The Beasts Of Valhalla

Tolkien.'

'No more, Mongo!' His voice was so loud that it echoed inside the steel cylinder around my head. 'I don't want to hear it! You're upsetting me!'

I winced when I saw him reach for the black box, sighed with relief when he took his hand away. 'Would you choke me just because you don't want to hear what I have to say?' I asked quietly.

Hugo lowered his head. 'I'm sorry, Mongo. I don't want to hurt you, but I don't want to listen to any more crazy talk. Dr. Loge warned me; the serum you took has affected your mind.'

'All right, Hugo. Have it your way.' Hugo was hopeless. 'Is Garth all right?'

'Yes.'

'Have you seen him?' 'Yes.'

'Why did they split us up?'

'Just to save time with the testing. You're too suspicious, Mongo. We're just trying to help you. You'll thank Dr. Loge and the rest of us when you get better and you're not crazy anymore.'

Urine and stool specimens. Silence.

'Hugo, nothing's happening. It must be anxiety.' 'We're in no hurry, Mongo,' Hugo replied from the other side of the thin partition. 'We'll just wait until something does happen.' 'We're in the building on top of the cliff, right?' 'Right.'

'You have the run of the whole place?'

'No, only these test laboratories. I work on the dairy farm. Why?' 'Because I'm certain that if you could see everything that goes on in this place, you'd believe my story.'

'Mongo, I thought we agreed that you weren't going to talk crazy anymore.'

'Okay, okay. What's with the gorilla?'

'Gollum?'

'That's her name?'

'Yes.'

'Gollum's the name of a particularly loathsome creature out of J. R. R. Tolkien. Doesn't that pique your curiosity?' 'Not really.' Hugo sounded bored. 'Can she really understand what people say?' 'Of course,' the giant replied, sounding surprised at the question. 'And she can talk back with her word screen. She's really quite smart; sometimes I think she's as smart as I am.'

That, I wasn't going to touch. 'Who made her that way?'

'Dr. Loge.'

'How?'

'I don't really know. Drugs, I suppose. It's the result of his research into cures for mental retardation. If he can do that with a gorilla, can you imagine what he'll be able to do with humans?'

'Oh, it boggles the mind; it would boggle anyone's mind, which leads me to ask why nobody-nobody at all-in the rest of the world scientific community seems to know a single thing about what's going on here. Do you find that strange, Hugo?'

'What do I know about these things?'

He had a point. 'Okay, Hugo, forget everything else I said about the Loges. Just consider what Loge has done with this gorilla, and with the other one I met- '

'There are no other gorillas like Gollum, Mongo. Don't start.'

'Fine. Just consider Gollum. Twenty-four hours after Siegfried Loge took that gorilla for a walk out of here, he'd be nominated for every scientific prize there is. He'd be hailed as one of the greatest scientists who ever lived- '

'He is one of the greatest scientists who ever lived.'

'True. But, on the strength only of what he's accomplished with the gorilla, he'd be famous, and he'd be rich. They'd probably turn Harvard over to him for his research; he certainly wouldn't have to hang out over a bunch of burning coal mines, or have you people leading around a few scraggly cows. Now, why hasn't a word about that gorilla appeared in any scientific journal? Why doesn't Loge take the gorilla out of here and show the world what he's been able to accomplish, Hugo?'

'I don't know, and I don't care. Dr. Loge isn't trying to help gorillas; he's trying to help people like you and me. What's your point? What does Gollum have to do with anything?'

'Jesus Christ, Hugo! I'm trying to reason with you!'

'You don't have to shout, Mongo. And please don't curse. Have you moved your bowels yet?'

'I'm telling you that teaching a fucking gorilla to communicate like that is one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of humankind, and Siegfried Loge treats her like a toy! He doesn't give a damn about the gorilla, Hugo, because he and his father are cooking up some juice that could fuck up the entire human race! Are you listening to me, Hugo?!'

'Mongo, aren't you finished in there yet?'

Galvanic skin reaction tests.

Zap-twitch.

'Hugo, my friend, they've got all of you here by the emotional balls, but they're also shoveling out enough bullshit to cover the planet. Do you know what evolution is?'

'No. I just know it's something I'm not supposed to believe in.'

'Evolution is what's made all of us-normal or not-people, and that process has taken place over millions of years. We've gone through many stages, and there are traces of those stages still left in our genes-our DNA.'

'I told you I'm not supposed to believe in evolution.'

'The Loges are trying to find a way to unmake us, Hugo. Can you understand, Hugo? Siegfried Loge isn't searching for a cure to genetic defects, he wants to find a way to inflict massive genetic damage. What he's doing endangers every animal and plant on the face of the earth. That's why everything is being kept such a big secret!'

'Enough, Mongo!' Hugo snapped. 'I've had enough! I won't listen to any more of your crazy stories!'

Sonograms.

Beep-beep.

'What's a friendly gorilla like you doing in a place like this?'

FUCKING WATCHING YOU

'A narrow interpretation of my question, to say the least. Can you really understand what I'm saying?'

FUCKING YES

'You know, you're a very foul-mouthed gorilla.'

?

''Fucking' isn't a nice word. It's unladylike.'

MUST ALWAYS USE FUCKING WORD

'Why?'

MAKES MASTER FUCKING LAUGH

'Master is Siegfried Loge?'

FUCKING YES

'That figures. How did Loge teach you? What did he do to make you so smart?'

That got an unexpected reaction. Up to that point, primarily because of the bright expressiveness of the animal's yellow eyes and her facility with the screen-keyboard, talking to Gollum had seemed almost like talking to a human in a gorilla costume. Not any longer. For a fleeting instant the light in her eyes faded as if someone had turned a dimmer switch. She cowered, bared her teeth, and a rumbling snarl worked its way out of her chest.

Fearful that the gorilla might hit the joystick on the control box and strangle me by accident, I arched under the restraining straps and looked back at the technician-the fat lady. The woman shot me a hostile glance, then carefully stepped away from the controls of the machine and approached the gorilla. She reached out her hand, tentatively stroked the animal's shoulder. For a moment I was afraid Gollum was going to bite the technician, or literally knock her head off-but the animal gradually began to calm down.