Part 16 (1/2)
She patted my arm. Did she mean that as rea.s.surance? I didn't ask.
”Uh, I'm here on research,” I offered. ”I mean, I'm with the army. That is, I'm doing research for them.”
”Everyone is,” she said. ”Everyone in Denver is working on Chtorrans.”
”Yeah,” I thought about it. ”I guess so.”
”Have you ever seen one?” She said it casually.
”I ... burned one ... once.”
”Burned?”
”With a flamethrower.”
She looked at me with new respect. ”Were you scared?”
”No, not at the time. It just happened so fast.... I don't know-it was kind of sad, in a way. I mean, if the Chtorrans weren't so hostile, they could be beautiful. . . .”
”You're sorry you burned it?”
”It was awfully big. And dangerous.”
”Go on,” she said. Her hand tightened around mine.
I shrugged. ”There isn't much to tell. It came out of the but and I burned it.” I didn't want to tell her about Shorty, I don't know why. I said, ”It all happened so fast. I wish I'd seen it better. It was just a big pink blur.”
”They have one here, you know.” Her grip was very intense.
”I know. I heard from the Lizard.”
”You. Know. Her?”
”No, not really. She was just the pilot who flew us in. Me and Ted.”
”Oh.” Her grip relaxed.
”She told us about the Chtorran they have. She flew it in too.” We took the elevator down to the third level of the garage where she had a custom floater waiting in one of the private pads. I was impressed, but I didn't say anything. I climbed in silently beside her.
The drive whined to life, cycled up into the inaudible range, and we eased out onto the road. The light bar on the front spread a yellow-pink swath ahead. The bars of the incoming traffic were dim behind the polarized winds.h.i.+eld.
”I didn't know any of these had actually hit the market,” I said.
”Oh, none of them did. Not really. But several hundred of them did come off the a.s.sembly line before Detroit folded up.”
”How did you get this one?”
”I pulled strings. Well, Daddy did.”
”Daddy?”
”Well ... he's like a daddy.”
”Oh.”
Abruptly she said, ”Do you want to see the Chtorran?”
I sputtered. ”Huh? Yes!” Then, ”-But it's locked up. Isn't it?”
”I have a key.” She said it without taking her eyes off the road. As if she were telling me what time it was. ”It's in a special lab. One that used to be a sterile room. If we hurry, we can watch them feeding it.”
”Feeding? It?”
She didn't notice the way I'd said it. ”Oh, yes. Sometimes it's pigs or lambs. Mostly it's heifers. Once they fed it a pony, but I didn't see that.”
”Oh.”
She went on babbling. ”They're trying to duplicate what it eats in the wild. They're hunters, you know.”
”I'd ... heard something like that.”
”They don't kill their prey-that's what I find interesting. They just bring it down and start eating. Dr. Mm'bele thinks there's a kill reflex involved. This one won't eat dead meat unless it's very, very hungry, and even then only when it's being moved around so he can attack it.”
”That's interesting.”
”They say that sometimes they eat human beings. Do you think that's true? I mean, doesn't that seem atypical to you?”
”Well-”
She wasn't waiting to hear. ”Dr. Mm'bele doesn't believe it. There aren't any reported cases. At least, none that have been verified. That's what the U.N. Bureau says. Did you know that?”
”No, I didn't.” Show Low, Arizona. ”Um-”
”There was supposed to be one once,” she said, ”but-well, it turned out to be just another hoax. They even had pictures, I heard.”
”A hoax, huh?”
”Yep. You didn't know that, did you?”
”Uh, how did you hear about it?” I don't think she noticed, but I was riding at least three lanes away from her.
”I work here. I'm permanently stationed. Didn't you know?”
”Oh. What do you do, exactly?”
”Executive Vice-Chairperson, Extraterrestrial Genetic Research Coordination Center.”
”Oh,” I said. Then, ”Oh!” Then I shut up.
We turned off the main highway onto the approach road. There had been very little traffic going either way.