Once back outside, the detectives took a deep breath, as if resurfacing after an underwater plunge. Never had the sound of a car zipping by been so reassuring. Everything, even the air itself, seemed to weigh on their shoulders. Sharko walked to the edge of the Seine and, hands in his pockets, watched the amber-colored glints winking at him. Around them, Paris nestled into its heavy blanket of lights. Deep down, he loved this city as much as he hated it.
Lucie came up quietly beside him and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“A ton of things. But especially all this business about evolution and survival. About those genes that will do anything to propagate, even if it means killing their host.”
“Like praying mantises?”
“Praying mantises, bumblebees, salmon. Even parasites and viruses follow that logic; they colonize us to preserve their existence, and are very smart about it. You know, I was thinking about the notion of an arms race. It reminds me of a passage in Through the Looking-Glass. Did you ever read Lewis Carroll?”
“Never did. I’m afraid my tastes in literature tended to be a bit darker.”
Lucie moved closer. Their shoulders were almost touching. Sharko stared at the horizon with dilated pupils. His voice was gentle, limpid, belying the violence that pressed down on them harder with each passing minute.
“At a certain point, Alice and the Red Queen are in this race, and Alice suddenly realizes that no matter how fast they run, the scenery never changes. And the Queen says, ‘It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.’”
He let the silence drift for a moment, then looked Lucie deep in the eyes.
“We’re like any other species, any other organism. We do whatever we have to to survive. You and I, the antelope in the savannah, the fish in the sea, the poor man, the rich man, black, white . . . we all keep running to survive, and we have been since day one. Whatever tragedies knock us down, we always get up again, and we run harder and harder. If we can’t manage it, if our brain doesn’t come up with the defenses to keep us going, the arms race is over and we die, eliminated by natural selection. It’s as simple as that.”
His voice vibrated with such emotion that Lucie felt tears welling in her eyes. Without second-guessing herself this time, she finally squeezed against him.
“We’ve been through the same suffering, Franck, and we’ve both kept running, each on our own. But today we’re running together. That’s the most important thing.”
She moved slightly away. Sharko gathered on his fingertip the tear she couldn’t help shedding and looked carefully at that little diamond of water and salt. He took a deep breath, then blurted out simply:
“I know what Eva was looking for in Brazil, Lucie . . . I understood the moment I saw that film.”
Lucie stared at him in surprise.
“But why didn’t you . . . ?”
“Because I’m afraid! I’m afraid of what’s waiting for us at the end of this road, do you understand?”
He turned away from her and walked as close as he could to the edge of the embankment, as if he were about to jump in. He stared at the opposite side for a long time, in silence. Then, with a painful breath, he said:
“And yet . . . out there is where your spirit is pushing you. So that you’ll finally know.”
He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number. At the other end, someone picked up. Sharko cleared his throat before talking:
“Clémentine Jaspar? Inspector Franck Sharko here. I know it’s late, but you said I could call at any time, and I need to talk to you.”