You press the green button, and there is a quiet
humming.  Then the car picks up speed.  Seconds
later it glides to an equally smooth halt, and you
climb out.
   From the directory beside the laboratory en-
trance you learn the lab has five deprtments:
Plants, Animals, Humans, Electronics, and Ma-
chines.
"Let's examine the plant section first," Ling sug-
gests. "Then we can go on to Animals, and so on."
  The door to the plant section is a strong metal
bulkhead, the kind they use on ships.  You twirl its
spoked wheel, and the door swings open, reveal-
ing a high-ceilinged room lighted by bright, pur-
plish lights. There is a dank odor, and the air is
unpleasantly warm.  A wide asile runs down the
center of the room.
  On the left of the aisle grow plants the size of
panel trucks.  They look kind fo like large clams,
with leathery yellow-green skin outside and soft
reddish skin inside. The weirdest thing about them
is that each plant has a row of long, razor-sharp
teeth. You look down at the ground below them,
and a shiver runs through you. There's definitely
something very weird here. Skeletons are scat-
tered all around the plants. . . sheep skeletons,
cow skeletons, dog skeletons- and human skel-
etons.

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