"Kate Wilhelm - The Planners" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

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THE PLANNERS

Kate Wilhelm

Rae stopped before the one-way glass, stooped and peered at
the gibbon infant in the cage. Darin watched her bitterly. She
straightened after a moment, hands in smock pockets' face
innocent of any expression what-so-goddam-ever, and con-
tinued to saunter toward him through the aisle between the
cages.
"You still think it is cruel, and worthless?"
"Do you. Dr. Darin?"
"Why do you always do that? Answer my question with
one of your own?"
"Does it infuriate you?"
He shrugged and turned away. His lab coat was on the
chair where he had tossed it. He pulled it on over his sky-
blue sport shirt.
"How is the DriscoU boy?" Rae asked.
He stiffened, then relaxed again. Still not facing her, he
said, "Same as last week, last year. Same as he'll be until he
dies."
The hall door opened and a very large, very homely face
appeared. Stu Evers looked past Darin, down the aisle. "You
alone? I thought I heard voices."
"Talking to myself," Darin said. "The committee ready
yet?"
"Just about. Dr. Jacobsen is stalling with his nose-throat
spray routine, as usual." He hesitated a moment, glancing
again down the row of cages, then at Darin. "Wouldn't you
think a guy allergic to monkeys would find some other line
of research?"
Darin looked, but Rae was gone. What had it been this
time: the DriscoU boy, the .trend of the project itself? He
wondered if she had a life of her own when she was away.
"I'll be out at the compound," he said. He passed-Stu in the
doorway and headed toward the livid greenery of Florida
forests.
The cacophony hit him at the door. There were four hun-
dred sixty-nine monkeys on the thirty-six acres of wooded
ground the research department was using. Each monkey was
screeching, howling, singing, cursing, or otherwise making its
presence known. Darin grunted and headed toward the com-
pound. The Happiest Monkeys in the World, a newspaper
article had called them. Singing Monkeys, a subhead an-
nounced. MONKEYS GIVEN SMARTNESS PILLS, the most enter-
prising paper had proclaimed. Cruelty Charged, added another
in subdued, sorrowful tones.