Winder felt oddly detached. "The voles? No, not in person," he said. "I wasn't even aware they had actual names."
"They do now."
At the door, Charles Chelsea winked and shook Joe Winder's hand. "You know, Joe, some people in the organization weren't too thrilled when we brought you aboard. I mean, after what happened up at Disney."
Winder nodded politely. Chelsea's hand felt moist and lifeless, like a slab of cold grouper.
"But, by God, I knew you'd be fine. That speech today was masterful, Joey, a classic."
"A classic."
"I need you on this one. The other kids are fine, they can turn a phrase. But they're right out of school, most of them, and they're not ready for something so big. For this I need somebody with scars. Combat experience."
With effort, Joe Winder said, "Guess I'm your man."
Charles Chelsea chucked him on the arm and opened the door.
"What about a reward?" Winder asked. "In the press release, should I say we're offering a reward?"
Thinking about it, Chelsea nearly rubbed the tan off his chin. "I guess it couldn't hurt," he said finally. "What do you think?"
"For two rats? Ten grand is good."
"Voles, Joe. Don't ever say rats. And five grand is plenty."
Winder shrugged. "The park netted forty-two million dollars last year. I know a few reporters who'd be happy to remind us."
"All right, go for ten," said Charles Chelsea. "But don't overplay it. Otherwise every geek in Miami is going to show up at the gate with shoe boxes full of God knows what."
The thought of it made Joe Winder smile for the first time all day.
One of the few things Winder liked about his new job was the golf cart he got to drive around the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills. It was a souped-up Cushman with an extra set of twelve-volts, and headlights scavenged off a real Jeep. It was the closest thing to a company car that Joe Winder had ever had, and sometimes (especially on that long downhill stretch between Magic Mansion and the Wet Willy) he could stomp on the tiny accelerator and forget what exactly he did for a living. At night Joe Winder tried to drive more carefully, because it was harder to watch out for the tourists. The tourists at the Amazing Kingdom seldom paid attention to where they were going; they wandered and weaved, peered and pointed. And who could blame them? There were so many colorful and entertaining distractions. Before Charles Chelsea had given Joe Winder the keys to the Cushman, he had warned him to be wary when driving near the tourists. "Whatever you do, don't hit one," Chelsea had said. "If you're going to crash, aim for a building," he had advised, "or even a park employee. Anything but a paying customer."
So Joe Winder drove with extra caution in the golf cart at night. He arrived at the Rare Animal Pavilion shortly after eight, and parked in the back. Dr. Will Koocher, the vole man, was waiting inside with handouts and glossy photographs. Winder sat on a lab stool and skimmed the material.
Koocher said, "We kept the information fairly general. They tell me the pictures usually go over big."
As Winder studied the photographs, he said, "Cute little buggers."
"They're just rodents," the doctor noted, without malice.
"You don't understand," Winder said, "Cuteness is vital for a story like this." He explained how newspapers and television stations got much more excited about animal stories when the animal came across as cuddly and lovable. "I'm not saying it's good or bad, but that's the way it is."
Will Koocher nodded. "Like with the manatees – everybody wants to save the manatees, but nobody gives a hoot about the poor crocodiles."
"Because they're not particularly cute," Winder said. "Who wants to hug a reptile?"
"I see your point." Will Koocher was a gaunt young man with the longest neck that Joe Winder had ever seen. He seemed painfully earnest and shy, and Winder liked him immediately.
"I'll tell you what I can," Koocher said, "but I've only been here a month."
Like everything else at the Amazing Kingdom, the Vole Project had begun as a scheme to compete with Walt Disney World. Years earlier, Disney had tried to save the dusky seaside sparrow, a small marsh bird whose habitat was being wiped out by overdevelopment along Florida's coastline. With much fanfare, Disney had unveiled a captive-breeding program for the last two surviving specimens of the dusky. Unfortunately, the last two surviving specimens were both males, and even the wizards of Disney could not induce the scientific miracle of homosexual procreation. Eventually the sparrow fell to extinction, but the Disney organization won gobs of fawning publicity for its conservation efforts.
Not to be outdone (although he invariably was), Francis X. Kingsbury had selected another endangered species and commanded that his staff save it, ASAP. And so the Vole Project was born.
Koocher had gotten the phone call while finishing his thesis at Cornell. "I'd published two field studies on the genus Microtus, so I suppose that's where they got my name. Anyway, this guy Chelsea calls and asks if I'd heard of Microtus mango, and I said no, all my work was on the northern species. He sent me a scientific paper that had been published, and offered me a job. Forty grand a year."
"That's good money right out of school."
"Tell me about it. I burned up the interstate getting down here."
"And that's when you met Violet and Vance."
"Who's that?"
"The voles," Winder said. "They've got names now."
"Really?" Will Koocher looked doubtful. "I always called them Male One and Female One."
"Not anymore. Kingsbury's got big plans, PR-wise. The little mango curies are going to be famous – don't be surprised if the networks show up tomorrow."
"Is that so," Koocher said, with not the wildest enthusiasm. Winder sensed that the scientist disapproved of anthropomorphizing rodents, so he decided to lay off the Vance-and-Violet routine. Instead he asked about the tongue.
"Well, it really is blue," Koocher said stiffly. "Remarkably blue."
"Could I say indigo?" Joe Winder was taking notes.
"Yeah," said Koocher, "that's about right." He started to say something more, but caught himself.
Joe Winder asked: "So what killed off the rest of them? Was it disease?"
"No, same old story. The encroachment of mankind." Koocher unfolded a map that illustrated how the mango vole had once ranged from the Middle Keys up to Palm Beach. As the coastline surrendered to hotels, subdivisions and condominiums, the voles" territory shrank. "They tell me the last known colony was here, on North Key Largo. One of Kingsbury's foremen found it in 1988, but so did a hungry barn owl. They were lucky to save the two that they did."
"And they mated for life?" said Winder.
Koocher seemed amused. "Who told you that?"
"Chelsea."
"That figures. Voles don't mate for life. They mate for fun, and they mate with just about anything that resembles another vole."
Winder said, "Then here's another dumb question: Why were there only two in our exhibit? They'd been together, what, a year? So where're all the bouncing baby voles?"
Edgily, Koocher said, "That's been our biggest disappointment."
"I did some reading up on it," Winder said. "With your typical Microtus, the female gives birth every two months. Each litter's got eight or nine babies – at that rate, you could replenish the whole species in a year."
Will Koocher shifted uncomfortably. "Female One was not receptive," he said. "Do you understand what that means?"