“Nonsense,” Hasslein said. He shrugged. “But if that’s the way you feel about it, there’s nothing I can do. Just be sure to have that interrogation suite ready for me, Admiral.” Hasslein smiled again, but there was no warmth in the look, and Admiral Jardin did not want to meet the scientist’s gaze.

“You still have not explained what they will do with us, Lewis,” Cornelius said. He watched the rolling brown hills of Orange County flicker past as the big limousine drove south on the San Diego freeway. Many of the hills were covered with imitation adobe houses, all crowded together inside small walled communities, while around them were empty brown hills again. “I gather we have no choice about coming with you.”

“I’m afraid you don’t,” Lewis said. He sat with Stevie; the two were facing the chimpanzees in the rear of the limousine. A glass partition separated the four from a Marine officer and his driver up front. Two Marine staff cars filled with armed men trailed behind them. “And I don’t know what to advise you. A number of the commissioners weren’t satisfied with your answers, so it wasn’t too difficult to get them to agree to a more, ah, professional, interrogation. I got the impression that if the Commission hadn’t agreed, this would happen anyway, so I went along with it . . .”

“Lewis!” Stevie said.

He shrugged. “As I told you, it wouldn’t have made any difference, darling. They’d have been subjected to interrogation anyway. At least this way the Presidential Commission has authority in the matter. They can’t do anything without consulting us. If we let it get out of the Commission’s hands . . .”

“But who’s behind all this?” Stephanie asked.

Lewis shook his head. “I don’t know. I suspect Hasslein.”

“Dr. Hasslein was very kind to me,” Zira said. “I wouldn’t think he’d do anything to hurt us.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Lewis said. He looked helplessly at the apes. “You understand, as a member of the Presidential Commission, I can’t advise you to lie or withhold information. But as your physician and friend—be careful.”

“These men are experts,” Stevie said. “They can make you say things you don’t mean, or—”

“Why would they do that?” Cornelius asked.

“I don’t know,” Stevie said. “But be careful, please.”

“And be polite,” Lewis warned.

Cornelius laughed. “You did hear that, did you not, Zira?”

“I heard. Lewis, have they—who are these men? How can they do this to us?”

“We did more to Colonel Taylor,” Cornelius reminded her. “They have as much right to treat us as animals as we did to treat their pilots . . .”

“But we didn’t know,” Zira protested.

“I wouldn’t mention Colonel Taylor at all, unless they ask,” Lewis warned. “And then I think you’d best stick to your original story—here we are.”

The car turned off the freeway and down a side road. It drove past the huge dome-shape of the San Onofre nuclear power plant, and Lewis and Stevie had to explain that to the apes.

“Atomic power?” Cornelius said wonderingly. “Would that have anything to do with atom bomb?”

“Not really,” Lewis said. “Same principles, but entirely different application. Atom bombs explode. This can’t.”

“But all these things really are human inventions,” Cornelius said. “I had always suspected so.”

The camp gates were just ahead. The car stopped and two Marine sentries peered inside, then waved them through with a salute. The car drove past barracks and administrative offices, and through the main part of the Marine camp. Then it climbed into more barren hills, until all the other buildings were lost from sight. The two staff cars followed.

They rounded another low hill and saw a complex of single-story wooden buildings with green roofs. The whole area had an abandoned look despite a number of cars parked in front of the central building. Two Marines stood guard out front, and they saw several others go into another building to their left.

Admiral Jardin came out to greet them. “Welcome to Camp Pendleton,” he said. “You should be comfortable here. We’ve arranged for our guests and the necessary scientific people to stay in the central wing here. Other personnel as needed will stay over there. We have everything you’ll need, I think.”

Lewis Dixon nodded. “Thank you, Admiral.”

Victor Hasslein came out of the central building. Four civilians accompanied him, but Hasslein did not introduce them. They stood around the limousine, and when the apes got out, stayed carefully behind them. “Very good, Admiral,” Hasslein said. “We’ll take custody of them now.”

Jardin nodded. “Yeah. You’ll remember this is a Navy facility, Dr. Hasslein.”

“Certainly. You needn’t be concerned, Admiral. We’ll take very good care of your guests. And of course, we now assume full responsibility . . .”

“Yeah,” Admiral Jardin said. He looked unhappily at Lewis and Stevie, then back at Hasslein. “Yeah. You sure do.”

Everyone had been very polite. The chimpanzees had a full day to adjust to their new quarters and move their things into their suite. They had been well fed by white-uniformed hospital attendants, and Lewis and Stevie had been served an excellent meal in the apes’ rooms. They were given rooms of their own, and furnished every convenience.

Every convenience but one. No one could leave without Dr. Hasslein’s permission. He insisted that it was all a formality, and that he would soon have passes made up for Lewis and Stephanie; but the secretaries were slow, and everything was irregular so that they had to establish some control procedures.

The one thing certain was that the Marines on guard outside weren’t letting anyone in or out.

They were introduced to two new staff members. “This is Henry Amalfi,” Hasslein said. “And Larry Bates. Of the National Security Agency. Well, Dr. Dixon, I think it is time to begin. Can you bring the chimpanzees down to room 104, please?”

The room had been an operating theater. Surgical equipment was still racked against the walls, and there were white glass-fronted cabinets full of gleaming steel instruments.

Zira looked at the equipment with envy. She hadn’t had gear half this good. Her interest in the set-up was not enough to cover her fears, though, and she clung to her husband’s hand.

Hasslein, Amalfi, and Bates sat side by side at a long table at one end of the room. The chairs set out for the chimpanzees resembled dentists’ chairs, comfortable, but cold and clinical in appearance. There was no place for Lewis or Stevie to sit, and the guards ushered them out.

“Now just a minute,” Lewis protested. “I have a right to be here—”

“No, sir,” Hasslein told him. “I represent the Commission, and you have no medical duties to perform at the moment. I’m sorry, Dr. Dixon, but I must insist that you leave.”

Lewis shrugged helplessly, and turned away. He was uncomfortably aware of the terrified gaze Zira directed at his back, and he left her looking at him even after the door closed with a hollow sound.

FIFTEEN

“Relax,” Dr. Hasslein said. “We won’t hurt you. We only want to find out the truth.”

Cornelius and Zira said nothing. Finally Cornelius asked, “If you don’t mean us any harm, why did you send Dr. Dixon away? Are you ashamed of what you’re going to do?”

“That’s no way to talk,” Mr. Amalfi said. “Look, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can all go home. I don’t like it here any more than you do. We’ve just got a job to do, that’s all.”

“What’s the point of trying to reason with monkeys?” Bates demanded.

“Aw, Larry, don’t be like that,” Amalfi said. “He hadn’t ought to be like that, had he, Dr. Hasslein? Be nice, Larry.”