Elliot sat up.
"Easy there," the doctor said.
"I feel fine," Elliot said, although his head was throbbing. He turned the vial over in his hand. "There was frost on it when you found it?"
Munro nodded. "Very cold."
"CO2," Elliot said. It was a dart from a gas gun. He shook his head. "They broke the needle off in her." He could imagine Amy's screams of outrage. She was unaccustomed to anything but the tenderest treatment. Perhaps that was one of the shortcomings of his work with her; he had not prepared her well enough for the real world. He sniffed the vial, smelled a pungent odor. "Lobaxin. Fast-acting soporific, onset within fifteen seconds. It's what they'd use." Elliot was angry. Lobaxin was not often used on animals because it caused liver damage. And they had broken the needle - He got to his feet and leaned on Munro, who put his arm
around him. The doctor protested.
"I'm fine," Elliot said.
Across the room, there was another squeal, this one loud and prolonged. Ross was moving her wand over the medicine cabinet, past the bottles of pills and supplies. The sound seemed to embarrass her; quickly she moved away, shutting the cabinet.
She crossed the passenger compartment, and a squeal was heard again. Ross removed a small black device from the underside of one seat. "Look at this. They must have brought an extra person just to plant the bugs. It'll take hours to sterilize the plane. We can't wait~"
She went immediately to the computer console and began typing.
Elliot said, "Where are they now? The consortium?"
"The main party left from Kubala airport outside Nairobi six hours ago," Munro said.
"Then they didn't take Amy with them."
"Of course they didn't take her," Ross said, sounding annoyed. "They've got no use for her."
"Have they killed her?" Elliot asked.
"Maybe," Munro said quietly.
"Oh, Jesus . .
"But I doubt it," Munro continued. "They don't want any publicity, and Amy's famous - as famous in some circles as an ambassador or a head of state. She's a talking gorilla, and there aren't many of those. She's been on television news, she's had her picture in the newspapers. . . . They'd kill you before they killed her."
"Just so they don't kill her," Elliot said.
"They won't," Ross said, with finality. "The consortium isn't interested in Amy. They don't even know why we brought her. They're just trying to blow our timeline - but they won't succeed."
Something in her tone suggested that she planned to leave Amy behind. The idea appalled Elliot. "We've got to get her back," he said. "Amy is my responsibility, I can't possibly abandon her here - "
"Seventy-two minutes," Ross said, pointing to the screen. "We have exactly one hour and twelve minutes before we blow the timeline." She turned to Munro. "And we have to switch over to the second contingency."
"Fine," Munro said. "I'll get the men working on it."
"In a new plane," Ross said. "We can't take this one, it's contaminated." She was punching in call letters to the computer console, her fingers clicking on the keys. "We'll take it straight to point M," Ross said. "Okay?"
"Absolutely," Munro said.
Elliot said, "I won't leave Amy. If you're going to leave her behind, you'll have to leave me as well - " Elliot stopped.
Printed on the screen was the message FORGET GORILLA PROCEED TO NEXT CHECKPOINT URGENT APE NOT SIGNIFICANT TIMELINE OUTCOME COMPUTER VERIFICATION REPEAT PROCEED WITHOUT AMY.
"You can't leave her behind," Elliot said. "I'll stay behind, too."
"Let me tell you something," Ross said. "I never believed that Amy was important to this expedition - or you either. From the very beginning she was just a diversion. When I came to San Francisco, I was followed. You and Amy provided a diversion. You threw the consortium into a spin. It was worth it. Now it's not worth it. We'll leave you both behind if we have to. I couldn't care less."
7. Bugs
"WELL, GODDAMN IT," ELLIOT BEGAN, "DO YOU mean to tell me that. . ."
"That's right," Ross said coldly. "You're expendable." But even as she spoke, she grabbed his arm firmly and led him out of the airplane while she held her finger to her lips.
Elliot realized that she intended to pacify him in private, Amy was his responsibility, and to hell with all the diamonds and international intrigue. Outside on the concrete runway he repeated stubbornly, "I'm not leaving without Amy."
"Neither am I." Ross walked quickly across the runway toward a police helicopter.
Elliot hurried to catch up. "What?"
"Don't you understand anything?" Ross said. "That airplane's not clean. It's full of bugs, and the consortium's listening in. I made that speech for their benefit."
"But who was following you in San Francisco?"
"Nobody. They're going to spend hours trying to figure out who was."
"Amy and I weren't just a diversion?"
"Not at all," she said. "Look: we don't know what happened to the last ERTS Congo team, but no matter what you or Travis or anyone else says, I think gorillas were involved. And I think that Amy will help us when we get there."
"As an ambassador?"
"We need information," Ross said. "And she knows more about gorillas than we do."
"But can you find her in an hour and ten minutes?"
"Hell, no," Ross said, checking her watch. "This won't take more than twenty minutes."