The human jerked back and pressed its back into the wall when Urko stormed into its cell, but he wasn't in the mood for games today. Well, that wasn't exactly true, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself in time, and speaking of time... Vanda had just warned him that this commodity was rapidly running out, too.
Today, he needed results without a lot of fuss. And since the little kak-thrower had alerted Zaius' inner circle now, too, he needed results without leaving visible traces on the frog.
Too bad - yesterday had been a lot of fun.
But as the Chimp had pointed out, this wasn't for his personal entertainment... not today. Urko crouched down and grabbed a fistful of sweat-soaked fur. The human's eyes rolled back, showing only the whites.
"You gave me a list of names last time," Urko growled. "Let's go over the names again." He gave the human's head an encouraging shake when no answer came. The creature's body was shaking in his grip, muscles hard like wood. Maybe that was the reason it didn't speak - its jaw was locked in the same rigor. Vanda would probably stroke its fur to calm it down.
Urko found himself scanning the cell for the broomstick. His eyes fell on the piss bucket instead.
It was empty - judging by the stink, the human didn't bother with crawling to the bucket anymore, but simply soiled itself instead. Didn't matter, Urko had another use for the bucket in mind. He sent Orlen to fill it with water and get some ropes.
"You need a bath, Burke, you stink something fierce," he said conversationally, while Orlen tied the human's hands behind its back. It had begun to stammer as soon as his aide had turned it on its belly, but its voice was too weak and unsteady to make out the words. Urko grinned and grabbed its scalp again to lift up its head.
"What's that you're saying? You liked what we did last time? Huh? Want me to give it to you again?" The human jerked back and began to struggle against his grip, and Urko chuckled. "Now come on, it wasn't that bad! And, you know, it gets easier the more you do it... you'll get used to it and with time, you'll like it..."
Orlen coughed and Urko growled with irritation, but his aide was right - as much as he enjoyed this, they just didn't have the time. He let go of the human's scalp and ruffled its fur with fake joviality. "I really regret that I can't satisfy you today, but we have work to do, and I'm in a terrible hurry. So I suggest you just give me what I want, and I promise I'll leave you alone. What do you say, hm?"
The human's breath came in rapid, wheezing sobs, but it tried to speak, so Urko waited patiently for it to get a grip. "Wh... what... doyou... wannaknow?"
"The names, Burke," Urko repeated, careful to make his voice soft and unthreatening. "You gave me a list of names, and I want you to repeat them."
"... why?"
"I'm the one asking the questions here." He allowed himself to growl this time, and the human tensed up. "The names."
He watched Burke's throat work as the human tried to swallow. "L...Lincoln... Eisenhower... D-Davy Crockett... uh..."
"Go on."
Silence. "I... I can't remember," the human finally whispered. "C-can't remember lots of things..."
Urko breathed in. Slowly, gently, through the nose. He filled himself up with air until he felt as if his chest would explode. Then breathed out again, just as slowly, just as carefully.
"None of these names are on my list, Burke. Not. A. Single. One of them."
"Maybe, maybe I... forgot... forgot them... last time." The human was shaking.
"Or maybe you lied to me."
The silence was deeper somehow. It took Urko a moment to realize that the human was holding its breath.
Vanda had been right.
Urko felt a tremor waking up deep inside, growing and rising like one of the big quakes that shook the Forbidden Zones until this day. It was rising upward, roaring in his ears, shivering down his arms and rising his fur like the air did before a thunderstorm.
They had run out of time. In a moment, he would crush that creature's skull in his hand like an egg. He could already feel the bone breaking under his fingers, could feel them dig into the soft mass beneath it...
"Orlen, bucket."
He had to be fast now, had to outrun his rage. Urko yanked the human up to its knees by the hair on its head, ignored its yelp and tore the bucket from Orlen with his free hand.
"You'll give me the names now, the real names, or I'll drown you like a rat." Or maybe he'd drown it anyway, he was in the mood for it.
And maybe he had held it under water for a bit longer than necessary, until the frantic kicking weakened and paused, but he did pull it out in time, after a prompt from Orlen, and he did manage to wait until the retching and coughing and sobbing had subsided a bit.
"The names." His voice was alien even to him now.
The human lay there, on its side, its flanks pumping, its gaze wandering aimlessly, landing everywhere except on him. When it finally spoke, Urko had to crouch down to catch its words.
"Goddamn, Urko," Burke whispered. "What... what would your mom say... if she could see you now?"
Urko blinked.
"My mother," he said slowly. How did that creature know about his mother?
"My mother would cheer me on. She'd lay one hand on my back, and with her other one, guide my hands as they cut you open and dig out your guts... like the humans cut her open and dug out the baby inside her. Like they smashed my brother's head against the barn door so that his brain was smeared all over the wood." A wave of nausea shook him, an old, long forgotten terror, as the image flicked up in his mind, as sharp and real as if it had just happened a moment ago.
"I was hiding in the well, deep down, digging my fingers into the mud between the stones, and I heard them scream far above me." He didn't know what he was saying, he was lost in the smell of blood, and smoke. "They're still screaming, but I know how to make it stop." He gently stroked the human's face with his fingers. "When I kill one of you filthy beasts, they're silent. They're... content." He exhaled slowly, the rage seeping out of him like black oil. "Until they get restless again. But that's the only good thing about your ilk: there's never a shortage of humans, so I'll never run out of kills."
The human was silent for a long time, but it had stopped shaking, too. It looked... thoughtful.
"Y'know," it said finally, its voice hoarse and broken, "I had a pretty shitty childhood, too, but I still don't go around torturing kittens."
Urko rose; it felt good to stretch his legs. "You'll go on a little trip now, Burke." He was done. He was done, and he didn't want to see this damn creature anymore, and he wouldn't leave it to Vanda, either. No, that little louse-eater wouldn't get to play with the human anymore. He was the Chief General of the Simian Guard: this prison was his, and this prisoner was his, too, to do with it as he saw fit. "There's a doctor waiting for you - he wants to cut up your skull and dig around in your brain a bit. Maybe you'll survive it, maybe you won't. If you survive it, you'll be a vegetable, so if I was you, I'd hope he'll rip a big vein in there while he's searching for your soul."
"That's alright," Burke whispered. "'s alright, either way." It took Urko a moment to identify the human's expression.
It looked at peace.
"You know, when I told Galen that I wanted to play a bigger part in this little adventure than just whipping up Mango Miracles in my kitchen, I wasn't exactly thinking of crawling through a hedge in my second best hunting suit." Melvin was surprisingly agile for an ape of his size, and except for a slight wheezing, didn't make any sound; Virdon was beginning to believe him that he actually did hunt on his father's estate. At least he didn't endanger their scouting mission by snapping every dry twig in his path, like Galen.
If something would give them away, it was the smell of cat urine that hung in the ape's clothes, as inseparably fused into the fabric as the cat hair.
That, or the incessant chatter.
When Galen and Zana had returned, giddy with relief at having made it back alive and undetected, and with elation over their find, they had both fought over who would accompany him to the abandoned water tower outside the city to break out 'Peet'. It had filled his heart with a strange ache - yes, he had known that Zana loved his friend, though he had never dared to examine that love too closely for fear it might turn out to be the same feeling you had for a beloved dog - but to see them almost get into a serious spat about who would be the one to save Pete's life had driven home how much these... these aliens had come to regard them as friends. As equals.
He should begin to allow himself to let his guard drop. Allow himself to see them as friends, too, not just circumstantial allies.
He'd had to turn both of them down, in the end - Galen was the son of a high-ranking council member, and his face had been on the wanted posters that had been plastered all over town for months, just as Zana's had. They simply were too visible; it was a miracle that Galen's street vendor persona had worked so flawlessly.
But he wouldn't be able to go on that mission alone, either - any human attempting to leave the city would be thoroughly questioned at the gates, and his identity as Melvin's slave just wasn't watertight enough to try that. In the company of an ape, on the other hand, nobody would spare him a second glance - he was already under supervision, after all.
So it had to be Melvin. The fat chimp actually wasn't too bad, in a thoughtless, upper-class way. He was the first ape after Polar who regarded him as neither a pest, nor a person. It was an... interesting experience.
It was damn irritating, to be honest.
But it was also irrelevant; Melvin was nothing more than part of his cover, and as long as he didn't draw unwelcome attention from the guards who were circling the perimeter below them, Virdon could ignore his prattle, or at least tune it out enough not to strangle him.
He and his chaperone were lying on their bellies in the high grass, and observing the bustle at the entrance. Something was happening down there, and Virdon didn't like it.
"Looks like they're getting a delivery from 'Orvan's Delights'," Melvin remarked in a low voice.
"More like making a delivery," Virdon murmured back. He had planned to learn the number of guards, their pattern of movement, and the times of shift changes, and then to neutralize one of them after dark and go in and... improvise from there. There just was no way to learn the layout of the prison, or the strength of forces inside - he'd just have to be faster, and more ruthless, than the apes.
That wouldn't be a problem.
But now it looked as if that plan had been rendered moot - a covered cart had been drawn up at the gate, and Virdon could think of only one reason for its presence... someone was being transferred from this prison.
What he couldn't begin to guess was the reason for the transfer. Maybe they had managed to break Pete and gotten everything they needed from him (and he wouldn't blame him for it, everyone broke at some point, everyone), and were just taking him to another prison, or maybe Urko had gone overboard and they needed a bit more help now than a police medic could give...
Or maybe Pete was dead and they were about to dump his corpse somewhere in the swamp.
Maybe they were too late.
If they killed you, I'll make sure you get a proper funeral, Pete - I won't let them throw you away like a piece of garbage.
And then I'll go back and kill Urko, and if it's the last thing I'll do.
It would be the last thing he'd do, but at least he'd die being at peace.
The sun was pounding on his head, sucking the moisture from the ditches, and the wind was rustling through the grass. The voices of the guards sounded up to them, thin and indistinct, almost drowned out by the high-pitched buzz of mosquitos that were swarming him and Melvin in their hideout. Down at the gates, the horses were shaking their manes against the tiny pests, while black uniforms were hurrying in and out of the entrance, maneuvering the cart back and forth to demonstrate to their superiors that they had a reason to be there.
Behind him, Melvin slapped his own cheek. "Damn mosquitos. - That's a hospital wagon. Maybe a youngster passed out? I remember that I nearly fainted when I had to witness an execution for the first time. The man had murdered his wife and three children, but I still think he was mentally ill and should actually have been locked up in the asylum for the rest of his life..."
Virdon's breath stilled in his throat when a second group of guards emerged from the darkness of behind the entrance. They were carrying something.
Head lolling, a limp arm dangling. Naked skin, pale among the black uniforms. A human.
Burke.
It's a hospital wagon, Virdon reminded his pounding heart. A hospital wagon. That means Pete is alive. He's alive. His fingers dug into the grass, through the mesh of roots and soil.
What have they done to him?
"Can't get to him now," he said hoarsely, more to himself than to Melvin. "Not with that mob."
"I completely agree," Melvin said, relieved, "but once they're inside the city, you'll have an even greater mob to contend with."
"Civilians. I'm not worried about them." In fact, their confusion could even be used to their advantage. "Do you have any idea where they could be taking him?"
Melvin thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "There are several hospitals... but I think we can rule out The Mothers' Infirmary For The Destitute, and also the General Hospital... they don't treat humans there... and then there's the private clinic of doctor Leander, north of the City... oh, I know! Cesar's Clinic! They have a research department... they sometimes also treat people's humans for minor injuries there, although you should actually go to a veterinarian..."
Virdon had listened to his meandering with growing impatience while he kept an eye on things down at the water tower. "So Cesar's Clinic, you think? No other, equally probable destinations?"
"None that I can think of. As I said, they sometimes treat humans, because they also have them as lab...uh... Dr. Maltus is a widely known brain surgeon, although it must be said that he's not... not exactly uncontroversial."
"Well, he's not touching Pete's brain," Virdon said flatly. "Come on, we need to be there before they arrive. I'm going to have a word with that doctor."
"That's not a good idea." Melvin froze for a moment when Virdon turned around to stare at him, but then ploughed on, "Maltus has his own security, and you can bet that Urko's men will be all over the clinic, too. Yes, you can barge in and rip the doctor's throat out, but how will that help your friend?"
Below, a chimp was dumping Pete's body into the straw like a dead dog. Pete didn't move, although his head had come to lie in an awkward angle. The chimp still began to tie his wrists and ankles.
Virdon stared at the scene, grinding his teeth. "What do you suggest?"
"We need help. From someone powerful enough to defy Urko."
"They're all too afraid of that crazy gorilla... and even if you'd find someone who isn't, what reason would they have to help us?"
"Ah, nobody has a reason to help you." Melvin affectionately ruffled his hair, and Virdon gripped the grass harder to keep himself from doing something rash. "But I know someone who has a strong motivation to help Galen."
"This must be it." Zana's voice sounded strangely hollow, thrown back from the brick walls enclosing their little group. She also sounded as if she had a cold, because she was breathing through her mouth, closing her sinuses against the stench surrounding them.
Virdon was still amazed that the apes possessed such an advanced sanitation system; it reminded him of historical footage of London's sewerage, a widespread underground network of tunnels and catacombs that guided the foaming ooze of Cesaria into the surrounding swamps. Thankfully, its architects had outfitted the maintenance tunnels with embankments running alongside those dark brown rivulets.
Well, most of them. Yalu was in for an aromatic surprise.
"This storm drain opens to the alley behind your father's house," Zana continued, studying the map in the weak light of a lantern that Galen held up beside her. "We'll still be visible to any guard Urko might have posted to keep an eye on the back door as soon as we push up the hatch." She folded up the map and sent him a pleading look, clearly expecting him to have the solution for that problem already up his sleeve.
Well, he had, but Virdon doubted she would like it. "I'll take care of that guard," he said.
Galen frowned. "And with 'take care', you mean...?" He had stopped asking about the other guard, but Virdon suspected that he had drawn his own conclusions about the ape's fate and now worried about the wild human leaving a trail of dead apes in its wake.
Virdon didn't feel comfortable about it, either, but if he had to choose between Pete's life and one of Urko's men, there wasn't any real dilemma.
And he hadn't started this war.
"I mean that I'll take care of it," he said. "Or do you want to?"
Galen stared at him for a long moment. "No," he said finally, "I trust you to find an adequate response to the situation."
Don't kill unless there really is no other choice. For a moment, reality tilted, and Virdon fought the strange sensation of answering a superior officer. "I'll do my best," he swallowed the 'sir' just in time.
He went first, in case a sniper was waiting for them; but he climbed out into an empty, silent street, cobblestones shimmering in the late morning light. Galen and Zana rushed to the backdoor that was half hidden by a jasmine bush, seeking cover under its fragrant branches, while he set off to find Urko's spy.
When he joined them a short while later, Galen was locking eyes with a grizzly, grey-haired chimp in what seemed to be the living room, even though they were still on the ground floor. Zana was nowhere to be seen - Virdon assumed she was using the bathroom to get rid of the stench from their trip through the sewers. Or maybe she just wanted to avoid being in the same room as Galen's father. You could cut the tension with a knife in here.
Galen turned to him, probably glad to have reason to break eye contact with his father. "Did anyone see us?"
"Nobody's going to alert Urko," Virdon said evenly, and now Galen avoided his eyes, too. Yalu on the other hand pinned him down with a glacial stare, as if he was appraising a vicious dog, and Virdon found himself unable to move.
"I see you have armed yourself," Yalu remarked. "First sensible decision in ages." He crinkled his nose. "But you should groom it better. It stinks. All of you stink."
"We had to go through the sewers to avoid Urko's surveillance," Galen said. He sounded tired.
Yalu snorted. "For that strategy to work, you'd have to come out through the toilet bowl! What imbecile came up with... no, don't answer that!" He glared at Galen. "I told Urko my son wouldn't be stupid enough to come here. Again, my son proved me wrong."
"This isn't about me," Galen said, raising his chin to meet his father's eye. "Urko has taken one of my friends prisoner, and is currently transporting him to Dr. Maltus..." he let his voice trail away as if the name alone would tell Yalu everything he needed to know, and the old chimp made a face and turned away.
"A friend, hm? A simian friend?"
Galen exchanged a quick glance with Virdon. "A human friend."
"Your humans aren't my concern. Do you seriously expect me to lock horns with Urko over something that trivial?"
Virdon felt bile rise in his throat. "If your folks won't help us, we'll have to find another way-"
"Teach that one some manners while it's in my house, or I'll do it," Yalu growled, and Galen raised a hand towards Virdon, a warning, or a placation, it was impossible to say.
"Just hear me out, father..."
"I really would like to hug my son who's returned from the wilderness," a slightly husky voice interrupted the brewing argument, and Virdon turned around to the most dignified ape he had ever seen. She was wearing a blue gown and a serene expression, and Virdon found himself inclining his head in a respectful bow without wanting to.
"Ma'am..."
She stilled for a moment, taking in his disheveled appearance without comment, until her gaze traveled upward to meet his, and he was struck by the expression in those shimmering brown eyes. She was seeing him.
Then she moved on, and the spell was broken. "But before I can do that, you need to clean up, Galen, dear. I'm sure the conversation will go much more smoothly if we don't have to hold it in a sewer. You, too," she turned her head back to Virdon, "Mouna will bring you new clothes."
Virdon swallowed. "Time is running out while we speak, Ma'am..."
"Then I suggest you don't lose any more of it with arguing," Galen's mother said dryly. "Zana is already waiting in your father's study, Galen." With that, she left, presumably to join Zana so that she wouldn't have to face Yalu there alone.
Galen sighed. "Meet my parents. Let's get cleaned up - there's no use trying to defy my mother."
They joined the couple less than five minutes later, still slightly damp, but definitely better smelling, and by now, Virdon was ready to leave for the hospital on his own. By his estimation, the cart had to arrive there any moment now, and he doubted that the apes would lose much time with pre-surgery preparation. Melvin's quip about ripping out Maltus' throat sounded more and more appealing.
If he was lucky, maybe Urko would be there, too.
Yalu was sitting ramrod straight in a leather armchair, glaring at Zana who perched on the sofa, equally stiff. Galen's mother Ann was pouring tea, seemingly oblivious to the loaded atmosphere in the room.
"I can arrange a pardon for you, son," Yalu said without preamble. "I already told your girlfriend that there never was a death sentence on her head - Urko was just playing one of his sick games with her. Nobody gets hanged for letting some wild beasts run free; neither Zaius nor Urko could have justified such a request to the council - not without giving away their little secret about those particular humans." His eyes bored into Virdon's, and again he was frozen to the spot under the old chimp's glare. It occurred to him that while he had long stopped regarding these apes as animals, the reverse wasn't true for Yalu, even though the old warhorse seemed to know about his supposedly otherworldly origins.
That was the beauty of speciesism, Virdon supposed - it kept everyone in their place, creating a neat and orderly world, idyllic even, provided you resided at the top of its system.
"You're saying that Zana will get off free?" Galen sounded surprised - and hopeful. He deflated when Yalu shook his head.
"No, of course not! Those two are a danger to society, and she defied a direct order! But I'll see to it that her sentence will be short."
"What of her career?" Galen demanded to know.
Zana slapped her hand on her knee. "Stop letting him distract you, Galen! We're not here to save my career, but to save Peet's life!"
"She doesn't need a career as a married woman," Yalu growled, "and I'll take her in until you've served your sentence... how many years that may be."
"What about the humans?" Zana brushed away that scenario.
Yalu shrugged. "They're doomed."
Zana stood. "We have wasted enough time here." She strode to the door and grabbed Virdon's arm. "Let's go."
"They'll kill you before you'll even find that human in there," Yalu shouted after her. He shot to his feet when Galen moved to follow her out the door. "Didn't you hear what I just said?"
"I heard you, father."
"You can't... you'll break your mother's heart!"
Galen stopped without turning around. "I'm sorry, mother. But I have to go."
"Why?" Ann's voice was perfectly calm and unconcerned, but Virdon saw her hand that held the teacup tremble ever so slightly.
"Because Zana is going, and... and I belong with her."
Yalu snorted. "Nonsense! You'll be her husband, so she belongs with you, and you better cure her of that human-loving nonsense right away!"
Now Galen did turn around. "It's not nonsense," he said firmly, "these humans are people, father! They are my friends, and one of them is in mortal danger! Of course I'll help Zana and Alan to rescue Peet - every one of them would do the same for me."
"Then you'll die with them... for nothing," Yalu said darkly. "For a human!"
"That human isn't 'nothing'. A friend is never 'nothing'. And..." Galen made a step towards him, and Virdon's heart ached for the pain he saw on the young ape's face - no son should look at his father this way!
"Urko has him - had him since the last full moon," Galen pleaded. "Shouldn't that alone be reason enough to help Peet, human or not?"
"Absolutely!"
All eyes turned to Ann as she rose from her seat like a wave rose from the ocean bed. "And I'm not going to lose my son and his family to this depraved individual." She turned towards Virdon, and once again he was held in her calm gaze. "Yalu is right - you cannot just smash through the gates; it won't help your friend in the least if you get yourselves heroically killed."
"So what do you suggest, Ma'am?" Virdon found that he could defer to this woman without gnashing his teeth.
Ann smiled and put a hand on Zana's shoulder. "I suggest you leave this to our female ingenuity."
It was a strange feeling to see the streets and alleys of her childhood through the window of Ann's brougham. Although her parents had been well off, and her father had of course used a coach to go to work, Zana couldn't remember when she had last traveled in one herself. Maybe when she was very little?
She smiled nervously at the matron opposite of her and tugged at the rolled up blanket under her robe that had transported her into the last month of pregnancy in the course of mere minutes. "I hope I'll be convincing - I've never been pregnant..."
"Well, there's a first time for everything." Ann's sharp gaze seemed to burn through her robe, and the blanket, and expose the secret beneath it. But she merely added, "Female instinct will tell you how to act. Remember, those goons at the hospital are all men. As soon as their wives went into labor, they fled to the nearest pub and let themselves pity and celebrate by their drinking buddies."
Zana smoothed the robe over the bulging cushion. "I hope I can do it. Is it like very bad stomach cramps?"
"No," Ann said dryly. "Not at all like stomach cramps. As you will find out soon enough." Her eyes shone with irony at Zana's shocked stare. "Now you may be able to fool my poor, hapless son, and my equally hapless husband, but I'm not so old that I have gotten blind or senile. I gather you haven't told Galen yet?" It wasn't really a question.
Zana absently rubbed her thumb over her knuckles. "No. He... he'd disapprove." She looked up and continued quickly, "And he'd be right - in our situation, it'd be suicidal to try and carry it to term. I'd endanger all of them... I already did." The guilt that had lodged itself in her chest since that terrible day climbed into her throat and made her voice thick and strangled. "I'm so tired all the time, and I slowed them down. Peet... Peet came back for me, to distract the patrol so I could hide, and they took him. It would've been me, otherwise. It would've been me."
"He seems to have been a very faithful human," Ann remarked, and Zana tried not to flinch at her use of past tense. "I understand that you want to have him back. I hope you are not disappointed at what you will get back."
"Peet is my friend," Zana said softly. "And I owe him my life. Whatever he needs to get well again, he'll get it. I'll see to it that he does."
"Yalu spoke the truth back at our house - you can stay with us, at least until the baby is born. You are always welcome here."
Zana smiled wanly. As intimidating as Ann was, she could almost picture herself living there... drinking tea, and sewing baby clothes. But she couldn't stomach Yalu, and the feeling was evidently mutual. Ann seemed to sense her misgivings.
"Yalu is a good man," she said. "Honest to the bone, not afraid of anything - or anyone. You would have nothing to fear from Urko."
"I don't think he likes me very much," Zana murmured.
"He has strong convictions," Ann conceded. "And so do you. It makes for lively conversation." She raised an eyebrow when Zana burst into laughter. "I wouldn't have married a wimp. And it seems we have the same taste in men."
Zana opened her mouth to protest - her Galen, soft-spoken, conciliatory, cautious Galen, was nothing like his father! Nothing at all!
But then she remembered the book that he refused to share with anyone, but was copying obsessively every night in the weak firelight, and the risks he had taken on the humans' behalf in his various, hilarious disguises - even walking into Urko's headquarters - his dogged loyalty to her as he defied his father, just now, and back when he had come after her, to her secret tree...
"There we are," Ann said briskly, and when Zana looked up, her stomach cramped into a cold, hard lump. The brougham had stopped in the middle of a narrow back alley. Outside, she could make out a high wall with an iron gate and behind it, the olive colored walls of a low crouching building. It looked more like a warehouse than a proper simian building, let alone a clinic.
"I thought Dr. Maltus was a celebrity?" she whispered as she peered outside.
"He has garnered a certain notoriety," Ann commented dryly and rapped against the ceiling. "Open my door, Amos!"
A moment later, Alan, clad in the livree of one of Ann's slaves, yanked open the door and stood respectfully aside as Ann descended the two steps from her coach. "Help this poor woman to the building," Ann ordered, and he turned to Zana and offered her his arm. She took it, not daring to look into his face. He wore that distant expression again, the one that she had come to dread.
She took short, cautious steps at his arm, one hand pressed into her back, and kept herself slightly hunched so that the guard at the door wouldn't get a good look at her face. If it was Nelva...
But the voice was unknown to her. "No one's allowed to enter. Urko's orders."
"I am not 'no one'," Ann said, indignant. "I'm Councillor Yalu's wife."
"Sorry, ma'am. Not even a Councillor's wife may enter."
"This is a clinic, isn't it?" Zana took her cue and bent over with a moan. "And this is a medical emergency!" Ann cried. "Get me a doctor here at once!"
Zana kept her gaze glued to the dirty cobblestones at her feet while there was shuffling and muttering at the door. Then the seat of a wheelchair appeared in her field of vision, and Galen's hand, sticking out from the green sleeve of an orderly, took her from Alan's grip and helped her to sit down.
She only dared to look up when they had passed the still grumbling guard and his equally flustered superior. Ann sailed ahead, with Alan trailing a step behind her looking more like a bodyguard than a coach driver.
"I need a doctor!" Ann declared and made a beeline to a pair of doors with 'surgical ward' painted at the wall above them. Another guard stepped in her way, but Zana doubted that anyone or any thing could stop Ann when she was on a mission.
"Are you a doctor?" Ann demanded to know of the man, who was so surprised that he even gestured at his uniform.
"No, Ma'am, I'm Constable Orlen-"
"Then why am I even talking to you?" Ann said sharply. "I found this young woman here, who is very obviously very pregnant," she waited a moment to let him squirm, "and called off a very important meeting to take her to the nearest hospital, so she wouldn't have to give birth in the gutter. I went out of my way to help a young ape in need, at great personal inconvenience, so I suggest you go and find me a doctor before I have to employ you as her midwife."
The guard scurried away. Ann allowed herself a tiny, satisfied sniff. "Men. Not afraid to slaughter a pig, but horrified when it gets a little messy in the labor room!"
She pushed open the double doors and followed Orlen down the corridor, Alan prowling after her. Zana heard Galen take a deep breath behind her; then he pushed her wheelchair after them.
Ann stopped abruptly and took a sharp turn left; Alan hesitated a moment to throw a quick glance to Galen, who was struggling with the wheelchair and was slow to catch up to him, a silent message Zana didn't want to decipher. Then he followed Ann into the room.
It seemed to be a preparation room - metal tables, a sink at the far wall, a stretcher with...
Zana's heart began to race. A stretcher with Peet on it.
The tension in the room shot up in an instant, choking her breath. It took her a moment to identify its source, because Alan hadn't moved a muscle; not even his breathing had changed. But his eyes were unnaturally bright and alert now, his attention snapped into focus like a tiger prowling a deer. His gaze was intent on the still form on the stretcher on the other side of the examination table. Zana wondered how the guards couldn't see it, couldn't sense it, like the charge in the air before a thunderstorm broke loose that made one's fur stand on end.
Maybe they were distracted by the second force in the room. Ann had cornered an elderly, thin Chimpanzee who was turning his spectacles in his hands while he tried to compliment her out of the room. "I have a most important surgery in about ten minutes..." He gestured towards Peet.
"You mean a human is a more important patient than an ape? Did you lose your approbation and become a veterinarian?" Ann's voice held a delicate balance between shock and disdain, depending on how one wanted to interpret it, and Zana couldn't tell if the doctor winced at the former or the latter.
"General Urko made it abundantly clear that the human is his first priority..."
"Well, last time I looked, Urko hadn't yet gotten his approbation, so I assume this is still your clinic and not his," Ann said briskly. "Or is that another one of your... experiments, doctor?" She wandered over to the stretcher and peered down on Burke. "Poor thing. I'm beginning to understand the young people who are campaigning for more protective legislation regarding humans." She bent down to inspect him more closely, and Zana saw her hand hovering near the surgical instruments.
"Oh Mothers!" she cried out, and all heads turned towards her; even Alan flinched for a moment, then moved a few inches to the side. Positioning himself. Zana forced a loud moan from her throat. "I just had another one! That one was so bad!"
Everyone was converging on her now, Ann, Alan, the doctor who looked as if he was going to examine her right then and there, and then discover the blanket and would sound an alarm, and they were all doomed now because she was too proud to let others do the work for once, no, she had to interfere-
The doctor stared at her, his hands hovering over her blanket-enhanced belly, his eyes huge like a frightened deer, a scalpel at his throat, and Alan's face right beside his ear.
"If you alert the guards, I'll cut your throat," he said softly, calmly, and Zana froze in her chair just like the doctor froze. Both of them stopped breathing.
Behind them, something crashed. Alan whirled around, taking the doctor with him, his other arm pressing the Chimp against his chest. The scalpel stayed at the man's throat as if it was glued on there.
Orlen lay crumpled on the floor; Galen stood over him, a reflex hammer in his hand, staring at Alan as if he couldn't decide if he should be more horrified at the sight of a human holding a knife at an ape's throat, or at his own assault on the constable.
Ann sank to the floor in a faint.
Adrenaline was singing in Virdon's body, a high note of elation that hummed over the darker currents of his rage, tugging at the hand that held the scalpel, urging him to let loose into a terrible dance; he'd be unstoppable, inevitable, implacable.
Virdon took a deep breath, grabbed the ape harder, grabbed the scalpel harder, and steered his hostage towards the door of the operating room. "Do as I say, and you'll live," he murmured into the chimp's ear; the ape didn't react, out of fear, or maybe because it wasn't advisable to nod while you had a scalpel hugging your throat.
Behind him, he heard shuffling noises as Galen dragged Orlen's body across the floor after him. He had him get a roll of bandages, and together, they bound and gagged both the doctor and the still unconscious guard. Virdon tied them to the operating table for good measure.
When he returned, Ann had miraculously recovered from her fainting spell and was now keeping an eye on the corridor; Zana stood with her back to him, at the gurney.
She was bent over Burke.
For a moment, Virdon stood frozen to the spot, unable to step closer and assess the younger man's condition himself. If Pete was... if they had come too late...
Zana turned around as if she had sensed his presence; her eyes were dark and shining with unshed tears, and Virdon felt tears spring up in his own eyes, unbidden, unwelcome.
"He's unconscious, maybe... maybe he's even in a coma," Zana said in a trembling voice. "Oh Alan, he's in such a bad shape! I think some of his ribs are broken..."
Galen dumped a bundle of green clothing into his arms, and Virdon turned away, grateful for the interruption, grateful for the fabric soaking up the wetness from his eyes as he slipped the shirt over his head.
"I hid that second set in here when they ordered me to clean up Peet," Galen informed him, "it was a perfect opportunity to find out where he was and at the same time to prepare our breakout, and actually, I had planned to lead you here, since I had been the one who had infiltrated this clinic in the first place." He glowered at his mother who serenely ignored him. "Well, at least we can use that garb to get Peet out. He won't be able to walk by himself - we need to wheel him out on that gurney!"
"We should cover him with a blanket," Virdon suggested. "It will look as if we're transporting a... a dead ape." A strange bout of superstition made him want to avoid the word 'corpse'. He looked down on Burke, for the first time taking a good look at his friend.
Pete looked... exhausted, even in his unconscious state. His skin was gray under the fading tan, his lips dry and chapped, and the rest of his body... Virdon took a deep breath.
Well, he had lost weight, a lot, actually. There was a huge, dark bruise on his right side, maybe some broken ribs, as Zana had suggested, and Virdon worriedly thought of the liver and its big vessels under those ribs, under those mottled bruises. How badly had he been beaten? Was he already bleeding out under his skin, under their very eyes?
It was no use driving himself crazy with those questions now; they'd only lose precious time, and risk running into Urko, and as much as Virdon wished to run into Urko right now, getting Burke out of here, and to safety, had precedence.
"There is no blanket here," Galen said, shaking him out of his thoughts, "this is a preparation room, not a morgue."
"Thank god," Virdon murmured and grabbed the gurney. "Let's go then. You know the plan."
"Yes, and I still don't like it," Galen grumbled, but took up position at the other end. "Let's go before I change my mind and drag Zana out of here by her hair."
They had just rounded the corner, when Ann began to scream.
