The Bird Cage by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online

public.”
    Trevor’s cell phone rang, startling them all. Grace cried, “Not in here! Dale, get him out of here!”
    “It’s the equipment,” Dale said, rushing Trevor to the door and out, with Jean at his heels. “Sorry,” he said after the door was closed behind them. “We made it a rule never to take calls in there. No electronics are allowed in there.”
    Trevor was paying no attention as he answered the call from his father. He spoke briefly, then said, “They’re moving my mother to a private room. She’s conscious and I can see her in about two hours. I have to go.”
    Grace came from the monitoring room and Dale said, “I have to take Mr. McCrutchen back to town.” He turned to Jean. “Why don’t you stay here and tell Dr. Wooten exactly what you told me, what happened this morning. She can fill in details about Cody’s role.”
    “I can’t,” Jean said. “I’ll drive him to the hospital.”
    “I’ll take him and wait to bring him back,” Dale said. “Stay here and get a little rest for a few hours.”
    Trevor nodded. “You need to rest a little,” he said to Jean. “It’s okay. Let’s go,” he said turning to Sumner.
    Grace listened to them, bewildered, and belatedly she nodded also. “Please, Ms. Biondi. I could use some filling in, and I’m sure you can, too.”
    Jean looked at Dale Sumner. “You saw him. You know. You have to be careful.”
    “I know I do,” he said quietly. “I’ll bring him back as soon as he’s ready.”
    It was too surreal, Jean thought, sitting at a table in a park, watching chimpanzees grooming one another, scrambling up a tree in the distance, coming to the bars to gesture and make noises at the woman across the table from her. She had watched Dr. Wooten hand one of them a bag of peanuts, return to the table, listened to her say, “They’re as spoiled as brats. They expect a treat whenever I come out here.”
    Jean had told her everything she had told Dr. Sumner, and Dr. Wooten had not made a single comment. She had listened without expression, revealing nothing. She seemed old, gaunt and unkempt, with wrinkled pants and shirt, as if she had not changed clothes, slept or looked at herself in a mirror for a long time. Her hair was gray, short and in need of a shampoo.
    “Why did Cody agree to it? Become the first human subject?” Jean asked. Her real question was why had Cody trusted this woman.
    “I’m not altogether certain,” Dr. Wooten said. “Money, of course. Mr. Markham paid him well, I expect, and there’s a guaranteed monthly payment for the next two years as long as he keeps coming in for routine tests, physical and psychological. He said it would get him through the rest of his education. But I think it was more than that. Something else. Being part of something bigger, and even exciting. I hardly knew him, Jean. But he was a very willing subject.”
    “That Mr. Markham, why is he doing this?”
    “He’s dying. And he’s very rich. He set up a foundation to keep the research going into a distant future. Perhaps he’s just a philanthropist and wants to do something worthwhile with his money.” She told the lie easily, persuasively, and marveled at how reasonable it sounded. But he had set up the foundation, even if it was to ensure that funding would not get cut off while he was in a cold sleep, delaying death. She could not tell this young woman that Markham was a man who profoundly feared death. Or that he hadn’t given a damn about Cody or what happened to him. She could not tell Jean that no one knew yet what had happened to Cody, how it might effect him, that it might even destroy him.
    “I’ll put on some coffee,” she said rising. “I often sit out here and have coffee, sometimes lunch. We have a very good cafeteria, by the way. If you begin to get hungry while you wait for your friend to get back, we can have lunch sent to the office.”
    After starting the coffee she hurried to the monitoring room to check the