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85.255.115.5 I have something very nice in a green vial that would make a mouse attack a 85.255.115.5 lion. Garion made a face. I don't much care for that way, he said. who is 85.255.115.5Who is this Bourne? Is 85.255.115.5 he real or unreal? Is he the assassin of Asia or is he a fraud, a plant? She 85.255.115.5 phoned me herself one night in Nice after too many brandies a night perhaps you recall, Monsieur le Cam 85.255.115.5 l on a terribly expensive restaurant outside Paris. Baker's smile turned cruel All those medical blokes kicked off, didnt they? 85.255.115.5 You dont think those were all natural deaths, do you? Yendelela Obiri staggered to a halt along the forest 85.255.115.5 trail and doubled over from the nausea She was close to complete exhaustion, her khaki slacks and shirt soaked with 85.255.115.5 sweat, her head swimming with the strange double vision of the bio chips Gasping in the thin mountain air, she almost 85.255.115.5 sank to her knees Almost But when she closed her eyes she saw what Koku saw, heard and smelled and 85.255.115.5 felt what the young gorilla was experiencing Koku was being chased Hunters were pursuing him And the young male was too 85.255.115.5 inexperienced, too tame, to realize what danger he was in You are not alone, Yendelela muttered, knowing that Koku 85.255.115.5 could hear her through the biochips implanted in their brains Lela is near, Koku Lela is coming Fighting 85.255.115.5 down the bile burning in her throat, she adjusted the straps of her heavy backpack and staggered 85.255.115.5 up the steep wooded slope, pushing through brush and nettles that flailed at her from both sides of the 85.255.115.5 narrow mountain trail The sun was warm, but the cool mountain breeze chilled the perspiration that beaded on her 85.255.115.5 dark, intent face Her teachers, back at the university, had been doubtful about allowing Lela to do a field mission with 85.255.115.5 a male gorilla Even Professor Yeboa, who had been her advisor, her sponsor, her secret love, had expressed doubts 85.255.115.5 The hills can be dangerous for a city girl, Yeboa had said He had smiled, as he 85.255.115.5 always did when he reminded Lela of her urban upbringing City streets can be dangerous, too, she had retorted, also 85.255.115.5 smiling I am not afraid The aim of the project was to repopulate the area that had been set 85.255.115.5 aside as a safe reserve for the mountain gorilla Over the past half century the gorillas had been driven 85.255.115.5 nearly to extinction, but now at last an ecologically viable tract of uplands had been set aside for them, 85.255.115.5 thanks to Nkona Three female gorillas had already been placed in the reserve by other students and rangers, 85.255.115.5 waiting for a male to complete a viable group Lela's task was to guide Koku to the females, using the biochips 85.255.115.5 to help control the young male Lela had even met the Great Soul of Africa, Dhouni Nkona himself 85.255.115.5 He had come to the university to see personally how they were rearing the infant gorillas from the 85.255.115.5 zoo population and teaching them to survive in the wild As a graduate student, Lela had been concentrating on theoretical 85.255.115.5 studies of ecological change and environmental protection But once she looked into those fathomless eyes of Nkona 85.255.115.5 she was swept up in an irresistible frenzy of dedication The work you do here is the best that human souls 85.255.115.5 can achieve, Nkona had told the eager students He smiled at them, a sparkling bright smile in 85.255.115.5 his deeply black African face You know that we must learn to control our behavior, to think 85.255.115.5 before we act, to accept responsibility for the consequences of our actions We cannot live by exterminating others, that much 85.255.115.5 you have learned in your studies, I know By saving the gorillas, you help humankind to save itself Many oppose what 85.255.115.5 we do, said one of the students Nkona closed his eyes briefly Then, All life is linked together, from the humblest 85.255.115.5 forms to the most grandiose Thirty-three years ago the human race made its first contact with an 85.255.115.5 alien intelligence, a race from another world, another star I say to you that our contacts with the life of 85.255.115.5 this world are just as important--no, more important--than our link to other races in space He turned a full circle to 85.255.115.5 sear each of the students crowded around him with his compelling gaze We are all links of the same chain, the 85.255.115.5 chain of life, which extends out to the stars and the farthest reaches of creation Your struggle to 85.255.115.5 save the gorilla is the struggle to preserve that chain, to keep faith with all the forms 85.255.115.5 of life that share this universe Theory could never be enough for Lela after that Aflame with Nkona's passion, she 85.255.115.5 volunteered eagerly for the biochip operation that would allow her to maintain sensory contact with a selected 85.255.115.5 gorilla She battled the entire faculty and field staff for the right to work with one of the 85.255.115.5 animals through its difficult transition from the human environment of its childhood to the wild mountain forests where it would live 85.255.115.5 as an adult For nearly two years Lela had trained hard, both physically and mentally Out of a soft, self-indulgent adolescent 85.255.115.5 cocoon there emerged a leggy, lean-muscled young woman with lustrous brown eyes and a smile that dazzled She was not smiling 85.255.115.5 now Out here in the thick brush of the forest, with the early morning sunlight just beginning to filter down through 85.255.115.5 the trees, with the sweat of near-exhaustion chilling her, Lela knew that Koku was in danger She should have been the 85.255.115.5 only human being within a hundred square kilometers of the young male gorilla But she was not Through Koku's 85.255.115.5 eyes she saw a band of hunters thrashing through the brush White men and black, carrying rifles Run Koku she directed 85.255.115.5 Run Startled by her abrupt warning, the big gorilla crashed off through the brush Lela felt his sudden 85.255.115.5 fear as her own Look- ing back through the gorilla's eyes, she saw the hunters dwindling in 85.255.115.5 the distance until they disappeared altogether in heavy green foliage Lela sighed out a breath of relief Koku 85.255.115.5 could easily outdistance them in the thick brush But within minutes he would feel safe and slow down or stop altogether 85.255.115.5 Lela knew she had to reach Koku before the hunters did CHAPTER 6 fO dropped the two men off at their 85.255.115.5 hotels, then instructed her chauffeur to drive to Washington National Airport A Vanguard Industries executive jet was 85.255.115.5 waiting for her there, and shortly after midnight she leaned back in an utterly comfortable leather lounge chair and watched 85.255.115.5 the stately monuments of Washington glide past her window as the plane climbed to its cruising altitude Once above the 85.255.115.5 normal traffic patterns of commercial airliners, the plane's wings slid back for supersonic flight and the cabin lights 85.255.115.5 dimmed for sleeping But Jo had no intention of sleeping Not yet Hsen and Kruppmann were threatening her Now 85.255.115.5 she knew why the board of directors had suddenly insisted on a special meeting to review Vanguard's 85.255.115.5 participation in the HA Hsen was making a power play The sneaky little bastard must have nearly 85.255.115.5 half the board in his pocket already, in addition to Kruppmann, Jo said to herself While Ive been helping Keith he's 85.255.115.5 been maneuvering to acquire leverage on my board She dictated a memo to the computer outlet built 85.255.115.5 into her seat's armrest Check all board members and executive staff to see which of them also sit on 85.255.115.5 the board of Pacific Commerce Then she added, Also, I want a complete list of all Vanguard executives above the 85.255.115.5 level of divisional vice president who have been involved in any transactions whatever with Pacific Commerce What about Kruppmann? |