Beneath the Planet of the Apes - Avallone Michael - Страница 10

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“What happened? Has there been an accident?”

Zira sat up. Suddenly it was clear that a large patch of sticking plaster was affixed to her right cheek. A fresh one.

“Cornelius hit me,” Zira said.

Her husband gaped down at her, openmouthed.

“For my bad behavior at the meeting,” Zira explained to the good doctor. She seemed almost contrite.

Zaius grunted. “I don’t blame him.”

Zira nodded. “I don’t resent it.” She touched the plaster gingerly. “But his nails need clipping.”

Cornelius stifled his outrage but Dr. Zaius had already put the family quarrel behind him. He waved his cane angrily.

“Enough of this nonsense! Are you so blind, you two psychologists, that you are unaware that we are on the brink of a grave crisis? You heard the Ursus speech . . .”

“Militaristic tripe!” growled Zira, her old self again.

“Sh-h-h!” Cornelius begged, agonized.

“Perhaps,” Zaius said evenly, studying Zira. “But eleven of his gorilla scouts, on reconnaissance in the Forbidden Zone, have vanished . . .”

“Well, it serves him right,” Zira said huffily.

“Zira,” Cornelius pleaded, once again, for reason, not feminine contrariness; it was an old song to Dr. Zaius.

“And Ursus,” he continued, “is determined to have his revenge. All-out war if need be.” Turning, he walked to the table. His reddish-haired body shone in the light of the room.

“Ursus now has the ‘incident’ he needs to go on a rampage of conquest.” He looked at the tip of his heavy wooden cane.

Cornelius started. “But that is appalling! When Zira and I first unlocked the secrets of the Forbidden Zone, you intervened at our trial for heresy.”

“I know.”

“The price we paid for our freedom was the vow to you never to disclose our discovery that Man evolved from the Ape . . .”

“But to remain silent,” Zira interrupted, “while this bully, Ursus, is permitted to destroy everything in his path, is no longer possible.”

Dr. Zaius’ face looked suddenly older as he fixed his gaze on his younger colleagues.

“You want to stand trial once more for heresy? No, my children, this time I may not be here to plead for clemency.”

Zira looked worried. “Where are you going?”

“Into the Forbidden Zone with Ursus.”

Zira’s expression changed to one of scorn, unhidden.

“Another manhunt, Doctor?”

Zaius was not unaware of her feelings. Or her convictions.

“The disappearance of these scouts is more than the work of a mere man. Someone or something has outwitted the intelligence of the gorillas.”

Zira snorted. “That shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Zira,” Cornelius groaned. “Please . . .”

Zaius ignored her.

“As Minister of Science, it is my duty to find out whether some other form of life exists. Some new threat to our ape civilization. Before Ursus barges in and destroys the evidence.”

Zira shook Cornelius off. “But if these creatures, or whatever they are, are so intelligent, why shouldn’t they be able to live with us in peace and harmony?”

“For the same reasons,” Zaius said, wearily almost, for he had argued the very point with Zira so many times, “that man could not live in harmony, even with his own kind. He abused his own intelligence and destroyed his own world. We apes have learned to live in innocence. Let no one, be he man or some other creature, attempt to corrupt that innocence.” When he saw the smirk on Zira’s face, he bridled. “Why? Is innocence so evil?”

“Ignorance is,” Zira said firmly.

“There is a time for truth,” Dr. Zaius said sternly.

“And the time is always now,” Zira reminded him.

Dr. Zaius stared at her.

“Bah!” he exploded, thumping his cane on the wooden floor. Cornelius shuddered, closing his eyes.

Zira shook her head. “Are you asking me to surrender my principles?”

Dr. Zaius frowned. But his eyes were kindly, glittering.

“I am asking you to be the guardians of the higher principles of science in my absence. I am asking for a truce with your personal convictions in an hour of public danger.”

“And you shall have it,” Cornelius interposed strongly, brooking no protest from Zira. “Or I—shall hit her again, Dr. Zaius.”

“Let’s have no violence, Cornelius,” Zaius muttered as he moved toward the door. “Now, I’m relying on you both.”

“And we’re relying on you, too,” Zira reminded him, getting the last shot in.

Dr. Zaius paused on the threshold of their house.

“If I should fail to return from the Unknown, the whole future of our civilization will be yours to preserve—or destroy. So think well before you act.”

“Goodbye, Doctor,” Zira said, warmly enough, “and good luck.”

From their wide window they watched him patter down the walk until his familiar figure was out of sight, cane and all. Cornelius heaved a sigh of gratitude and then went to the alcove to summon the girl and Brent out of hiding. Zira was contemplative, thinking over what Dr. Zaius had said. He had looked and sounded so tired . . .

Brent was white-faced and weak. Nova held on to him, close at his side. Zira stirred herself.

“Come on, let me finish this and get you out of here.”

“Yes,” Brent growled. “Get me out of here—please. I’ve seen the delicate, ‘humane’ way they treat humans around here. I don’t much care for it.” He took Nova’s hand and squeezed it.

“Have you a horse?” Zira asked.

“Up in the scrub,” Brent admitted.

“I’ll have to get you another set of clothes—the kind fit for humans like yourself. You’ll pass. And get rid of this.”

She pointed to his ID tags. She went to Nova and removed Taylor’s tags from her throat.

“And get rid of this too—” But Nova grabbed the tags back, belligerently almost. Zira shrugged.

“If you are caught by the gorillas,” Cornelius offered, “remember one thing.”

“What’s that?” Brent demanded.

“Never to speak.”

“What the hell would I have to say to a gorilla?”

“But you don’t understand,” Cornelius protested. “Only apes can speak. If they catch you speaking, they will dissect you. And they will kill you. In that order.”

The irony of such a proposition did not escape Brent, tired and confused as he was. He grinned wearily.

Zira had returned with the human clothing which she passed on to Brent. He was not surprised to find it no more than rags; a pitiful loincloth and smocklike thing. But he took them all the same. He wasn’t so stupefied that he couldn’t recognize kindness when he found it. These two chimps were Okay Joes.

“Cornelius is right,” Zira agreed. “Be very careful and get out of those things you are wearing as soon as you can.”

Brent nodded, arms full, took Nova by the hand and led her to the door of the house. There he stopped and turned.

“Thanks,” he said, simply. It was all he could think of to say. He had never had hospitality from an ape before.

“Thank us by finding Taylor,” Zira said softly, a light shining from deep within her gimlet eyes.

“If he’s alive,” Brent said.

There was no more to be said.

He left, taking Nova with him.

Leaving behind Zira and Cornelius to ponder again the remarkable peculiarity of humans who could speak.

The Lawgiver would have revolved on his stone base if word of that had ever come to him.

The figure of a Great Ape reading a book would not have understood—or believed—such a phenomenon.

He who was supposed to know all things.

6.

NOVA

Brent and Nova did not get very far.

As soon as he had changed from his astronaut’s white into the ragged remnants of what passed for human clothing, both he and the girl struck out through the scrub in the direction of the Forbidden Zone. The brush was quiet, almost tropical, with nothing but the occasional twitter of winged creatures indicating any form of activity. The sun still held the heavens, raining down an unremitting liquid sunshine. The glare was almost unbearably bright. Brent had to keep his eyes continually slitted. Nova seemed not to mind. Together, very cautiously, she and Brent worked a route through the trees and bushes. Once they had retrieved the horse, Brent hurriedly mounted up, swinging Nova on behind him.

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