Yama mentally debated the wisdom of revealing his identity to the creature. Was it likely the thing was lying about the reason it was confined in the cage? “Do you have a name?” he asked it.
The cat-man nodded. “I’m called Lynx,” he said proudly. “Does the name mean anything to you?”
“No,” Yama confessed. “Should it?”
“I’m famous,” Lynx boasted. “My name was in all the papers and on every newscast for days. Whenever anyone tries to kill the Doc, or any of the bigwigs for that matter, it’s news, chuckles. I took out fourteen of the bastards before they bagged me with a damn tranquilizer dart. Pricks! They thought I was one of the rebels!”
“What do you mean?” Yama probed. “Who are the rebels?”
“There’s an underground movement,” Lynx detailed, “an organized resistance to the Government, a group dedicated to the overthrow of Samuel and the Doktor. Everybody knows about the rebels.” Lynx paused.
“Except you, bub. And you didn’t know about me either. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you weren’t from the Civilized Zone.”
I’m not.
Lynx pressed against the bars, intently studying Yama as if he were striving to perceive the nature of his very soul.
Yama nodded. “It’s been nice talking with you.” He took a step away.
“Wait!” Lynx yelled. “Don’t leave!”
Yama stopped. “Why not?”
“You’re going to take off and just leave me to rot in this stinking cage?” Lynx demanded angrily.
“I’m on a mission,” Yama replied. “Freeing you would complicate my assignment immensely. Besides, I’m still not completely positive I can trust you. For all I know, if I set you free you might try to kill me.”
“What’s your name, chuckles?” Lynx requested.
“Yama.”
“Well, Yama, baby, I’ll tell you what. You let me out of here, and I give you my word as a gentleman I won’t cause you any grief. Fair enough?”
“No,” Yama responded.
“No? What’s wrong with my word?” Lynx asked, peeved.
“What if we run into some soldiers or other beings like yourself?” Yama pressed him.
Lynx snorted. “I’ll rip ’em to shreds!”
“That’s what I thought,” Yama said. “It’s not good enough.”
Lynx cocked his head and uttered a peculiar trilling sound. “Sharp one, aren’t you, bub? Okay. Let’s hear your conditions.”
“I’ll release you from the cage,” Yama stipulated, “if you will agree to my terms. One. You will assist me and guide me on a tour of the Biological Center…”
“A tour?” Lynx laughed. “You want the deluxe or the tourist rate?”
“Two. You will follow my instructions implicity. Three. You will not attack anyone unless I give the word. Agreed?” Yama asked.
Lynx hesitated before answering. “You sure drive a hard bargain, pal,” he finally said. “I don’t see where I’ve got much choice so, yeah, I agree.
Satisfied?”
Yama walked up to the cage and stared into Lynx’s eyes. “If you cross me I will kill you,” he stated in a low, soft tone.
Again Lynx made the trilling sound. “Yes,” he said after a long moment.
“I suppose you would. Don’t worry, Yama. You have my word.”
Yama nodded and produced the key ring taken from the man in the white frock. There were over a dozen keys on the ring, and he was on the seventh one before the lock clinked and the cage door swung open.
For a tense moment the pair eyed one another.
“Orders, boss?” Lynx asked.
“Follow me,” Yama directed, and led the way to the door. Many of the animals displayed extreme fright as Lynx passed their cages, screeching and snarling or moving as far away from him as they could.
“Must be my breath,” Lynx remarked at one point.
Yama peered into the hallway just in time to see two men in white disappear around the corner of the junction with the other corridor.
Hurriedly, Lynx right behind him, he crossed the hall to the deserted office he’d found earlier.
“This is Clarissa’s room,” Lynx said as Yama closed the door. “The bitch who saved the Doc from my claws. What are we doing in here?”
“I require information,” Yama mentioned. “We’re less likely to be disturbed in here than the cage chamber. Do you know what’s in the room next to the cage chamber?”
Lynx frowned. “We call it the Baby Room, the room with all those babies in the vats. I take it you’ve seen it?”
“What purpose does it serve?” Yama inquired.
“It has something to do with the Doc’s rejuvenation technique,” Lynx divulged.
“I don’t follow you.”
Lynx leaned against the desk. “Do you know much about the Doc?”
“Very little,” Yama admitted.
“Do you know how old he is?” Lynx questioned.
“How old? No. But I saw him outside earlier. I’d estimate his age at forty, forty-five tops. Why?”
Lynx snickered. “The Doc is one hundred and twenty-seven years old.”
“That’s impossible,” Yama countered.
“You can stand there and look at me and talk about impossibilities? I tell you the Doc is one hundred and twenty-seven, almost one hundred and twenty-eight.”
“But that would mean the Doktor was alive before World War III.”
Yama protested. “I don’t see how…”
“Look!” Lynx said impatiently. “You wanted to know about the Baby Room and I’m telling you. It has something to do with the Doc’s longevity.
Don’t ask me what, because I’m no scientist. But everybody knows the Doc has an inordinate interest in babies with Type O blood. You want to know more, then ask him!”
“Those infants in the vats,” Yama stated, almost shuddering at the memory, “are they alive or dead?”
“I think their bodies are alive,” Lynx disclosed, “but I heard the Doc say once they’re brain dead, whatever that means.”
Yama thought a moment. “How does the Doktor create things such as yourself?”
Lynx shrugged. “Beats me. All I know is it involves genetic engineering.
Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.”
“Doesn’t anyone know?”
“The Doc. And he doesn’t share his secrets with open arms. Clarissa knows a lot, but I don’t know how much. Sorry I can’t be of much help,” Lynx apologized, “but I was one of the Doc’s assassins until I saw the light. I didn’t work in the lab.”
Yama sighed in frustration. “It’s all right. Do you happen to know where the Doktor might have a records room, a room with his personal notes and computations?”
“Sure do, chuckles. Two floors up. Want me to take you to it?”
“Let’s go,” Yama said, opening the door to the office.
They left Clarissa’s private office and walked along the hallway to the junction.
“Which way?” Yama needed to know.
“That way,” Lynx said, pointing to their right. “There’s a flight of stairs at the end of the hall we can take.”
“Remember what I told you about attacking others,” Yama reminded the diminutive, feisty creature.
Lynx was opening his mouth to respond when the corridor was racked by the shattering wail of klaxons.
Yama crouched, cradling the Wilkinson. “What the…”
“The alarm!” Lynx shouted. “They must know you’re here!”
The klaxons were alerting the entire structure.
“Which way, boss?” Lynx asked sarcastically.
Before Yama could decide, the door to the Baby Room opened and two men in white stepped out, pistols in their hands. Beyond them, the doors to the first, third, and fourth elevators simultaneously slid open, disgorging four full armed soldiers apiece. The twelve troopers started jogging along the hallway, as the two men in white turned and spotted Yama and Lynx at the junction.