Timmy?” he asked.
“They have both mated,” Archie replied, “and have several offspring. Their young hatchlings are cared for in the zoo.”
“Could I see them?” Richard said. “You told me once, a few months ago, that someday it might be possible.”
“I guess so,” Archie replied after a short silence. “Even though the zoo is a restricted zone, the avian compound is very close to the entrance.”
When they reached the first large structure of the Alternate Domain, Archie dismounted and went inside the building. When he returned, the octospider said something to the ostrichsaur. “We are only cleared for a brief visit,” Archie said as their mount turned off the main path and ^ began to thread its way through the smaller lanes of the community.
Richard was introduced to the zookeeper, who drove them in a cart to a compound only about a hundred meters inside the zoo entrance. Both Tammy and Timmy were present. They recognized Richard immediately, and their jabbers and shrieks of pleasure filled the darkened skies. Tammy and Timmy introduced Richard to a new group of avian hatchlings in the compound. The juveniles were very shy around Richard, and would not let him touch them. However, Tammy and Timmy still loved to have their soft underbellies stroked by the man who had raised them from infancy. Richard felt powerful emotions as he recalled the days when he had been their sole protector in the lair underneath New York. ‘
He said good-bye to his wards and boarded the cart with Archie and the zookeeper. Halfway back to the zoo entrance he heard a sound that jolted him into alertness and made his skin crawl with goose bumps. He sat perfectly still and concentrated. The sound repeated just before the silent cart came to a stop.
“I could not possibly be mistaken,” Richard insisted to Nicole. “I heard it twice. There is no other sound like the cry of a human child.”
“I’m not doubting you, Richard,” Nicole said. “I’m just trying to exclude logically all other possible sources for the sound you heard. Juvenile avians do have a particular shriek that can sound a little like a baby crying… and you were, after all, in a zoo. It could have been another animal.”
“No,” said Richard. “I know what I heard. I have lived with enough children and heard enough cries in my life.”
Nicole smiled. “Now the shoe is on the other foot, isn’t it, darling? Do you remember your response when I told you I had seen a woman’s face in that mural the night we went to see the octospider play? You scoffed at me and told me that I was ‘absurd,’ if I remember correctly.”
“So what’s the explanation? Did the octospiders somehow kidnap some other humans from Avalon? And the incident was never reported? But how could they have—”
“Did you say anything to Archie?” Nicole asked.
“No. I was too stunned. At first I was amazed that neither he nor the zookeeper made any comment, and then I remembered that the octospiders are deaf.”
They were both silent for several seconds. “You weren’t supposed to hear that cry, Richard,” Nicole then said. “Our nearly perfect hosts have made a non-optimal slipup.”
Richard laughed. “Of course, they are recording this conversation. By tomorrow they will know that we know.”
“Let’s not say anything just yet to the others,” Nicole said. “Maybe the octos will decide to share their secret with us. By the way, when do you start to work?”
“Whenever I want,” Richard replied. “I told Archie I had a few tasks of my own to finish first.”
“Sounds as if you had a fascinating day,” Nicole said. “Everything was mostly quiet around here. Except for one thing. Patrick and Nai have set a date for their wedding. Three weeks from tomorrow.”
“What?” Richard said. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
Nicole laughed. “I didn’t have a chance. You came in here talking nonstop about cries in the zoo, and avians, and quadroids, and the Embryo Bank… I knew from experience that my news would have to wait until you wound down.”
“Well, mother of the groom,” Richard said a few seconds later, “how do you feel?”
“Considering everything,” Nicole said, “I’m very pleased. You know how I feel about Nai. It just strikes me as a strange time and place to start a marriage.”
12
They were sitting in the Wake-field living room waiting for the appearance of the bride. Patrick was nervously wringing his hands. “Be patient, young man,” Max said, crossing the room and putting his arm around Patrick. “She’ll be here. A woman wants to look her finest on her wedding day.”
“I didn’t look my finest,” Eponine said. “In fact, I don’t even remember what I was wearing on my wedding day.”
“I remember it well, Frenchie,” Max said with a grin, “especially up in the igloo. As I recall, most of the time you were wearing your birthday suit.”
Everyone laughed. Nicole entered the room. “She’ll be here in a few more minutes. Ellie is helping Nai with the final arrangement of her dress.” She glanced around. “Where are Archie and Dr. Blue?” she asked.
“They went to their house for a minute,” Ellie said. “They have a special present for the bride.”
“I don’t like having those octospiders around,” Galileo said in a nasty voice. “They give me the creeps.”
“Starting next week, Galileo,” Ellie said gently, “there will be an octospider with you in school nearly all the time. She’ll help you learn their language.”
“I don’t want to learn their language,” the boy said defiantly.
Max walked over next to Richard. “So how is the work.going, amigo? We haven’t seen much of you these last two weeks.”
“It’s completely absorbing, Max,” Richard said enthusiastically. “I’m working on an encyclopedia project, helping them design a new set of software to display all the critical information about the hundreds of thousands of species in the Embryo Bank. The octospiders accumulate such an enormous wealth of data in their testing, yet they are surprisingly limited in their knowledge of how to manage it efficiently. Just yesterday, I began working with some recent test data on a set of microbiological agents that are classified, in the octospider taxonomy, by the range of plants and animals for which they are lethal—”
Richard stopped as Archie and Dr. Blue entered together carrying a box about a meter tall that was wrapped with their parchment. The octospiders set their present down in a corner and stood at the side of the room. Ellie arrived a moment later, humming Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. Nai followed her.
Patrick’s bride was wearing her Thai silk dress. It was adorned by the brilliant yellow and black flowers that the octospiders had given to Ellie. She had pinned them to the dress at strategic locations. Patrick rose to stand beside Nai in front of his mother. The couple held hands.
Nicole had been asked to perform the ceremony, and to keep it as simple as possible. As she prepared to- begin her brief statement, Nicole’s mind was suddenly flooded by memories of other wedding days in her life. She saw Max and Eponine, Michael O’Toole and her daughter Simone, Robert and Ellie… Nicole shuddered involuntarily as the memory of the sound of gunshots intruded into her mind. Once again, Nicole thought, forcing herself to return to the present, we have gathered here together.
She could barely speak. Nicole was overwhelmed by her feelings. This is my last wedding, she realized, almost thinking out loud. There will not be another.
A tear ran down her left cheek. “Are you all right, Nicole?” the always sensitive bride asked quietly. Nicole nodded and smiled.
“Friends,” Nicole said, “we have joined together today to witness and celebrate the wedding of Patrick Ryan O’Toole and Nai Buatong Watanabe. Let us form a circle around them, locking arms to show our love and support for their marriage.”
Nicole gestured to the two octospiders as the circle was forming and they too put their tentacles around the humans beside them.
