"What do you think? This is illegal as shit, Henry. A transgender higher primate? You know Hitler tried to cross a human and a chimp. And Stalin tried. You might say they defined the field. Let's see, Hitler, Stalin, and now an American researcher at the NIH? No way, my friend."
"So what are you..."
"This represents an unauthorized experiment. It has to be terminated."
"Are you kidding?"
"You're in Washington," Rovak said, "and you're looking at political dynamite. NIH funding is already flat from the current administration. It'd be cut to a tenth, if word of this got out."
"But this animal is extraordinary," Henry said.
"But unauthorized. That's all anybody cares about." Rovak shook his head. "Don't get sentimental. You have a transgenic experiment that was never authorized and the rules state explicitly that any experiment not approved by the boards will be terminated and there will be no exceptions."
"What will you, uh..."
"Morphine drip intravenously. Won't feel a thing." Rovak said. "You don't need to worry. We'll take good care of him. And after incineration, there will be no evidence at all that it ever happened." He nodded to Dave. "Why don't you go play with him for a while? He'd like the company. He's bored with all of us."
They playeda sort of impromptu game of checkers, using toy blocks, jumping over each other while they both sat on the floor. Henry noticed details - Dave's hands, which were the proportion of human hands; his feet, which were prehensile like a chimp's; his eyes, which had flecks of blue; and his smile, which was not quite human, not quite ape-like.
"This is fun," Dave said.
"That's because you are winning." Henry didn't really understand the rules, but he thought he should let Dave win. That's what he had done with his own kids.
And then he thought,This is my own kid.
He wasn't thinkingclearly, he knew that. He was acting by instinct. He was aware of watching intently as Dave was returned to his cage, of the way he was locked in with a keypress padlock, of the way -
"Let me shake his hand again," Henry said. "Open it up again."
"Look," Rovak said, "don't do this to yourself. Or him."
"I just want to shake his hand."
Rovak sighed, unlocked the lock. Henry watched. 01-05-04.
He shook Dave's hand and said good-bye.
"Are you coming tomorrow?" Dave said.
"Soon," Henry said.
Dave turned away, not looking at him as Henry left the room and closed the door.
"Listen," Rovak said, "you ought to be grateful you're not being prosecuted and thrown into jail. Now don't be foolish about this. We'll handle it. You go on about your business."
"Okay," Henry said. "Thank you."
He asked to stay at the facility until it was time for his plane home; they put him in a room with a terminal for researchers. He spent the afternoon reading about Dave and all the annotations in his file. He printed the entire file out. He walked around the facility, went to the bathroom several times, so that the guards would be accustomed to seeing him on the monitors.
Rovak went home at four, stopping in to say good-bye on his way out. The vets and guards changed shifts at six. At five-thirty p.m., Henry went back into the training facility and headed straight for Dave's room.
He unlocked the cage.
"Hello, Mother," Dave said.
"Hi, Dave. Would you like to take a trip?"
"Yes," Dave said.
"Okay. Do exactly what I say."
Researchers frequentlywalked with the tamer chimps, sometimes holding their hands. Henry walked with Dave down the training corridor, moving at a casual pace, ignoring the cameras. They turned left into the main corridor and headed for the exterior door. He swiped the inner door, led Dave through, and opened the outer door. As he expected, there were no alarms.
The Lambertville facility had been designed to keep intruders out, and to keep animals from escaping, but not to prevent researchers from removing animals. Indeed, for a variety of reasons, researchers sometimes needed to remove animals without going through extensive red tape. And so it was that Henry put Dave on the floor of the backseat of his car and drove to the exit gate.
It was now shift change, with a lot of cars coming and going. Henry turned in his swipe card and his badge. The guard on duty said, "Thanks, Dr. Kendall," and Henry drove out into the rolling green hills of western Maryland.
"You're driving back?"Lynn said. "Why?"
"It's a long story."
"Why, Henry?"
"I have no choice. I have to drive."
"Henry," she said, "you're behaving very strangely, you know that."
"It was a moral issue."
"What moral issue?"
"I have a responsibility."
"What responsibility? Goddamn it, Henry - "
"Honey," he said, "it's a long story."
"You said that."
"Believe me, I want to tell you everything," he said, "I really do. But it'll have to wait until I get home."
Dave said, "Is that your mother?"
Lynn said, "Who's in the car with you?"
"Nobody."
"Who was talking? That raspy voice."
"I really can't explain it," he said. "You'll just have to wait until I get home, and then you'll understand."
"Henry - "
"Gotta go, Lynn. Love to the kids." He hung up.
Dave was watching him with patient eyes. "Was that your mother?"