"Steven Gould - Wildside" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gould Stephen Jay)

"That's outrageous!"

I paused. Was it? I'd thought about it a lot, but I didn't have anything to compare it to. In fact, I
thought it was cheap, considering. "You're absolutely right, Dr. Eisner. It's outrageous. You should go
to another supplier."

"What? What other supplier?"

The computer voice asked for more money. I shoved quarters in.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Eisner. I didn't quite hear that."

"What other supplier?"

"Of extinct species? Well, there's uh… gee, I don't know of any other suppliers."

His voice was grim. "I see. You know, if you're capturing these in the wild, you are endangering
the species. The population has to be tiny."

"I'm pleased to tell you that this is not the case."

"What's not the case? That you aren't taking them from the wild? Or that the population isn't
tiny?"

He was digging as hard as he could.
 "Sorry. I take it you're not interested in purchasing the birds?"

"Uh—I have to talk to the acquisition board. Can you give me two weeks?"

"There are other zoos. I'll give you until the day after tomorrow. I'll call you at the same time.
Good-bye."

"No, wait a—

I hung up.

We moved to a different pay phone on Westheimer, just inside a supermarket, and called the
Nature Conservancy. The conversation was similar to the first one, a mix of desperation and hostility.
"We buy land—habitats—not animals!"

"So, you're not interested?"

"I didn't say that."

I gave them the same two days.

From a phone on West Gray I called the San Diego Zoo. They definitely wanted the females
and they had authorization to proceed. I looked around to make sure the guys were out of earshot.
"Here's our bank account. Electronically transfer the hundred thousand within the next two days and