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bits of the information being sent by the dozens of micro-transmitters implanted under the
skin, adjoining the organs, the nerves, even sam- pling the bloodstream of the animal
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waiting to go through its paces below them.
Information being transmitted and recorded on me slowly turning tapes to be fed later into
the University's computer if they, he and Ed, wanted a more complete analysis and, more to
the point, if they could scrape together the necessary service fee.
But me complex and shifting pattern of light on the jerry- rigged screen, small though its
sampling was, was enough to let Colin know how their animal was taking to what was by far
the largest massing of people he'd ever been exposed to.
239
240 F.A. Savor
An emotional crowd that this, perhaps the greatest of the year's shows, never failed to
attract.
A little loo much salivating . . . pain response a little high. I told that rider he had a tender
mouth. But all in all, Ato's Pride was taking this crowd's adulation as much in stride as he
had that of the smaller shows around the country they'd had to enter him in to garner enough
first ribbons to-allow him to qualify for this particular show.
This show that he and Ed had finally decided to aim at in a mixture of hope and
desperation. Then the grinding press of work and doing without, in which the gingerly
placing into its embryo tank of the cell that was to grow into the magnificent animal below
them was almost an anticlimax.
An anticlimax to the arduous task of mapping its gene pattern and to the planning and the
tailoring of the solutions that were to be so delicately, so precisely metered to it, but only a
beginning of their gamble to save Animals to Order. their two-man partnership that gave
promise but only of dying in the womb.
He had plucked the salmon-colored bank notice from the pile of due-chits that had just fallen
from the vac-tube beside their office door.
"A lethal gene," he said wryly to Ed, sitting at what they'd hoped would be the desk of the
receptionist they'd never been able to afford, straightening and rebending a paper clip. "A
lethal gene. A fatal deficiency in the customer- forming enzyme."
"I've been thinking about that," Ed said, his face deadly serious for once. "Animals to Order
is basically a sound idea, but I think our trouble lies in the fact that nobody knows we're
alive." He clenched his fist. "If we could only advertise."
The wryness in Colin's smile deepened. "It isn't ethical,'*
Ed flung down his paper clip. "It isn't ethical," he par- roted. "So we sit around and wait for
recognition to come to us, and meanwhile we starve."
His voice went up a notch. "Ten seconds. Ten lousy seconds in the middle of somebody
else's vid-cast. Ten lousy seconds."
THE TRIUMPH OF PEGASUS 241
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"Relax," Colin said. "We couldn't scrape together the cash now even if we could advertise.
Our equipment . . ."
Ed waved a hand. "You don't have to tell me how much the rental on our equipment is
costing us- I signed the papers with you, remember?"
He stopped short and rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. "I'm sorry, Colin," he said.
"I don't mean to snarl at you but it riles me. We've got a potentially great service here and the
rules of our game make it something dirty for profes- sional people like us to go out and
holler in the crossroads for people to come buy it."
Ed held up a finger and went on talking. "One order. One solitary order all the while we've
been in business. It'd gripe anybody.'*
It was true. Although they'd been open for half a year, their business had produced little
more than inquiries like the tentative one from a physician who was hoping they'd run across
an enzyme, an acid, anything that might make the cells of an arm stump de-differentiate and
then re-differentiate and grow to restore the amputated limb.
Sorrowfully, Colin had to tell him that, although they could grow an animal with short legs or
long legs or even transplant a developing leg, their science could not yet do what he asked
of it.
Then there was the usual scattering of requests from biology and genetics students for the
results of their most recent work sent quickly, please, by return vac-tube because there was
only this weekend coming up in which to get the papers completed and turned in.
And the one solid order Ed had mentioned. From a down-country milk manufacturer. Four
heifers. All identical and matching perfectly their trademark. To be sent around to die
various slate and bureau food exhibits to promote the name of their company and product. It
was not a particularly difficult assignment. A great deal of research and gene map- ping had
already been done by associations and others inter- ested in food animals so that it was
chiefly a case of bringing together what he and Ed needed, and filling in the gaps to produce
me animal they wanted.
242 F.A. Savor
Matching an animal to one in the picture of a trademark was not difficult because you had
only to look at it to know how well you'd succeeded. It was the intangible qualities that made
for a challenge.
As for identical animals, nature had been producing them for centuries. It was simply a case [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]