"We need these thugs for escort like we need a case of cholera." Burke kept his voice to an almost inaudible murmur. "What do we do when we get there? Zaius will arrest us as soon as we walk through his door!"
"We'll think of something when we're there," Galen murmured back. "Right now, I see no way to escape them. You?"
He was right, Burke admitted with a shaky breath; the cart was sneaking uphill through narrow streets, black-clad escort in front and behind it. Their only escape was to jump off the cart and race away on foot.
Yeah, that had ended well last time.
No, Galen was right - they had to keep their eyes open for any chance to turn their luck around once they had reached Zaius' home; maybe take the old ape hostage, or... he came up empty. He was pretty sure that creating a hostage situation wouldn't help them to escape, on the contrary - it would give Urko a reason to burn the house down with them in it, and get Zaius out of the way in one go.
He remembered how the gorilla had fired a stun grenade during their secret tribunal; not only had he thrown the thing in Zaius' direction, he hadn't received so much as a slap on the wrist for that stunt afterwards.
And now Urko's men were guarding Zaius. To protect him.
Yeah, right.
Burke felt the tension humming inside him, surging into his limbs, wave after wave, urging him to jump up and run, jump up and plunge his knife into the nearest guard's neck. He could feel the ghost of flesh and cartilage resist the thought of his knife, the density of muscle and bone, pushing against the shuddering hilt-
"Steady there, that's a good boy," Galen said, and Burke inhaled with a hiss, returned to the cart and the street and the last coppery beams of sunlight with a jolt.
But Galen's eyes were on the horse.
They were leaving the last of the mushroom-shaped houses behind them now, and entered what looked like a park - a sprawling grove covering the hillside above the City. The air was cool and moist under the trees, a soothing caress against his hot skin, and the greenery swallowed the noise of cart wheels and ape voices.
So this was where the bigwigs had their homes. Some things never changed. Burke craned his neck to see where the guards were leading them - they had left the cobbled main street and were now rolling over a grassy path between the trees. The fading light was even weaker under the canopy, and he couldn't see much. The riders ahead of them were indistinct shadows moving under the whispering roof of the treetops.
Galen reined in the horse, bringing the cart to a halt. Burke scanned their surroundings, puzzled - there were only trees all around them, black columns towering over the mossy floor.
"Above you," Galen muttered and jumped off the cart. Burke looked up.
It was shaped like an egg, no, like an oyster, no, like the nest of wild bees that he and Ehpah had raided for honey so long ago... like all of these things and none of them, an alien thing nesting in the crown of the tree before him, reaching out from the trunk in a bold, swooping arch, then curving back and up and around the central column in alien angles and inclines.
Burke swallowed. "We're meant to climb up there?" Zaius' human lived up there, with his master? The image refused to take shape in his mind.
"There's a pet ladder at the other side," the patrol leader sneered, and pointed. Then he vanished up the tree with swift, powerful moves. His lieutenant stayed where he was, waiting for Galen to follow.
There was no way either of them could outrun the patrol here. Galen ducked into the cart and resurfaced with a leather bag - a doctor's bag that he had only bought an hour or so ago. "Bring me my bag, and don't dawdle." He dropped it into Burke's arms. "There are scalpels in there," he murmured. He took a step back; even in the rapidly fading light, Burke could feel his stare. "I can't start my examination without you, Polo. Be swift."
Then he jumped up to the lowest branch and was gone. Burke snorted and rounded the trunk. Even if I sprint up the stairs, I won't overtake you, Galen. You'd better outfitted yourself with that scalpel. You have Zaius and his head jailer against you up there.
The "pet ladder" was more like a steep gangway that snaked around the trunk, and after the first tentative steps, Burke began to jog, then to run upward, letting the smooth handrail guide him in the darkness. It was no longer a complete darkness now, as all around him, lights began to bloom in the crowns of the trees. Colored curtains tinted them in soft shades of pink and yellow, green and blue: egg-shaped fairy-lights floating in the dark. Burke felt the little hairs in his neck and on his arms rise in response.
Curved walls grew out of the darkness to both sides of the gangway, turning it into a tunnel; at its end, yellow light filtered through the gaps in the woven door. Burke paused, chest heaving, and wiped the sweat from his brow and his temples. His hair was damp, clinging to his scalp and neck. His palms were sweaty, too; he wiped them on his pants. Wouldn't do if he slipped off the handle.
The knife was still tied to his belt, invisible under his shirt; its weight had calmed him down today again and again, like a steadying hand at the small of his back.
He unsheathed it now; steadied his breath. He felt the nervous energy recede, as it had done when the patrol had stopped them in the street, leaving him calm and clear and alert. After all that jumpy, trembling, flinching tension that had exhausted him, this was good. He wished he could always be in that zone he was in now.
He thoughtfully tilted the knife and watched the colored light race along the edge. As meek and mellow as Galen was, he kept his knives sharp. Burke swiveled it around so that the blade was nestled against his wrist, hidden at the inside of his arm, and pushed the door open with his foot.
He was standing in a short corridor, floor and walls woven from a kind of bamboo stalks that made him feel as if he was inside a huge wicker basket; the light he had seen from outside was coming from the main room ahead of him, together with a murmur of voices. They didn't sound threatening or upset, but that meant nothing; Urko could strike a light conversational tone when he was about to carve you up.
He crept closer.
Galen was standing next to a pile of multi-colored blankets, the patrol leader hovering at his shoulder. Both chimps were staring down on something Burke couldn't see; they were turning their backs to him. A quick scan of the room showed him that Zaius wasn't here.
But his collection was. All the damn artifacts from his secret room behind his office were lined up along the walls, sitting on shelves and in glass cabinets - the dolls, and the coffee machine, and the calculator, and...
... and the books. He couldn't see the surgery book from where he was standing, but it had to be there, too. Zaius wouldn't haul his treasures over here and throw away the one book that was actually useful. It wouldn't have made sense, right? It had to be there, somewhere in the shadows.
His blood thundered in his ears as alarm slammed into him like a rogue wave; his arms and legs went heavy and numb and his fingers were like rubber, slow to respond to his brain's commands.
Galen turned around as if he had sensed the spike in tension. "Ah, it took you long enough, boy. Bring me the instruments, this human here needs help."
The bundle of blankets was a human. Zaius had allowed a human to lie on his couch. Burke covertly sheathed the knife and came over to them; it felt like wading through water. He kept his gaze on Zaius' slave. For some reason, he couldn't meet the apes' eyes, not even Galen's.
The man looked bad... pale and bruised, and not all there. He looked as if he'd gotten a terrible beating and the room was suddenly tilting and all the noises were muffled and far away.
Someone gently plucked the bag from his hand; Burke just stood there, rooted to the spot, and stared at the old man who was sleeping - or unconscious - under that pile of blankets. A thin red line went from his left nostril over his cheek and vanished under his earlobe. Blood.
Someone took him by the elbows, just as gently as before, and moved him two steps to the side. Galen appeared in his field of vision, bending over the man and pulling his lower eyelids down. Burke watched numbly as he inspected the man's gums.
He really looks like a real doctor. The thought formed slowly in his mind, like frost on a window pane. His limbs still felt strange, heavy and dead, as if they didn't really belong to him, and he had no idea why. Nothing had happened, even that ape cop was keeping to the back of the room, just observing the doc and his orderly.
Who was standing around like a dumb mule. Yeah well, that's just what he was expected to do anyway.
Galen straightened and turned to him. "He is bleeding inside. That's no illness I know of."
Burke rubbed his palms over his thighs, trying to get rid of the strange paralysis in them. "Yeah, but how many illnesses do you know?" He kept his voice to a whisper; no need to tip off the cop that his master had no fucking clue what he was supposed to do, at least not before Burke got his body back under control.
"I did study medicine." Galen's whisper was a bit sharper than before; maybe he regretted now that he hadn't finished his studies. "This is no illness - the human was poisoned. His blood is too runny - I think whoever did this used viper weed."
It was not a herb that Burke had ever heard of, but he was no herbalist; it could be the apes' name for a weed he didn't know anyway, or some freak mutation like the opers that Al had loved so much while they had been stranded on Gilligan's island. "Why would anyone try to poison Zaius' slave?"
Galen stared down at the still unconscious human, rubbing his chin. "Nobody tried to poison that poor... man. They tried to poison Zaius himself. It's just that Semon here eats the first portion of everything that lands on his master's table. It's a precautionary measure that not many apes feel is necessary. I always thought it was just an old man's paranoia. Apparently I was wrong."
"So, no leeches," Burke deadpanned. Galen shot him a sharp glance, and Burke shrugged. There wasn't anything they could do for the poor bastard, but it wasn't necessary to damage him even more, right?
"No, no leeches," Galen muttered. "And going by the symptoms, whatever I try might be too little, too late, anyway. But try we must."
Burke took a step closer to him. "Zaius has brought all his stuff over here," he whispered. "That means the surgery book is here, too! We can't waste our time on that guy here - Zaius could come back any moment! Where is he, anyway?"
"Emergency session of the Council," Galen murmured and bent down over the slave again. "It seems the student protests are getting a bit... rough, lately. You heard that they arrested Zibaya."
The name didn't ring a bell for Burke, and he didn't give a damn who the monkeys arrested. The more they were busy kicking each other's asses, the better - gave them less free time to come after him and Al. "This is our only chance to get the book!"
Galen whipped around. Burke jerked back, but the ape brushed past him and strode towards the captain, who straightened in alarm and stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against. "It is worse than I had thought, officer - this human shows all the symptoms of Kahrna fever!"
The ape blinked, startled by the urgency in Galen's voice, but unsure of its significance. "And that's bad?"
"Bad for the human? Yes, but it's even worse for any ape who happens to be close by - it's highly contagious!" Galen hesitated, then translated: "Apes can catch it from humans, and the illness is even worse in them than it is in humans."
The cop's eyes flickered towards the couch. "It's dying - what could be worse than that?"
"I'd say the death of an ape is worse than the death of a human," Galen snapped, and Burke felt his jaw clench. Sure, Galen had to stay in his role, but damn, the chimp didn't have to enjoy himself so much!
"But I was actually talking about the survivors, officer," Galen continued. "They suffer from penile bleeding, erectile dysfunction, and testicular hypoplasia."
"Uh... what?"
"The males bleed from the penis, can't get an erection, and their testicles shrink," Galen said, matter-of-fact. "The degeneration is permanent. Oh, and they'll suffer from numb tongue and olfactory hallucinations. You see, the poison affects the nervous system, too."
Burke turned away to hide his grin as the officer took two hasty steps back. "Do you think I... I caught it already?"
"That's hard to tell," Galen deadpanned. "Have you been around that human a lot in the last two days?"
Burke couldn't see the chimp's reaction as he was still facing away from him, trying hard to keep his shoulders from shaking with silent laughter.
But Galen's next words indicated that the ape had in fact been around the poor sob that was bleeding out internally on Zaius' couch. "Then I suggest you lose no time to get the antidote - here, let me write you a prescription for Horny Goat Weed. Don't look at me like that, officer, that really is its name. Off you go now - and in the next ten days, apply hot steam to your private parts, too. Just a precautionary measure, you don't have to do it..."
"Thank you, doctor, I'll... I'll wait at the base for you."
Burke squeezed his eyes shut and massaged the bridge of his nose while the floor bounced from the chimp's hurried steps. "Horny Goat Weed, huh?" He only dared to turn around when he was sure that the officer had left the room.
Galen was corking his ink jar; he flicked him a wry glance. "I may not have sat through the final exams, and I'll never wield a scalpel, but I did have excellent grades. Herbalism was a favourite class of mine, and the first thing we students looked up were the aphrodisiacs, naturally."
Burke shook his head. Yeah, naturally.
"I suggest we make use of this little window of opportunity," Galen said. "You know what you're looking for - meanwhile, I will jump down and get that pouch of powdered alfalfa, and milk thistle, and-"
"You do that," Burke interrupted him. "An' make sure none of the others climbs up here with you."
The silence in the room was intense once Galen had left; it was rushing in his ears like the inside of a sea shell, and Burke felt his heartbeat pick up again. His chest was tight all of a sudden. No, no... now is not a good time... if only he knew what it was that set him off in here! He shuffled to the bookshelf, his legs already heavy and slow to obey his will.
He was hyperventilating, but he couldn't get it under control. He needed to find the book before he got dizzy and numb again. Focus, focus...
There it was; behind the glass door of one of the cabinets. The door was locked, but no problem for Pete Burke - good thing Galen had bought him the lock picks. Good thing his youth had been such a fucked-up mess... silence and beatings, and dreams of rockets and robots...
He blinked. Here and now. Here and now. There was a glass door he needed to open, but his palms were wet, and his hands were shaking, and nausea was climbing into his throat, and glass was shattering and his sleeve was clinging to his arm now, warm and wet above the elbow.
He reached through the jagged mouth of the broken door and eased out the book. It was even heavier than he remembered.
There was another book with legible print there. He took it, too, not even reading the title. That's our books, you fucking monkey. Our books, not yours.
And then it was as if his body went crazy all of a sudden. When Katlin had forced him to ride with them back to Aken's town - his first time ever on horseback, racing through the night - it was as if his body was bolting, accelerating to insane speed, refusing to listen to him anymore. The roaring in his ears swelled to a thundering surf, and the light got brighter, but everything was far away and unreal, the only reality was his stumbling heart and his twitching limbs.
I'm going crazy. I'm going crazy-
He fought to regain control, but it was as if the bond between his brain and his body had been severed and it wasn't getting better, itwasgettingworse-
The smell of ape engulfed him and he cried out and smashed his fist into fur and-
"Peet! Peet... Peet. It's me, it's me, I'm your friend, look at me. Look at me..."
He was breathing to deep, too fast, and the ape was blocking his escape.
"Hold your breath, Peet. Just hold it for a moment."
He tried, but it felt like drowning and he had to gasp for air. Someone was kneading the muscles between his neck and shoulders. "Try again, Peet. Try to hold your breath for a bit. That's good. Now exhale, slowly. As if there was a candle in front of you. You don't want to blow it out. Easy, easy..."
Galen was crouching in front of him, his hands still on his shoulders. Burke stared at him, trying to slow his next breath. Galen nodded. "As if you were inhaling the scent of something nice. A rose, perhaps? What would be a nice scent to smell right now? Can you think of something?"
"Coffee." His voice was rough and breathy. "Really like to smell... coffee again."
Slowly, his mind cleared, a strange sensation of hot water rushing down the sides of his head, leaving a faint ringing in his ears. His field of vision expanded again. Burke wished he could curl up and sleep - he felt wrung out, shaky with exhaustion.
"Stay there for a moment and smell the... the kofi," Galen said. "I need to write a note for Zaius." He rose and Burke stared at his retreating legs. His head was still ringing.
"What are you writing?" he asked after a long moment.
Galen didn't look up; his pen was scratching hurriedly over the paper. "I'm letting him know that old Semon was poisoned, what I think the poison was, and how to treat it. And to be especially careful - more than he already is."
"Why... why warn him?" As far as Burke knew, the old orangutan wanted them just as dead as Urko. He was just more polite about it.
"Do you want Urko to be Council Eldest?"
"Actually I don't give a damn. Doesn't make a difference for Al an' me."
Al. Shit, Al was probably dying right now, just because he was wasting time with a fucking panic attack! For a moment, intense, burning rage flared up inside him; he felt betrayed by his own body.
This won't happen again.
It couldn't happen again. He had to get his shit together. Burke forced himself to get up, and to cross the short distance to Galen, who had finished his note and was now throwing his writing materials into his doctor bag. "You didn't sign as Dr. Kova, right?"
"Give me that book." Galen squeezed it into the bag; he frowned at the second book. "What's this?"
Burke craned his neck to read the title. He smiled, although he didn't feel amused. "A little present for Al. What's the harm - Zaius can't read it, anyway. An' I doubt he'd read anything written by a human, even if he could."
Galen stared at him for a moment, then he shrugged and forced the booklet into the bag. He struggled with the clasps for a moment. "No, I signed as Dr. Maltus."
"Who?"
"The surgeon who wanted to lobotomize you. He is known for experimenting on humans, so Zaius will find it logical to search his clinic for that book on human surgery first. You said it has lots of pictures in it."
Now it was Burke's turn to stare. "You frighten me, chimp."
Galen smiled thinly and dumped the heavy bag into his arms. "And that is as it should be, human."
The mysterious Kahrna fever had done a nice job of sending the rest of Zaius' guard rushing for the nearest herbalist, leaving Galen and his human behind to find their way back into town on their own. Galen thought that they could have at least led them back through the woods to where the first lanterns were illuminating the cobbled road again, but on the other hand, it was preferable to coming up with yet another pretense to shake them off. They would be back at Leander's clinic when the panicked chimps were still dragging some surprised apothecary away from his dinner table.
Peet was strangely silent beside him; Galen watched him from the corner of his eyes. The human was staring into space, his hands slack in his lap; he looked utterly exhausted.
It had been too much for him, really; Galen had questioned the wisdom of Peet's decision to go back into the city to retrieve that human book from the beginning, but Peet had argued that he wouldn't know what to look for, and they couldn't risk going there twice. He had been convinced that the book was the only chance to save Alan's life, but the book wouldn't help them in the least if Kira kept refusing to touch the human.
They turned a corner and entered Main Street; they were almost the only people still about that late in the evening, and the hooves of their horse echoed on the stones.
How could he have misjudged her so? Was she really still that outraged at him? Or was it Leander's influence that had changed her attitude towards humans? Galen tried to remember if she had been as dismissive of them while they had been at Cesar's Medical School together, but came up blank; it just hadn't been an issue back then. Humans had simply been part of the scenery - there, but not really present in anyone's awareness. And now...
Galen breathed a little sigh and flicked another sideways glance at his latest acquisition; the things that entered your life together with your girlfriend... his life would have gotten more complicated just the same, after his snap decision to run away with a censored book, but he could have avoided at least three... ha, adventures... if the humans hadn't been around to run after females, or explore ancient cities...
... or let themselves get captured and tortured by Urko.
Ah, well. Galen scrunched his nose. No use thinking about that now. They had them now, Zana and he, and they'd keep them - Zana wouldn't allow anything else - and he had gotten used to them by now.
But he'd have to keep an eye on Peet. The human was fey now - no wonder, after all the abuse that had been inflicted on it - but that made it unpredictable; Galen didn't believe that Peet would ever attack any of them... well, not consciously... but there was a distinct chance that he would either freeze or bolt at the most inopportune moments.
He would have to talk to Zana about this - she would know how to train the human so that he wouldn't be a danger to himself and the people around him.
After he had persuaded Kira to treat Zana's other human. They had reached the northern outskirts of the city now, and Galen urged the horse into a light trot. Well, that wasn't fair - he had come to like Alan, and had stopped seeing him as "Zana's human" quite a while ago. He was just tired, and hungry, and wrung out after that close encounter with the guards, and more than a little worried about the hints of unrest simmering behind the bustling, loud facade of the City.
He wanted to save Alan, too. He was just irritated with everything right now.
"Are you feeling better, Peet?"
"Yeah."
Galen waited, but there was no other reply forthcoming. "We'll be there soon," he offered, "and then you'll eat something, and sleep..."
"I'll have a look at Al first, see how he's doing." Peet's voice was low, without its usual liveliness.
"I'm sure he'll be asleep by now, too..."
"Yeah, maybe, but I'll still have a look." A stubborn note had entered Peet's words, and Galen shook his head. He didn't dare to think what Peet would be like if his friend didn't survive the infection...
He would talk to Kira right away. Show her the book - if it didn't convince her to operate, it would in any case shake her views on humans. It was an undeniable reality.
Peet jumped off the cart as soon as they rolled into the clinic's backyard and hurried towards the humans' hut. Galen threw the lines to one of the humans that still lingered about, and stiffly climbed down from his seat. The leather bag was heavy as if he was carrying boulders in it and for a moment, he wished he had ordered Peet to stay by his side and carry it for him. On the other hand, it was probably better if the human was not in the same room when he talked to Kira.
There was still light coming from her office; Kira didn't really believe in 'free time.' Galen smiled as he remembered the many nights when he lounged on her bed while she was burying her nose in a textbook - their version of a date night. She hadn't really changed.
And neither had he, and that was probably the reason she was so furious about him. Galen drew a deep breath and entered without knocking.
She was writing a report... or a paper, it was hard to say. She didn't acknowledge him even when he stepped closer, until he laid her doctor's seal on the desk.
"You stole my Seal?" Kira leaned back in her seat, her eyes huge with disbelief.
Galen smiled wryly. "I prefer the term 'borrow.' I brought it back, after all."
Now her eyes narrowed. "You used it to do something illegal! Don't tell me that I shouldn't be outraged at that! My Seal! I could lose my approbation!" She snatched the metal disc and clutched it against her chest; her gaze flicked over her desk and the cabinets lining the walls.
"You don't have to look for a hiding place," Galen said tiredly. "I assure you I won't need it again. But you said it yourself, we can't stay here, and I had to prepare our departure. That Kova identity is rather useful..."
"If I ever get wind of you practicing on an ape, I'll send Urko after you myself," Kira said flatly.
"Actually, I practiced on my first human today, and it went rather smoothly." Galen sat down. "I didn't get paid, of course, but I got something much more interesting in exchange." He began to open the buckles of his newly acquired doctor's bag.
"Well, I guess you could get away with posing as a veterinarian," Kira granted him grudgingly. "Although I advise you to read up on pig and cattle diseases - the farmers can get nasty if you cure their livestock to death. A prize boar is expensive..." Her voice trailed away at the sight of the book. "What is that?"
Galen gestured at it. "Open it and see for yourself."
He met her glare with a level gaze, and after a moment, she determinedly reached for the book and flipped it open. "I can't read these symbols..." Her frown deepened as she began to leaf through the book.
Galen watched her face as she stopped again and again at the pictures. "Circulatory system... digestive system... this seems to depict a surgical procedure on the knee joint... oh, this is interesting... I haven't seen this method for a surgical suture before..."
Kira leaned back and shut the book with a sudden clap, a stunned look on her face. "What is this? Is this supposed to be a medical text?"
"You knew the answer to that as soon as you saw it."
"What script is this written in? Is it from the Western mountains?"
"It's a human script - this book was written by a human," Galen said, watching her closely. "And it depicts human anatomy... including the pelvis region, with all its nerves and blood vessels."
"And you're telling me a human wrote this?" Scepticism and fascination were struggling in her face, her tone.
"Who else would have been interested in human anatomy?" Galen hoped that Kira was scientist enough to appreciate the logic in his words; the Kira of old would have - she had been at once the most open-minded and the most skeptical ape he had known then... and the most blunt woman he had ever met. It really hadn't mixed well with his father's-
Ah well. That had been a long time ago.
Kira stared at the book. "Where did you get this?"
Galen rubbed his finger over his lip, watching her thoughtfully. "From Zaius' home," he said after a long moment.
"You broke into his home?" Kira asked, shocked.
He raised his brows. "On the contrary - I was ordered to make a house call by Zaius' very own body guard. His human had fallen ill." He hesitated for a moment. "What's this about Zaius needing a personal guard now? What happened?"
Kira waved her hand dismissively. "Apparently, some student protesters waited for him after a council session and threw rotten fruit at him. Urko declared that they had assaulted the Council Eldest and had them arrested. I heard they will be on trial for attempted murder."
"Murder? And what will they present as the murder weapon? A mashed oper?" This was ridiculous! Galen hoped Melvin would secure the defense for this case - Cesar forbid that some young lad with a temper and some high flying ideas should hang for using a soft fruit to express their frustration with the government!
"Urko also arrested Zibaya, for inciting civil unrest. I heard she's going to hang."
Galen inhaled sharply. He had been aware of the animosity between the chief general and the professor, but he wouldn't have thought that Urko would go as far as arresting the Orangutan. It was quite shocking, come to think of it.
And now he also had Zaius under... protection. The general was moving fast; soon the City would only look to him for decisions. Galen's nose twitched. They had underestimated the Gorilla - all of them. Once Urko had the City under his control, it would be a giant trap... one they couldn't hope to escape anymore.
They had to move fast. And that meant Kira had to operate on Alan. Galen nodded towards the book. "Will you operate on my human now? Now that you have the information you said you lacked before?"
Kira put her hand on the book. "If Zaius knew about this, why weren't we allowed to know?" She sounded anguished . "Think of all the lives I could have saved, if I had been allowed to operate on humans with the help of this book - trying out new surgical procedures, new ways of closing a wound..."
"Well, yes, you can start by trying out the removal of a bullet from an infected wound," Galen interrupted her; he was glad now that he hadn't brought Peet along.
Kira shook her head. "I need to get the infection under control before I cut into that wound."
"That may not be possible." Galen drummed his fingers on his thighs. "With the way things are developing in the City, we need to be on our way as soon as possible - and that means Alan needs to get rid of the bullet. I'm no surgeon, Kira, and I'll never be, but I do know my herbs. I can take care of his postsurgical care."
"It's not enough to have a picture." Kira frowned and leafed through the book again. "I'd need the description of the procedure..."
"Peet can read them to you and translate." Galen felt his impatience boil to the surface. "For someone who doesn't care all that much about humans, you are awfully coy when it comes to operating on one!"
"Well, I have noticed that your girlfriend is very taken-"
"Fiancée."
"... very taken with that human of yours," Kira said sharply. "I imagine she doesn't want it to bleed out on my table."
"Nobody wants that," Galen said, fighting for patience. "But we also don't want Alan to die from a septic fever..."
The door behind him flung open with a bang. "You need to come over to the humans' quarters, now!"
Peet stood under the door, face white, fists clenched. Galen rose from his seat, alarmed; if the human was having one of his episodes...
Peet crossed the distance between them before he could move, but his eyes were fixed on Kira. "You need to come, Doc - my friend, he's... he's very ill." His jaw worked.
"He's burning up, an' he's not reacting when I call him."
Al was still shivering under the blankets when the doctor bent over him to feel his pulse. Burke pressed his back against the wall to trap his shaking arms, and watched with clenched teeth as the ape pulled down his friend's eyelids and lower lip, and put an old fashioned stethoscope to his chest. It all looked too much like what Galen had done with Zaius' slave; Burke tried not to fashion a prognosis for Al from that memory.
Kira straightened, sighed, and folded her stethoscope. "His pulse is too rapid, but weak," she said, "and his breathing is too fast, too. The fever hasn't broken." She peeled back Virdon's wound dressing and frowned. "And the wound is still purulent. This doesn't look good, I'm afraid." She was talking to Galen; it was as if Burke wasn't even in the room. "You may be right, and I'd need to remove the source of infection - but it is in a bad state. I must warn you that it might not survive the procedure."
He was in a better state when we came here, Burke screamed at her in his mind, but you took your sweet time before you'd even look at him, you fucking monkey!
Galen's face was grim and tense. "I suggest we lose no more time then. I can assist you..."
Kira held up a hand. "I need you to understand, Galen! The infection has entered your human's blood now - even if it doesn't bleed out on my table, it can still die afterwards. We need to get the infection under control, and removing the bullet is just the beginning of that process, not the end."
Sepsis. Burke felt a chill rushing over his whole body. Al needed IV antibiotics, and infusions, and... damn, he needed a fucking ER unit, tubes and beeping monitors and all that shit! Not a crumpled blanket over a straw mattress and an ape with equipment from the eighteenth century!
"You have that surgery book now," Galen argued. "Surely the danger of accidentally cutting into a vein is negligible now...?"
Kira laughed, but it didn't sound amused. "No Galen, it's not. Do you really think that bodies look like those neat pictures when you cut them open? This area is almost certainly going to bleed massively, and your pet won't survive that. Don't get me wrong, I will try my best - but I won't give any guarantees."
"We could transfuse blood during surgery," Burke cut in. He just couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "There are enough humans here to find some donors."
Kira flicked a contemptuous glance over her shoulder. "Blood transfusion is impossible. We did some experiments, years ago."
Galen raised his brows. "On apes?"
"On humans. We wouldn't consider trying such a radical procedure without testing it on animals first," Kira answered, and Burke felt his jaw clench.
"What happened?" he asked, when he was sure he had his voice under control.
"The animal suffered a severe reaction and died within minutes of the blood transfer," Kira said absentmindedly. She was cleaning the wound, not too gently. Virdon didn't even flinch. "Leander concluded that transferring blood from one being to another was against the laws of nature."
Burke inhaled slowly. "You must've tried the transfusion with a mismatched donor," he said carefully. Fucking monkeys didn't even know about blood groups. "There's a simple test we can do to find a compatible donor." Hell, they had even done it at school, wouldn't be impossible to do it here, too. "We're bound to find one among all those humans here."
Kira's hands stilled over Virdon's wound. She turned her head to exchange a long, unreadable glance with Galen, then turned to him. "And how do you know about that test?"
Galen thought he and Al had come from another world; what had he told his ex about them? Burke couldn't even begin to guess. "Does it matter? What do you have to lose? It's just another animal experiment, and not even on one of yours."
Galen's nose twitched; he looked uncomfortable. "Do you know how to conduct that test?"
"Yeah."
"You can use our laboratory," Kira said, surprising him. "But you'll have to deal with Travin yourself. I need to study that picture of your human's insides." She snatched up her bag. "And then prepare the operation room. This will be a nightly undertaking, strictly off the record, while Leander will hopefully be sleeping. I don't want to have to explain to him why I'm turning his clinic into a zoo."
"Your ex has terrific bedside manner," Burke murmured after she had left.
Galen waved his complaint away. "I believe it's compulsory for surgeons. Will you 'deal with Travin,' or shall I? I can use my simian authority to make him comply."
"No." Burke had had enough simian authority today to last him a lifetime. Besides, Travin would probably be pretty pissed off when he had to deal with him again.
Maybe he'd try to fight.
Burke pushed away from the wall. "I'll figure a way to handle Travin. We have at least one thing in common."
Galen watched him, his eyes sharp and knowing. "And what would that be?"
Burke lifted a corner of his mouth. "We hate each other's guts."
Kira told herself that mere logic dictated to show Galen the laboratory before she started to prepare herself and the operating room - after all, it didn't make much sense to cut open the human without having a blood donor ready.
Not that she believed they would succeed, but it would be interesting to watch what Galen had come up with. He had been an exceptionally gifted student; she had always been convinced that of the two of them, he would be the one to gift apekind with some grandiose medical breakthrough. He would make a name for himself, one that wouldn't immediately bring to mind his father.
Well, she had been wrong before.
"We use this room mainly to test for parasites, and crystals in the urine," she said with a wave that encompassed the entire room. It had been a linen room before she had claimed and repurposed it, which meant that one was sandwiched between the wooden counters with barely enough space to turn around; every available surface was packed with vials, glass tubes in wooden racks, porcelain plates, jars and beakers, measuring cups and -cylinders, mortars with their pestles, and rows and rows of glass plates with dried smears - Kira's own collection of blood samples, taken from a variety of animals, from chickens, to cats, humans, horses, and even a badger that Leander had shot. He had brought her the vial with the creature's blood himself, although he didn't really see the point of her cataloguing and sketching the objects she found under the lens of her microscope.
Kira brushed her fingertips over the brass tube of the eye piece. "Leander places great importance on always having the best and latest equipment," she said, and couldn't suppress a proud smile, "like this microscope. We determine the kind of crystals that can be found in the urine of patients with kidney diseases, and we can even detect traces of blood in it that are invisible for the naked eye."
Leander had gifted it to her on her birthday; it had been the beginning of his courtship. Kira sometimes wondered if she'd have even considered him if he hadn't bribed her with this wonderful thing.
"It's very impressive," Galen said, eyeing her treasures from the door. "You don't just excel in the operating room." He smiled at her. "This is really a place that is appropriate for your skills - all that equipment, and the resources at your disposal..."
"Leander gives me free reign to do whatever research I deem desirable," she felt the urge to say.
Galen nodded. "He seems to be very supportive of your endeavors." He led his hand slide from the door frame and took two steps into the room, effectively trapping her between the workbenches. "I'm glad, Kira. You seem to be happy here. And you deserve that."
She was silent for a moment. Then, "Yes. Yes, I do deserve that."
They stood there for a moment, at a loss for words.
"This is a spinner," Kira said finally, to break the awkward silence hanging between them, "we use it to collect the sediment in the urine samples. You see? You crank the handle, and the tubes in the top wheel start rotating. The heavier components of the urine wander into the lower parts of the tube, and then you just need to decant-"
"I didn't mean to stir bad memories," he interrupted her. "I'm sorry to have caused you pain, it's just... I thought of the best surgeon I knew, and your name was at the top of the list."
Kira raised her brows. "How many surgeons were on that list?"
Galen smiled wryly. "Only one."
She scoffed and turned away, and began to reorder the glass slides. "It's not really a compliment when I didn't win against competition."
"On the contrary." Galen nudged the spinner and watched the tubes passing by like on a lazy carousel. "You are so far above everyone else in skill and dedication that they just didn't make it onto the list in the first place. Not even into the qualification rounds."
Kira shot him an annoyed glance. "You've always been a smooth talker. You must've gotten it from your mother, because I can't imagine that this talent runs in the Atiba line."
He laughed a short, explosive laugh. "Me neither."
"How did your girlfriend pass the Atiba test? I'm curious." She wasn't, really, but for some reason that woman had been on her mind ever since she had bullied her into that house call for her human during Kira's lunch break.
Galen sighed a long sigh and scratched his ear. "She didn't. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that my father didn't pass her judgment. She almost broke up with me."
"I can't really fault her for that." She hadn't meant to sound so vitriolic.
"No, I imagine you can't." Galen refused to raise to her bait. As always. As always, she found his gentleness maddening.
"What made her reconsider?"
Galen didn't answer immediately, and it dawned on Kira that whatever had driven both of them underground, had to have caught up with them at that point. "So you decided to elope together? Since you already had Urko's wrath in common?" Mothers, she shouldn't be so spiteful! What was wrong with her?
Maybe she just wanted to see a reaction from him, for a change.
"I really love her," Galen said earnestly, and Kira felt her heart clench. You really loved me, too, once.
"Well, it was certainly a very romantic move, much better than perfume and roses." She closed the box with the microscopic slides with a thud. "Though I have to question your judgment for deciding to start a family on the road..."
She looked up when the silence suddenly deepened.
Galen was staring at her, not moving a muscle. A stillness had settled in his limbs that made Kira think of a man being shot, not by a rifle, but an old-fashioned arrow. He had the same stunned look on his face, the same disbelieving wonder that it was really him who had just met with a deadly force, a force that had now buried itself in his flesh, and was only keeping him alive as long as it was skewering his core.
"She hasn't told you," she breathed.
Galen sucked in air through his nose as if he was nauseous. Kira stared, bolted to the spot, as he took a step back, then another, until his back bumped into the door frame. When he turned around in the door, his shoulder brushed it again, like a drunkard seeking support.
"I'm sorry," she said, her lips numb. "I didn't know..."
But he was already gone.