Escape From The Planet Of The Apes Read Online Free Page B

his teeth didn’t show, and said “Feel better this morning?”
    Zira almost answered. If the human hadn’t been so ugly, so manlike, she would have; but it always surprised her to hear humans talk. She had known only three who could. She felt ashamed of herself for slapping the keeper last night. How could he know she didn’t like bananas? He was only trying to be nice.
    The man looked into all the cages, then went into the enclosure with the deer and did something Zira couldn’t see. It was obvious that the human liked animals. He seemed as civilized as any chimpanzee. As she watched him, Cornelius and Dr. Milo woke up.
    Zira turned to her husband and said “Good morning.”
    The keeper turned quickly from the sick deer. “Who’s there?” he said when no one answered, he wandered through the zoo hospital building, looking everywhere, and muttering.
    “Quiet,” Cornelius whispered.
    “I still think it’s the wrong idea,” Zira said. “We ought to talk to them.” She kept her voice low. The keeper finally went back to his sick deer. He was still shaking his head and muttering.
    A few minutes later the doors opened again. Two humans in white coats came in. The male was about six feet tall, with sandy brown hair and the kind of square-jawed features that Zira associated with the more aggressive humans. The female was much shorter, with dark hair and eyes. The soldiers at the door followed her into the room and gazed at her for a time before they went back outside, and Zira deduced that they found her very attractive. She had never understood human standards of beauty.
    “Good morning, Dr. Dixon,” the keeper said.
    “Morning, Jim. This is my new assistant. Dr. Stephanie Branton. Stevie, meet Jim Haskins. He’s a better animal psychiatrist than I am.”
    The humans chattered together for a long time. Two soldiers brought a desk and some tables into the corridor outside the cages, then brought in crates of apparatus. Zira watched with interest. The equipment was unfamiliar, but extremely well made, and she felt envy. If she could have had some of her designs built that well . . .
    All three apes watched as the humans set up their apparatus. Dr. Milo was worried; what did these humans intend? Who were their friends and who their enemies?
    It was quite possible, he thought, that they would have no friends at all.

FIVE
    Dr. Lewis Dixon watched lazily as the zoo people set up his apparatus. He was by nature a careful man, but not a worrier; there was no point in driving himself crazy about how the chimpanzees got in Colonel Taylor’s space capsule. He would find out or he wouldn’t, and worrying was not going to help a bit.
    He grinned at Stevie, and she smiled back. She had been with his team only about three weeks, and they were already half in love. He even had disturbing thoughts about orange blossoms and weddings. Lewis Dixon had always sworn that he would marry someone outside his profession; somebody with a life of her own, a different kind of career, so that they would have some common interests but different ones too. Stevie was making hash out of all his resolutions. She’d had the same idea, and she wasn’t having any more success than he was. He winked at her, and knew she was thinking the same things.
    Stevie and Jim carried some of the equipment into the cage. “Female’s a little uppity,” Jim said. “Slapped me last night. Not hard, though.”
    “Hey, be careful, Hon,” Lewis called.
    “I will.” Stevie grinned. Lewis thought it a very nice grin. Good teeth. No future dental bills to pay.
    The test apparatus was simple. A shade that could be raised and lowered divided a low table. The experimenter sat at one side, and the subject at the other. As Stevie and Jim set it up, Lewis observed the chimps through half-closed eyes.
    They’d seen something like this before. He was certain of it. They were almost purposive in their attempts to ignore what Stephanie was doing. Lewis had never seen