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36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX7vNjHafu8
36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5nSsgvIbu
36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgGq1kURRj
Zira slowly poured the clear liquid from a test tube into a beaker, carefully measuring the amount.
Across the laboratory, Cornelius was sitting in a chair beneath a light, reading to his wife from a manual. "The specific gravity of the liquid in relationship to the...."
The chimpanzee scientist stopped speaking, and his head snapped up as he heard a noise outside. His eyes darted to his wife, who had frozen, her hands still holding the lab apparatus and her eyes frightened.
Cornelius scrambled to his feet, putting aside the manual, and scampered over to Zira. He put his arm around her and felt her trembling body.
"Don't worry," he said. Cornelius lifted his gaze thoughtfully and recalled the words of an ancient ape philosopher: "As Will Apespeare once wrote, 'We are caged not by iron bars, but by the terror we hold within. Fear alone is our true enemy.'" He patted her arm as they heard a knock at the outer laboratory door.
Zira twitched her nose reassuringly at her husband and gave him a brave smile. She watched him go out toward the door with nervous anxiety, but when she saw that it was Dr. Zaius she put on the carefully neutral face of the innocent and uninvolved. Or what she imagined the innocent and uninvolved looked like.
"Good evening, Dr. Zaius," Cornelius said.
"Good evening, good evening! Ah, my children, I see you are hard at work."
Zaius came over to the laboratory bench and peered at the apparatus as Zira and Cornelius bade him welcome.
"I have good news from General Urko," he said, peering nearsightedly at the glass vials and test-tubes filled with various liquids. "A little exploratory chemistry, my dear Zira?" he asked, his head turning sidewise towards her.
"Yes, doctor, but what is the---the good news?" Zira felt her heart must be pounding so hard that Zaius would ask what the sound was.
The Elder drew himself up and flicked his eyes from Zira to Cornelius and back. His fingers combed his long golden beard thoughtfully and a half-smile of amusement tugged at his mouth.
"He has located the humanoid you call Blue-Eyes."
Zira gasped slightly, then covered her expression of woe by turning away to set down her beaker.
Without looking at Zaius, she said, "I hope Blue-Eyes can be returned to us safely." She turned back towards Zaius to add, "He was so intelligent, you know. A real find!"
Zaius stared at her for a long moment, his face unreadable to the chimpanzee scientist. Then he said stiffly, "Then I trust he will have a chance, to be proven innocent of the charge that he possesses language."
Zira compressed her lips, and Zaius, attempting to read her expression, studied her openly.
"If he can speak, he must die," the orangutan leader said softly. "It is written...."
Zira put out a hand toward the council Elder. "But, Doctor Zaius...."
The simian leader held up his hand in protest. "Children, children....your studies are so important to you that you sometimes lose perspective. I must, on the other hand, be concerned about practical matters. And sometimes your studies---as valuable and revealing as they are----are in conflict with the overall good of the whole simian culture."
Zira shot a glance at Cornelius and saw in his face a warning to keep silent for once. Still, she was on the verge of speaking, when a knock came at the still open outer door.
A messenger ape stood in the doorway, then crossed to the inner lab, his face respectful and his manner urgent.
"Yes?" Dr. Zaius asked him.
"Dr. Zaius, sir, another report from General Urko."
He held out a slip of paper and the orangutan motioned to him to hand it over. Zaius read it, then looked at Zira and Cornelius.
"The humanoid has disappeared.....Urko thinks he's in the hands of the Underfolk. Something about a gargantuan statue of the Lawgiver getting in the way...." Zaius shook his head and started toward the door. "I must see about this," he said, strangely disturbed.
As the messenger closed the door behind them, Cornelius came over to his wife and put an arm around her. She looked thoughtfully after the departing apes, her head tilted sidewise in thought. Cornelius, recognizing the signs, said nothing and waited.
"Cornelius," Zira said thoughtfully, "I've been thinking.... Why is Dr. Zaius so worried about Blue-Eyes possessing language?" Cornelius looked sharply at her as she added, "What is he afraid of?"
Cornelius sighed. "I don't know, Zira." He bit at his lip, then continued, "But I'm wondering, now, if we did the right thing in helping Blue-Eyes to escape...."
Zira nodded, her eyes distant. "Yes, perhaps we could have protected him here."
"And perhaps not," Cornelius said. "Blue-Eyes was very impetuous. There was no telling what he might've done. It could've been disastrous....both for him and for us." He shook his shaggy head. "No, Zira. He has a better chance out there, among his own kind."36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡumF8Ervh1X
