The bleachers were now filling up with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans; and even some “foreigners”—baboons, Barbary apes, lemurs, and gibbons, etc., from outlying areas that did not yet completely acknowledge Ape City as capital of the world. Zira clutched at Cornelius’s arm as they walked away from their jeep. “Urko has certainly brought in a lot of visitors,” she said.
“He wants to show off,” Cornelius answered acidly. “Oh, good afternoon, Doctor Galba… Doctor Vitellius. How is your project going?”
The two behavioral scientists wended their way from the parking zone to the bleachers. Warily, they eyed the gruff and stiffly erect gorilla soldiers who lined the path.
Somewhere beyond the bleachers they heard a band strike up a stirring gorilla march, and on the airfield they could see a brisk demonstration by a crack honor guard who were slapping their rifles about in a snappy way.
“He’s making a circus out of this demonstration!” Zira said.
“Yes,” agreed her husband. “Look at him!” He pointed to the raised platform before the bleachers, where a number of dignitaries were just arriving. “So sure of himself!”
Zira and Cornelius walked up into the bleachers and sat down.
* * *
On the platform one of the chimpanzee Senators was asking Urko a question. “What have you up your sleeve this time, General Urko?”
Urko flashed a slow and almost sweet smile. “Well, Senator Demetrius, just wait a few minutes. Then I’ll have no secrets!”
He laughed as the Senator moved away to sit down, his face reflecting his discomfort.
The gorilla general noticed the orange fur and pale-peach uniform of a council Elder and realized it was Dr. Zaius. Graciously he reached down to take the orangutan’s elbow and lift him to the platform.
“Doctor Zaius! How good of you to come,” he smiled in a mock-friendly manner.
Old Zao, also of the Supreme Council, spoke before Zaius. “You’re going to surprise us, eh, general? Well, my old eyes have seen a lot of things, and it’s been many a year since anything could shock me!”
“Well, Doctor Zao, I just may be able to do that,” Urko answered, smiling again.
Zaius had meanwhile shaken off the gorilla’s assisting hand and was glaring up at him. But before he could speak, the bemedaled and beribboned warrior bowed and gestured toward the first row of seats.
“Yours is the seat of honor, sir. After all, you are our leader!” the general acknowledged with a sly grin.
“You will learn, General Urko—if you live long enough!—that true leadership cannot ever be taken. It must be earned!”
Urko’s eyes darkened, flashing with hate, but he kept himself under control. After all, in a few moments everything would change.
* * *
Bill and Jeff broke from the cover of the railroad train and ran quickly to the wall of the hangar. They were in shadow, hidden from the bleachers by the opened hanger doors. Listening carefully, they then gestured Judy to come forward. She ran like a gazelle, leaping over some low boxes, and joined them in the shadow.
Jeff put a finger to his lips and reached for a side door to the hanger, opening it carefully. The low door opened into a small anteroom built inside the hangar, and the room contained only a table and some chairs.
A deck of cards sat, stacked after a recent game, in the center of the table.
“The plane must be at the other end today,” Jeff whispered as the three slipped quietly through the room and out into the hangar proper, keeping behind the newly built airplane parts that were meant to become Urko’s air force one day.
At the opposite end of the long hangar was a room similar to the small one they had just left. Inside it, they heard someone singing softly and rather out-of-key.
“…Hear that big engine purr… Feel the wind in your fur… Oh, the air is so fair, and earth hard to bear, that I’ll spend all my life in the air…”
Jeff glanced at Bill, who nodded and knocked briskly upon the door. “Wing Commander Larko?”
Larko’s sing-song voice came from inside. “Yes? What is it?”
“A good-luck gift from General Urko.”
“Oh, come in! It’s open.”
Bill and Jeff opened the door and saw the ape, his back turned, in his heavy new flying suit standing before a full-length mirror. He was totally absorbed in his reflection as he combed the fur on his head. Then he put down the comb and tied his long, white flying scarf around his neck in different ways. The astronauts moved to keep out of the way of the mirror so that they would not be seen, but advanced steadily.
“Just leave it on my bunk,” Larko told them, still not looking around.
Bill glanced at the bed, reached down, and snatched up a blanket. Jeff jumped at the gorilla just as he was starting to turn.
“Hey, who are—?”
Bill threw the, blanket over the gorilla’s head and Jeff snatched up a bottle of hair lotion and brought it down hard on the blanketed skull. The gorilla groaned and went limp.
* * *
Murmurs began in the bleachers the moment the two truckloads of humanoids were brought out.
“Look! Humanoids!”
“What will they do with them?”
“Who cares? They’re disgusting creatures anyway!”
“What is Urko doing?”
The trucks trundled the huge wagon cages along the edge of the field toward its far end.
Only one door of the hangar had been opened, so the visitors could not see inside clearly. Zira stopped trying to peer into its dimness and sat back.
“Well, he’s starting the demonstration,” she said, sulking.
Cornelius looked around as he spoke quietly to his wife. “That’s not good, Zira! It must mean that Blue-Eyes and his friends did not make it here in time to stop this!”
Zira sighed, her eyes blinking and her nose twitching. “Yes,” she sighed. “I’m afraid so.”
* * *
Larko struggled against the ropes that bound him to the chair. The blanket was still over his head, but the astronauts had left it somewhat loose so that he could breathe.
“Mummph!” he said in a muffled voice. “Murrph!”
Jeff and Bill now closed the door of the closet where they had stashed the gorilla pilot, and turned to gaze at Judy.
“Well, how do I look?” she asked.
Bill grinned. “You look marvelously horrible.”
The pretty, flaxen-haired astronaut was dressed in Wing Commander Larko’s flying suit. Now she tugged on his helmet and tucked her hair carefully inside. Finally, she pulled down the goggles.
“I think some pillows would help,” Jeff said and yanked two off the bunk, stuffed them into the oversized flying suit. “The pillows help, all right,” he said. “I think you really might fool them—if no one gets too close, or you don’t have to talk.”
“I’ll wrap this white scarf of his around my face,” Judy said. “With the goggles on and my head down, well, maybe it’ll work.”
“We’ll wait until you’re in the air,” Bill informed her. “Then we’ll go to work.”
Bill started to give Judy some further advice, but just then the filtered, tinny voice coming over the loudspeaker drowned him out.
“…Pilot, man your plane! Pilot, man your plane!”
“That’s it, Judy!” Jeff said, slapping her on the shoulder. “Good luck!”
Judy wrapped the white scarf still tighter around her face. “I’ll need it,” she said.
* * *
Urko had stepped to the lectern, which faced the audience sitting on the bleachers. His manner was haughty but restrained. All around him, on the high platform sat the most important members of the Council of Elders and of the simian Senate, as well as a sprinkling of high Gorilla Army officers.
The general bowed very slightly back toward Dr. Zaius, a mocking gesture that made the orangutan’s golden eyebrows arch in anger.
Amplified by the speakers, Urko’s voice b
ellowed out across the field. “Doctor Zaius, members of the Council of Elders, Senators, distinguished guests, may I welcome you here to Strategic Defense Headquarters. As you know, this is a unique experience, having guests at our humble training ground…” He paused to look around at the orangutan Elders. “But here we have been establishing a new order.” Zaius’s eyes grew darker still. “What you are about to see today is a symbol of that new order of things. What you will see will change the course of the history of ape-kind.”
Urko raised his gloved hand, and the door of the hangar was pulled further to reveal the P-40 in a dramatic display. The crowd gasped in surprise, but it was murmurs of puzzlement, not wonder, that rose from among the assembled dignitaries.
“It’s fantastic! What is it?”
“Strange object. Looks rather fragile.”
“Has wings, something like a bird, but they don’t seem to move.”
“Ferocious face.”
“What does it do?”
“Knowing General Urko, I’d say it was some kind of killing machine.”
Zira shot a glance at the end of the field where the humanoids huddled in their cages. “Something to kill humanoids with, of course.”
“Shush, Zira. Keep an eye out for Blue-Eyes or Jeff or Judy.”
A small tractor was hitched to the tailskid of the P-40. It started to move forward, driven by a gorilla in army coveralls. The plane was moved out of the hangar and crossed the field in front of the bleachers. As the tractor stopped in front of the crowd, the gorilla driver jumped down to disengage the catch that would free the plane.
The crowd continued to murmur. Urko only waited silently, arrogantly, watching the visitors as much as he was watching the progress of the plane’s preparation.
“I have such a terrible premonition,” Zira whispered to her husband.
He patted her hand, then held it tightly in his.
* * *
Jeff and Bill were watching through the crack of the door that led into the hangar. A jeep sat waiting with its motor running; Judy was walking across to it. The driver was a gorilla corporal, who fortunately sat with eyes straight ahead: he knew he was going to be under the direct gaze of not only his own sergeant but of General Urko himself.
“I think she’s going to make it!” Jeff whispered.
“She’s certainly walking like one of the big apes,” Bill said. “As soon as the jeep starts outside, I think we’d better go to the train.” Bill grinned at his partner. “I think we’ve got a good chance!”
Judy climbed into the jeep and waved the driver on.
The two astronauts turned and walked back through the building toward the other exit and the railroad train.
Larko was struggling, half-suffocated by the blanket. He had given up cursing, discovering that that was nothing but a good way to run out of air. The ropes were tight and his struggles had brought blood to the wrinkled black skin of one hand.
But at last the hand came free of the rope.
* * *
The jeep drove across the field without haste, Urko turned from watching the arrival of his pilot, and addressed the crowd.
“I am about to give the order to begin this momentous demonstration. At the conclusion of this unique display of my new weapon, I believe Doctor Zaius will have an important announcement.”
Urko turned to look at the Elder, but the old orangutan sat with his head bowed, his face unreadable. The general smirked and turned to watch the pilot climb out of the jeep and mount the short ladder leading up to the cockpit. He saw the mechanic slide the canopy back and salute the pilot. He watched as the uniformed figure of his chief—and only—pilot climbed into the cockpit and slid the canopy closed.
* * *
Both of Larko’s hands were now free. He wiggled and wrenched until the ropes fell from around his body, then pulled the blanket from his head and shoulders and leaned down to untie his feet.
* * *
Jeff ran up to the side of the locomotive, peeked quickly into its cab, then ducked back and gestured for Bill to follow. As the blond astronaut ran from the protection of a pile of crates and stood with his back flat against the tender of the engine, Jeff held up one finger.
Bill nodded, made a gesture pantomiming going around; then he ducked around the end of the tender, stepped over the connection to the freight cars, and came up on the cab from the opposite side. Glancing up at the cab, he saw the figure of a middle-aged gorilla in overalls lounging sleepily on the engineer’s seat.
The two astronauts jumped up into the cab at almost the identical moment. Jeff accurately swung the piece of heavy lumber he carried, and the engineer fell to the floor with only a soft grunt. The two men pulled him to one side, and Jeff started studying the controls.
“You know how to run this thing?” Bill asked.
“Well, luckily it’s fired up and just idling,” Jeff replied. He squinted at the dials and regulators. “Luckily, too, it’s pretty old—or a copy of an oldie. These steam engines were really simple. My cousin Benny used to have an electric-train layout—really big—bridges, tunnels, lots of different cars. And old-time freights were his passion. I used to read some of the magazines about them. So, um, let’s see if I can remember anything…”
Bill half swung out of the cab and looked down the tracks toward the factory. “There are a lot of workers over at the edge of the field, watching,” he said. “They must have shut the factory down for the big event.”
Jeff gave Bill a quick grin. “We’ll reopen it!”
He reached up and carefully pulled down a long lever. The engine slowly started to move, just barely taking up the looseness in the connections between the cars behind them. “That’s the one,” Jeff noted happily. “Now, let’s stoke this up with some fuel.”
“We’ll go when we hear Judy’s engine,” Bill said.
“Check!”
* * *
General Urko picked a walkie-talkie from the hands of one of his officers, depressed the “Talk” button, and spoke. “All right, Wing Commander Larko. Start your engine.”
The general watched with pride; but the moments passed and the plane did not start. He threw an angry glance at the chimpanzee scientist Lykos, and was about to repeat his order when the aircraft engine started to whine and the prop began to turn spasmodically.
Then the prop stopped abruptly.
Urko glared at Lykos. “What is wrong, Doctor Lykos?”
The chimpanzee spread his hands. “Patience, general. Sometimes it takes a while. It’s a very old device—not fully understood, you see—and—”
“All right,” the gorilla commander growled, looking back at the plane.
Lykos bit at his lip. The snubs he had received from the other chimpanzees, who were now aware that he had been cooperating with the gorillas, had sealed his fate. His future was at the mercy of the ambitions of General Urko, and depended on the success of the erratic air vehicle.
The engine sounded again, coughed, and stopped.
Urko grumbled and started to step down from the platform. “I’m going to find out, personally, what’s wrong!”
* * *
Larko staggered uncertainly across the room. He’d been tied up too long. The closet door hung askew behind him. The angry gorilla pilot slapped open the control of the intercom and shouted into the microphone. “This is Larko! Stop the demonstration!”
Then the bellowing gorilla saw that the wires of the mechanism had been torn loose.
“Bah!” he exploded, and lurched toward the door. “I must warn General Urko!”
* * *
As Urko’s foot touched ground, the plane whined again. Its engine caught, sputtered, but then was suddenly loud. The crowd gasped at the noise and at the whirling steel blades of the propeller.
Urko grinned and stepped back up onto the platform.
In the train cab, Bill laughed. “There she goes!”
Jeff made a fierce combat grimace. “You’d better get back there, captai
n, and get set. We’re about to start ourselves!”
Bill gave the black astronaut a wave and dropped down out of the locomotive’s cab to the gravel next to the track. Then he started trotting back along the length of the train.
* * *
The P-40 was moving down the tarmac. It taxied to the end, not far from the cages of humanoids who were cowering in fear of the strange, noisy machine. Then the revived warplane swung around into the wind and the engine revved up more loudly than before. At last, it started to move swiftly down the airfield.
The crowd gaped at its great speed; then, as the plane lifted gracefully into the blue sky, in unison they said: “Ahhhh—!”
“It’s awesome!”
“By the beard of Kerchak! What a sight!”
“This could mean the end of civilized warfare!”
“Look at that thing go!”
Old Zao, the Elder, looked at his crony Doctor Zaius with wide eyes. “Never… never in all my days…!”
The grizzled orangutan leader was dumbfounded.
Senator Demetrius glowered at the speck that was climbing against the clouds. “Why, it’s against the laws of nature! If the ape was meant to fly, he would have been born with wings.”
Urko heard him and his self-satisfied smirk grew broader. “Well, Senator, we may not have been born with wings, but we have surely found them!” Then the gorilla commander took the walkie-talkie from his junior officer again and pressed the “Talk” button. “Release the humanoids!” he ordered.
Zira watched in growing fear as she saw the gorilla guards at the end of the airfield throw open the doors of the wagon cages and begin to prod the fear-frozen humanoids out onto the smooth tarmac of the airfield. She could hear the guards shouting.
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