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don’t know the cause of death. She may have been frightened by the
animal and fallen. We won’t know for sure until the medical examiner gets a
close look at her. I have Green checking over the surveillance camera tapes
now.”
    June wanders closer to the gurney which holds a covered
body. “Can I see her please?”
    Detective Maas hesitates due to this woman’s earlier
weakness and looks to Huggins who reassures him with a nod. Then Maas shoves
his glasses into place and pulls the sheet back for June to see. Huggins also
moves in. June grabs onto Huggin’s arm as if to steady herself but she remains
in control. A tear rolls down her cheek and onto the sheet.
    Mike puts a reassuring arm around June; it is as much for himself as for her.
    “She was scared,” says June. “It must have attacked her.”
    Detective Maas shrugs again. “Well, let’s wait until we see
your surveillance video. She doesn’t show any evidence of mauling.”
    June turns toward the door and moves out into the hallway.
She leans against the wall and slides down to the ground, sitting with her head
in her knees. Huggins goes over and sits down against the wall close to her.
    “Why?” she asks. “Sahar…Why?”
    ›
    In the security office of the Princeton Primate Research Lab
are Detective Maas, another detective, Mike Huggins, June Dituro, Dr. Van
Houten, and Jasper Green, a fit, older man in his mid-fifties who is head of
security.
    “Okay. If you’ll all watch the center screen here I can show
you some shit—Excuse me Dr. Dituro. You won’t believe your eyes. Well, maybe
you scientist types’ll believe it, but I sure as hell
didn’t.”
    “Just get on with it,” Detective Maas says impatiently.
    “Right,” says Green. The security guard hits a switch and an
image of one of the labs appears on one of the security screens in front of the
group. In it Sahar stretches and yawns, then lets her hair down. She looks over
at the animal in the cage and then walks over to it. After a moment she opens
the cage door. She goes in and comes out with the food dish and the water
bottle.
    As she is walking away from the cage she suddenly turns and
surprise and fear grip her face. She stumbles, falls, and hits her head on the
hard lab table. She crumples to the linoleum and is quickly approached by the
creature. He looks for a pulse in her neck. The creature’s left hand suddenly
has a bone-white needle sticking out from it. He wastes no time in sticking it
into Sahar’s chest. June gasps. The creature licks the needle and then leaves
the body, heading for the door. The hall cameras watch as he finally makes his
escape out the building door.
    Detective Maas is stunned, as are the other people in the
room. “What the hell was that?”
    “That,” says Dr. Van Houten, “is
one hell of a problem.”
    “ Mmhmm . Maybe you can be a little more specific than that.”
    No one speaks for a moment as Jasper Green rewinds the
video.
    “We’re digesting this too, Detective. It’s a shock and a
tragedy for us,” says Van Houten.
    “All right, take a moment. But I need answers.”
    Van Houten takes a few seconds to absorb what he’s seen and
then speaks in a measured way, careful of what he says, “Jasper, freeze the
camera on the animal. Yes. Detective, this animal is a new species which was
being studied here. It was only discovered this week. We had no idea or
indication that it was dangerous. I never would have guessed it could be so
ruthless from our contact with it until now. Clearly, however, Miss Franklin
should never have left the cage open, or even opened it while in the lab
alone.”
    “Does this lab often work on undiscovered species?” asks
Maas.
    “Not of this magnitude. Once in a while we’ll study some
newly discovered monkey from the depths of the Amazon, or Congo, but they’re
usually small creatures, and only minimally different from the animals that we
already know about. This particular creature is a revolutionary