“No, not if I explained it to him.”
Kori shook his head. “I know you think a lot of that animal, and his intelligence has been boosted. But I wouldn’t plan to stay inside that fence with him for ten minutes, let alone twelve hours or more.”
“Oh, you’ve seen too many movies,” Bonnie said. “George wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
They went on talking, planning, arguing until- it was completely dark. The stars filled the night and the shimmering band of the Milky Way arched across the sky, bright and beckoning.
“Look up there!” Kori said.
In the darkness they could see his shadowy outline pointing skyward. Looking up, Lou saw one star moving silently, purposefully through the heavens, as if it had detached itself from its normal position to carry out some mission.
“Is that one of the satellites?” Bonnie’s voice floated through the dark against the basso background of the surf.
Kori glanced at his luminescent wristwatch. “Yes. And right on schedule.”
“Thank God,” said Lou.
Lou didn’t sleep much that night, and the next day at the computer building he hardly paid any attention to his work. He went through the motions, but his mind was racing, thinking about all that had to be done that night. Get the car for Kori, get Bonnie into hiding, create a diversion that will draw off the guards long enough for Kori to work unnoticed.
Toward the end of the afternoon, Lou couldn’t stay cooped up in the control room any longer. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of warm, salt-smelling air.
Then the quiet afternoon was shattered by the tortured scream of an animal. A scream of rage and pain and fear.
“George!”
17
Lou ran to the gorilla’s compound He got there in time to see two of the biochemists carrying a third through the gate. Big George was nowhere in sight. A half-dozen guards were clustered around the gate and more were arriving on the run, guns drawn.
“What happened?” Lou shouted.
They ignored him. A pair of guards took the unconscious biochemist from his co-workers. His face was bloody and one arm was hanging at a weird angle.
Lou grabbed one of the sweating biochemists.
“What happened? What did you do?”
The little Oriental looked up at Lou with fear and anger in his eyes. In a nasal, heavily-accented English he said, “Ape got frightened by injections. Anesthetic wore off Restraints not strong enough. Ape broke loose, knocked down Dr Kusawa, ran back into trees.”
“Injections?” Lou demanded “The suppressors?”
The biochemist nodded, pulled his arm out of Lou’s grasp and tottered away, following the guards who were carrying his boss.
Lou went to the gate.
One of the guards started shaking his head and motioning Lou away. “No. Danger. Keep away.”
“Let me in there. He won’t hurt me. He’s scared and hurt.”
The guards were clustered around the gate, which was now firmly locked. Most of them were peering into the trees and brush. Big George was not in sight The other guards were watching Lou.
“Danger,” said the one guard to Lou “Go away.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Lou walked away.
At dinner that night, Kori shook his head “That makes everything different. Bonnie can’t stay in there with him now.”
“Sure I can,” Bonnie said “George will be all right by now, and the guards will never dream of searching his compound. It’s a better hiding place than ever, now.”
“No,” said Lou “There’s no way of telling what those injections did to him. It’s too risky.”
They sat at their table in the cafeteria, leaning forward in a tight little huddle, ignoring their cooling dinner trays, oblivious of the fact that many eyes were watching them in the busy, noisy cafeteria.
Bonnie insisted that George was all right. “Let’s go down to his compound and talk to him. Then we’ll see for sure,” she suggested.
Lou nodded agreement. Kori simply looked worried.
They walked down to the gorilla’s compound, but stayed away from the gate where the guards stood watch. They moved up onto the slope of the hill to a spot close to the trees inside the compound.
“Georgy,” Lou called out softly “Georgy, it’s me. Uncle Lou.”
A snuffling grunt, and from the shadows in among the trees a pair of baleful eyes suddenly gleamed out at them. Despite himself, Lou shuddered. Those eyes were glaring like a jungle beast’s.
He forced his voice to stay calm “Georgy, it’s all right. It’s me, Uncle Lou. And Bonnie is here, too. And another friend.”
A growl.
Lou turned to Kori “Maybe it’s a good idea for you to go away, Anton. George must be scared out of his wits of strangers right now.”
“He doesn’t sound scared.”
“He is.”
Stubbornly, Kori said, “But I want to see the gorilla’s reactions for myself. I don’t want you two make any mistakes about this.”
“Shove it!” Lou snapped, keeping his voice down to avoid frightening Big George. “You think you’re the only one with brains? I’m not going to let Bonnie take any chances.”
“Stop arguing,” Bonnie said. To Kori she added, “He won’t come out as long as you’re here.”
Kori left, muttering to himself. After another ten minutes of coaxing and soothing, Big George lumbered out of the trees and up to the fence.
“George,” Lou said, gripping the fine wire mesh of the fence. “Are you okay?”
“Head … head hurts.”
“It’s all right, Georgy,” Bonnie said. “The hurt will go away soon.”
“Hurts… bad men … hurt…”
Is it just me or does his voice sound strange? Like it’s hard for him to put words together. Lou felt his eyes stinging and realized there were tears in them. “Georgy, don’t be afraid. It’s going to be all right. The bad men have gone away. They won’t come back.”
The gorilla merely blinked.
Bonnie said softly. “Georgy, in a little while I’m going to come and stay with you. I’ll bring you lots of food, and some medicine to stop the hurt.
“Hurt… scared… bad men…”
“I’ll stay with you,” Bonnie repeated. “And the medicine will stop the hurting. Don’t be afraid.”
“And I’ll make sure that the bad men don’t ever come back,” Lou said, feeling anger welling up within him. “Not ever.”
“Uncle Lou…” Big George started, but his voice trailed off and he never finished the thought.
Lou said as gently as he could. “It’s all right, Georgy. No one’s ever going to hurt you again.”
As they walked away from the compound, Bonnie put a hand on Lou’s arm.
“You’re shaking,” she said.
Nodding, Lou answered, “You know… last night I couldn’t sleep. I was scared. Still am, I guess. We could all get killed tonight. But I think what was really scaring me the most was the thought that I might have to kill somebody myself. Oral least try to. But now… seeing what, they’ve done to Georgy… to a harmless animal like that… I’m not shaking from fear anymore. That’s anger.”
“It’s all right,” Bonnie said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Do you really think you’ll be okay in there with George?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll bring him some candy and sedatives. He’ll sleep like a baby.”
Lou nodded.
“You’ll see,” Bonnie said. “It’s all going to go like clockwork.”
“Yeah.” Lou glanced at his wristwatch. X minus four hours and counting.
Exactly at eleven o’clock the three of them met at the doorway to the dormitory building. They had spent the intervening hours checking final details and then pretending to go to their separate rooms for the night. Now they met in the darkness and started wordlessly for the lab complex. They had found identical black stretch pullovers and slacks among the disposable clothing supply in the dorm. Identical, but Bonnie’s sure looks better than ours, Lou thought.