"The Planners by Kate Wilhelm" - читать интересную книгу автора (1969)

tears started to spill down her cheeks.
Kelly was waiting for him when the group left. She col-
lected the new sample of blood to be processed. "Did you
hear about the excitement down at the compound? Adam's
building a dam of his own."
Darin stared at her for a moment. The breakthrough? He
ran back to the compound. The near side this time was where
the windows were being used. It seemed that the entire staff
was there, watching silently. He saw Stu and edged in by him.
The stream twisted and curved through the compound, less
than ten inches deep, not over two feet anywhere. At one
spot stones lay under it; elsewhere the bottom was of hard-
packed sand. Adam and his crew were piling up stones at the
one suitable place for their dam, very near their hut. The dam
they were building was two feet thick. It was less than five
feet from the wall, fifteen feet from where Darin and Stu
shared the window. When the dam was completed, Adam
looked along the wall. Darin thought the chimp's eyes paused
momentarily on his own. Later he heard that nearly every
other person watching felt the same momentary pause as
those black, intelligent eyes sought out and held other
intelligence.
". . . next thunderstorm. Adam and the flood . . ."
". . . eventually seeds instead of food . . ."
". . . his brain. Convolutions as complex as any man's."
Darin walked away from them, snatches of future plans
in his ears. There was a memo on his desk. Jacobsen was
turning over the SPCA investigatory committee to him. He
was to meet with the university representatives, the local
SPCA group, and the legal representatives of all concerned on
Monday next at 10 A.M. He wrote out his daily report on
Sonny Driscoll. Sonny had been on too good behavior for
too long. Would this last injection give him just the spark of
determination he needed to go on a rampage? Darin had
alerted Johnny, the bodyguard, whoops, male nurse, for just
such a possibility, but he knew Johnny didn't think there
was any danger from the kid. He hoped Sonny wouldn't kill
Johnny, then turn on his mother and father. He'd probably
rape his mother, if that much goal-directedness ever flowed
through him. And the three men who had volunteered for the
injections from Sonny's blood? He didn't want to think of
them at all, therefore couldn't get them out of his mind as
he sat at his desk staring at nothing. Three convicts. That's
all, just convicts hoping to get a parole for helping science
along. He laughed abruptly. They weren't planning anything
now. Not that trio. Not planning for a thing. Sitting, waiting
for something to happen, not thinking about what it might be,
or when, or how they would be affected. Not thinking. Period.
"But you can always console yourself that your motives
were pure, that it was all for Science, can't you, Dr. Darin?"