. “They’re everywhere. Everywhere in the world that there’s trouble. Or an opening. Everywhere they think they can get an edge, from sea pirates to the Middle East. Everywhere they think they can replace a good leader with one of their own. Or put weapons into the wrong hands.” He shook his head, annoyed. “Everywhere where they can make their mischief. Only it’s not simple mischief. Most of the time it’s life and death. And there have been too many times when the old man has been in the middle of it. I don’t believe in coincidences, Zachary. And neither should you.”
“Do they . . . do the Bads have guys who can do what I do? What my dad did? Do
they
have game changers?”
He was asking as many questions as he could, not sure when he’d get another chance like this.
“Probably,” Uncle John said. “I don’t know for sure. I can only speak for our side. And even though it sounds like some fable, something that should involve a sword in a stone, on our side there’s only ever been one hero at a time.” The same thing Mr. Herbert had said.
“How long has this been going on?”
Uncle John looked at him. “For a
very
long time.”
“And now it’s my turn.”
“
Eventually
it’s your turn,” Uncle John said. “
Not
now. Perhaps I should have told you these things before, but I’m telling you now because I care about you. And I want to protect you.”
“Mr. Herbert says I’m ready now.”
“Mr. Herbert doesn’t know you like I do!” Just like that, Uncle John, who almost never raised his voice, was shouting
.
“All he’s ever been interested in is helping himself! But this time I’m not going to let him. I won’t allow him to put you in harm’s way. I wasn’t able to save your father. I can’t even
think
about what would happen to your mother if anything happened to you.”
They kept walking in silence down Lex, past delis, hip-hop sneaker stores, fruit stands and bars. On the next corner was a new Carvel. Uncle John asked if Zach wanted to get an ice cream after all. Zach said no.
They hooked a right, headed back toward Fifth Avenue.
Zach said, “What if Mr. Herbert is right, and something terrible is about to happen, and I might be able to help stop it?”
“Zachary . . . ,” Uncle John said.
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Haven’t you been listening? You
still
won’t be ready,” Uncle John said. “There will be dragons for you to slay someday, Zachary. Just not now. Just because you have the physical weapons doesn’t mean you’re ready to use them. There are consequences. And for what it’s worth? I think he’s making the whole thing up. I told you that night in the hospital not to believe a word he said and I’m telling you again now.”
Uncle John turned, put his hand on Zach’s shoulder again and said, “This isn’t your fight. Not yet, anyway. Take some time and enjoy being a kid. You’re fourteen, for cripes’ sake.”
Zach had one more question.
“There’s something I need to know, Uncle John. It’s been bothering me for a while. I’ve never asked Mr. Herbert, but I’m asking you: if my dad was an orphan, who passed on his powers to him?”