Battle for the Planet of the Apes - Gerrold David. Страница 14

At that, all the apes reacted visibly. Lisa was startled and concerned. The gorillas became restless and fidgety, rattling their swords. The orangutans were outraged, and the chimpanzees were confused. The Forbidden City?

“. . . with Virgil and MacDonald as my aides,” Caesar finished.

“Why MacDonald?” complained Aldo. “Why not a soldier?”

“You will hear,” said Caesar. Cornelius crawled under the table and stayed there. “When ape history comes to be written, we want it based not on legendary fiction but on facts. We went in search of records that might provide such facts.”

“Did you find them?” asked a chimpanzee.

“Yes,” said Caesar.

“And brought them back?” said an eager orangutan hopefully.

“No,” said Caesar.

“Why not?”

“Because we went in peace to what, we thought, was a dead city; but in case there might still be human survivors, we took MacDonald to parley with them and secure permission for our search.” He paused. “There are survivors.”

The Council murmured. “Survivors?” they echoed.

“Maimed, mutated, mad, hostile, and . . . human.”

The murmur became a shocked roar.

“They attacked us,” said Caesar.

At that, the gorillas leaped to their feet. “Then let me lead my soldiers against them!” growled Aldo.

Caesar looked at him firmly, “General Aldo, not only are they armed, for they attacked us with sophisticated weapons . . .”

“We, too, have weapons.”

“. . . but the radiation in the city is still such that if you and your soldiers fought there for just a few hours, you would become maimed, mutated, and as mad as they. So also would your future children.”

The Council was shocked into silence. Then Aldo said sullenly, “Did the humans follow you here?”

“We saw no sign of it. But you are right to be concerned. We have to plan for a time when they may come out of the city, when they may find us.”

Now the chimpanzees and orangutans rose to their feet; what was Caesar saying?

“Our gorilla army will exercise constant vigilance through continuous patrols. Civilians will assist in building defenses. And we should discuss training a militia.”

Lisa gathered Cornelius up in her arms. “Caesar, is this necessary? Isn’t it possible that the humans will stay in their city and leave us in peace?”

Caesar said gently, “Yes, it’s possible. But if we wish for the peace to last, we must be prepared to fight for it.”

Lisa turned desperately to Virgil, “Virgil . . .?”

The pudgy little orangutan said calmly, “If light is possible, so is darkness. If peace if possible, so is war.”

Caesar added, “This has not been an easy decision to make, but it is a necessary one. If we are to build a world of peace, we must survive. And if we are to survive, we must be strong.” At this, the gorillas cheered.

Abruptly, there was a scuffle at the door, a flurry of sudden noise as a group of humans tried to enter. Two gorilla guards had grabbed them and were forcibly trying to evict them. The group included MacDonald, Teacher, Doctor, Jake, and a few others. MacDonald was resisting loudly, “Get your filthy gorilla hands off of me!”

“No humans in council,” the gorilla was insisting.

“Stop that!” cried Caesar. “Release them!”

“Huh?” grunted Aldo and the other gorillas. They were standing, ready for a fight. Aldo turned angrily to Caesar; he stalked up to the front of the room to Caesar’s chair. He towered over him. “No humans in council!” he roared.

Caesar remained seated. He spoke calmly, “They are here because I sent for them. Now that we know of the danger in the city, we need their help, their counsel.”

“No,” insisted Aldo. “No! No!”

The other gorillas also began roaring and pounding their tables. “No! No! No!” They began to chant: “No! No! No! No! No!”

Cornelius, intimidated by the gorillas, moved closer to his father. Caesar slipped his arms around the little chimp and stood up. He waited for the uproar to cease. After a moment the gorillas trailed off in their chanting. They weren’t intelligent enough to be embarrassed, just uncomfortable.

Caesar said calmly,"I say yes.”

The chimpanzees and orangutans, confused by the rapid pace of events, nodded their heads in agreement with Caesar; he seemed to know what he was doing. “Yes,” they echoed. “Yes. Let the humans in council.”

Cornelius relaxed, realizing that his father had won the point. Aldo realized it too; he was furious as he looked around the room and sensed the support for Caesar’s position rather than his. He growled angrily as he realized that he had lost. He turned to the other gorillas, “Come! We shall not sit with humans. No!”

He strode from the room, and the other gorillas followed. At the door they shoved the humans roughly out of their way. They stamped loudly out of the room.

Caesar walked over to the humans. He clapped his arm around MacDonald’s shoulder and led him, Teacher, Doctor, Jake, and the others over to the empty gorilla seats. He gestured them to sit down.

“Now,” said Caesar, “let us reason together and make plans.”

Mendez was saying to Kolp, “Governor, somewhere along the line, this bloody chain reaction of violence has got to stop. A destroys B; B destroys C; C destroys A and is destroyed by D, who destroys E—and before anyone knows where they are, there’ll be nobody left anywhere to know anything. Only nuclear dust, like those apes from the future predicted. The Earth will be a dead star.”

Kolp’s eyes blazed. “The star of our city is not dead. We shall live to see it rise again.”

Mendez muttered, “At whose expense this time?”

As if in answer, Alma ushered in the travel-stained captain of Security, who had come directly to Kolp’s office. He saluted sharply and said, “We found it, sir.” He began to unfold a map. “The site of Ape City.”

Mendez looked unhappy. Kolp seemed to grow. “Where?” he asked eagerly. “Where is it?”

The captain laid the map on a table. He began pointing. “There’s a gorilla outpost here. Below that is a valley; it’s planted with orchards and vineyards. There are orange groves and banana palms here. Enough to feed thousands.” He tapped the map, “Their city is here.”

“You saw it?”

“Yes, sir, we did.”

“Did they see you?”

The captain shook his head. “No, sir. They were too busy. They seemed to be holding some kind of a council. Probably a council of war. I’ll bet that Caesar was reporting to them on his reconnaissance. One day soon they’ll be coming for us.”

“No,” snapped Kolp. “We’re going for them. Now.”

Mendez groaned.

“Go and alert your men. You know your orders.”

“Yes, sir.” The captain saluted and left.

Kolp beckoned to Alma.

“Yes, Mr. Kolp?” Her eyes were bright.

“Come with me. Mendez, you stay here and oversee the preparations.” He led Alma out of the room. “I want to give you some special instructions.”

“Yes, sir. Special instructions. Oh! Yes, sir!” She practically bounced along to keep up with him.

Kolp was in a state of fanatical euphoria. He half-strode, half-waddled, Alma beside him, through huge piles of supplies and scavenged materials from the ruined city. There were piles of rusty tin cans, pieces of ancient automobiles, old tires, bottles, stone columns, street and highway signs, street lights, and other useful and useless debris. The area was some kind of blasted tunnel, perhaps an old subway station. Now it was a warehouse, with mutants moving in frenzied preparation for the attack. They were pulling supplies from piles and loading dilapidated old trucks. There was a dusty school bus and a rickety-looking Cadillac. There were motorcycles and jeeps and even an armored troop carrier.

“We must destroy the whole zoo, Alma,” Kolp was muttering. “Once and for all, we must destroy them. It is not enough to merely cage a dangerous animal.”