Lizhi up there.
Tell them we’ve been notified. Find out if they’ve seen any more—”
“The usual drill,” said Chie-Hoon.
“The usual drill.”
Selima came back. She’d brought one of the snaggers Mike invented and let him do the honors of getting the cell sample while she distracted it with the meat. Or tried to. The snagger doesn’t do more than pinprick, but that was enough to rile the rex into slamming against the fence again, trying to get at Mike while he reeled the sample through the chain link.
Mike jerked back but the sample came with him. He held it out to me. “Hardly necessary,” he said. “I know what we’re gonna •
find.”
So did I. There was no doubt in my mind that the sample would match those from the last outbreak gene for gene. The kangaroo rex had settled down, wolfing at the meat Selima had tossed it. “It eats gladrats,” said Selima, looking surprised. “It can’t be all bad.”
Not as far as I was concerned, it couldn’t be all bad. If it was a Dragon’s Tooth, it was a beautifully constructed one— completely viable.
It was possible that the kangaroo rex was just an intermediate, a middle step between a kangaroo and anything from a gerbil to a water buffalo. Right now, however, it was a kangaroo rex, and impressive as all hell.
“You watch it, Mama Jason,” Susan said. “I’ll do the gene-read.” She reached for the sample as if she had a vested interest in the beast herself. She figured she did, at least. Must have been all the times she’d made me tell the story of the first outbreak.
I handed the sample over.
Then I just stood there quietly and appreciated it. About three feet tall (not counting the tail, of course), it was already quite capable of surviving on its own.
Which meant, more than likely, that its mama would very shortly move its sibling out of storage and into development. Chances were pretty good that one would be a kangaroo rex, too. Since the mama hadn’t abandoned this one, it seemed unlikely she’d abandon another. I wondered if there were enough of them for a reliable gene pool.
The rex had calmed down now that it had eaten, now that most of the excitement was over. It Page 28
was quietly investigating the enclosure, moving slowly on all fours.
Hunched like that, it looked a lot like a mythological linebacker about to receive.
With those small front legs, you never expect the thing (even a regulation kangaroo) to have the shoulders it does.
As it neared the side of the fence that I was gaping through, it yawned—the way a cat does, just to let you know it has weapons. I stayed quiet and still. It didn’t come any closer and it didn’t threaten any further.
That was a good sign, as far as I was concerned. Either it was full or it didn’t consider me prey. I was betting it didn’t consider me prey. Still, it was nasty-looking, which wasn’t going to help its case, and it was still a baby. Adult, if it were a true kangaroo rex, it would stand as high as its kangaroo mother—six or seven feet.
In the outbreak of them we’d had nine years back near Gogol, they’d been herd animals. There had been some twenty-odd, with more on the way, of course.
Chie-Hoon tells me kangaroos come in “mobs,” which seemed appropriate for the kangaroo rexes as well, if a little weak-sounding. And we’d wiped out the last group wholesale.
Oh, I’d yelled and screamed a lot. At the very least, I’d hoped we could stash the genes so we could pull them out if we ever needed the creature for some reason. I got voted down, and I got voted down, and finally I got shouted down.
This time would be different.
The kangaroo rex sat back on its tail and began to wash, using its tongue and paws as prettily as any cat. In the midst of cleaning its whiskers, it froze, glanced up briefly, then went back to preening.
That was the only warning I had that Leo was back. He hadn’t lost the ability to move softly with the passage of years. He put his
Tell them we’ve been notified. Find out if they’ve seen any more—”
“The usual drill,” said Chie-Hoon.
“The usual drill.”
Selima came back. She’d brought one of the snaggers Mike invented and let him do the honors of getting the cell sample while she distracted it with the meat. Or tried to. The snagger doesn’t do more than pinprick, but that was enough to rile the rex into slamming against the fence again, trying to get at Mike while he reeled the sample through the chain link.
Mike jerked back but the sample came with him. He held it out to me. “Hardly necessary,” he said. “I know what we’re gonna •
find.”
So did I. There was no doubt in my mind that the sample would match those from the last outbreak gene for gene. The kangaroo rex had settled down, wolfing at the meat Selima had tossed it. “It eats gladrats,” said Selima, looking surprised. “It can’t be all bad.”
Not as far as I was concerned, it couldn’t be all bad. If it was a Dragon’s Tooth, it was a beautifully constructed one— completely viable.
It was possible that the kangaroo rex was just an intermediate, a middle step between a kangaroo and anything from a gerbil to a water buffalo. Right now, however, it was a kangaroo rex, and impressive as all hell.
“You watch it, Mama Jason,” Susan said. “I’ll do the gene-read.” She reached for the sample as if she had a vested interest in the beast herself. She figured she did, at least. Must have been all the times she’d made me tell the story of the first outbreak.
I handed the sample over.
Then I just stood there quietly and appreciated it. About three feet tall (not counting the tail, of course), it was already quite capable of surviving on its own.
Which meant, more than likely, that its mama would very shortly move its sibling out of storage and into development. Chances were pretty good that one would be a kangaroo rex, too. Since the mama hadn’t abandoned this one, it seemed unlikely she’d abandon another. I wondered if there were enough of them for a reliable gene pool.
The rex had calmed down now that it had eaten, now that most of the excitement was over. It Page 28
was quietly investigating the enclosure, moving slowly on all fours.
Hunched like that, it looked a lot like a mythological linebacker about to receive.
With those small front legs, you never expect the thing (even a regulation kangaroo) to have the shoulders it does.
As it neared the side of the fence that I was gaping through, it yawned—the way a cat does, just to let you know it has weapons. I stayed quiet and still. It didn’t come any closer and it didn’t threaten any further.
That was a good sign, as far as I was concerned. Either it was full or it didn’t consider me prey. I was betting it didn’t consider me prey. Still, it was nasty-looking, which wasn’t going to help its case, and it was still a baby. Adult, if it were a true kangaroo rex, it would stand as high as its kangaroo mother—six or seven feet.
In the outbreak of them we’d had nine years back near Gogol, they’d been herd animals. There had been some twenty-odd, with more on the way, of course.
Chie-Hoon tells me kangaroos come in “mobs,” which seemed appropriate for the kangaroo rexes as well, if a little weak-sounding. And we’d wiped out the last group wholesale.
Oh, I’d yelled and screamed a lot. At the very least, I’d hoped we could stash the genes so we could pull them out if we ever needed the creature for some reason. I got voted down, and I got voted down, and finally I got shouted down.
This time would be different.
The kangaroo rex sat back on its tail and began to wash, using its tongue and paws as prettily as any cat. In the midst of cleaning its whiskers, it froze, glanced up briefly, then went back to preening.
That was the only warning I had that Leo was back. He hadn’t lost the ability to move softly with the passage of years. He put his
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