Chapter 1
An Alpha Male.
Sitting at the computer, waiting for a page to load, he reflected on his recent achievements. His plan was unfolding beautifully, if not perfectly. He was amassing huge sums of assets: cash, property and commodities. He was laundering the cash, funneling it into a tiered series of dummy and real corporations, and then using it to fund and support a diverse array of projects, programs and uprisings. Money fueled his causes. Money bought power. Money made things happen. Money bought loyalty, support and protection for himself, from the rest of humanity. It was ironic and perfectly justifiable. He was in a race against time. The ever-spreading ravages of man’s industrial progress, procreation and greed were wiping out his species.
Despite his newly acquired intelligence, he could find himself in the unthinkable position of being one of the last of his species: A species on the verge of extinction. Not exterminated, exactly, but obliterated through the reckless decimation of their singular and dwindling habitat; and no species, once its population drops below a certain point, can ever be viable again.
He stood up, stretched, and cracked his massive knuckles. It was feeding time. He went to the kitchen, extracted a frozen box of pre-packaged food from the freezer and placed it in the microwave oven. With fingers well-adapted for the task, he punched the appropriate buttons, and waited while the oven heated the food to the proscribed temperature. Using a potholder, he removed the food from the oven and carried it to a locked, soundproof safe-room. He unlocked the door and pushed it open.
At the sight of him, his naked captive, Kurt Schlempotz, threw himself at the bars of his cage with uncontrolled fury. Scabs of dried blood covered both of his hands. He bashed the cage with the heels of his hands, and snarled incoherently.
Exercising his unique ability to render most living things motionless, as if paralyzed with fear, he reached out with his mind and ‘stilled’ his human captive.
The human froze. His mouth open, his fists clenched and his stringy muscles bunched. A bit of drool began to drip from the corner of his mouth as his breath came and went in ragged heaves.
He strode directly to the confining 4-foot cage, keyed the lock, opened the door and placed the dish of heated food in front of the wretched human being. He reached into the cage and removed a litter box filled with human feces. After replacing the box with a clean one, he examined the human more closely, looking into its eyes, checking its’ ears. He removed the empty package of yesterday’s food, and then stood up and closed the cage door firmly. He put the lock through the hasp and closed it, pulling on it once to make sure it was secure. He gave the caged human one last lingering look, threw the box of feces in a plastic bin, and then calmly exited the room: releasing the human from his vise-like mental grip. He locked the safe-room door from the outside. ‘That’s done.’
He stood by the door and considered the human, his condition and his fate, and then his own. The human captive was just another in a long list of growing obligations. It would be so much simpler to just kill him, but that was the least of his concerns. Along with managing his expanding financial empire, the Alpha-male orangutan was supporting a growing uprising in Borneo and Sumatra, he had activated deep-cover spy moles in the United States and Russia and they, in turn, had facilitated the recent outbreak of Smallpox in both countries. An unforeseen event that, even with his enhanced intelligence, he had not anticipated. Only a human would do that to a fellow human being, and the last time he had checked the news, the virus was spreading like wildfire around the globe.
The effects of the synthesized compound that dissolved so well in water were spreading around the globe as well, but at a much slower pace than he had hoped. There were pockets of intelligent animals cropping up in the damnedest places, with varying responses from the locals. The local humans, that is. Some animals with enhanced intelligence were met with awe, astonishment and a perverse sense of wonder and glee. In most places however, intelligent animals caused an upwelling of fear and violence that forced the animals to flee or hide; often going underground with the help of an ever-increasing league of intelligent and sympathetic animals; creatures who had wisely kept their intelligence a secret from their human keepers and owners. The tide was turning though, slowly maybe, but inexorably. The humans were creating and dispensing the compound themselves. ‘As usual,’ he noted with no trace of humor, ‘humans were their own worst enemy.’
An Alpha Male.
Sitting at the computer, waiting for a page to load, he reflected on his recent achievements. His plan was unfolding beautifully, if not perfectly. He was amassing huge sums of assets: cash, property and commodities. He was laundering the cash, funneling it into a tiered series of dummy and real corporations, and then using it to fund and support a diverse array of projects, programs and uprisings. Money fueled his causes. Money bought power. Money made things happen. Money bought loyalty, support and protection for himself, from the rest of humanity. It was ironic and perfectly justifiable. He was in a race against time. The ever-spreading ravages of man’s industrial progress, procreation and greed were wiping out his species.
Despite his newly acquired intelligence, he could find himself in the unthinkable position of being one of the last of his species: A species on the verge of extinction. Not exterminated, exactly, but obliterated through the reckless decimation of their singular and dwindling habitat; and no species, once its population drops below a certain point, can ever be viable again.
He stood up, stretched, and cracked his massive knuckles. It was feeding time. He went to the kitchen, extracted a frozen box of pre-packaged food from the freezer and placed it in the microwave oven. With fingers well-adapted for the task, he punched the appropriate buttons, and waited while the oven heated the food to the proscribed temperature. Using a potholder, he removed the food from the oven and carried it to a locked, soundproof safe-room. He unlocked the door and pushed it open.
At the sight of him, his naked captive, Kurt Schlempotz, threw himself at the bars of his cage with uncontrolled fury. Scabs of dried blood covered both of his hands. He bashed the cage with the heels of his hands, and snarled incoherently.
Exercising his unique ability to render most living things motionless, as if paralyzed with fear, he reached out with his mind and ‘stilled’ his human captive.
The human froze. His mouth open, his fists clenched and his stringy muscles bunched. A bit of drool began to drip from the corner of his mouth as his breath came and went in ragged heaves.
He strode directly to the confining 4-foot cage, keyed the lock, opened the door and placed the dish of heated food in front of the wretched human being. He reached into the cage and removed a litter box filled with human feces. After replacing the box with a clean one, he examined the human more closely, looking into its eyes, checking its’ ears. He removed the empty package of yesterday’s food, and then stood up and closed the cage door firmly. He put the lock through the hasp and closed it, pulling on it once to make sure it was secure. He gave the caged human one last lingering look, threw the box of feces in a plastic bin, and then calmly exited the room: releasing the human from his vise-like mental grip. He locked the safe-room door from the outside. ‘That’s done.’
He stood by the door and considered the human, his condition and his fate, and then his own. The human captive was just another in a long list of growing obligations. It would be so much simpler to just kill him, but that was the least of his concerns. Along with managing his expanding financial empire, the Alpha-male orangutan was supporting a growing uprising in Borneo and Sumatra, he had activated deep-cover spy moles in the United States and Russia and they, in turn, had facilitated the recent outbreak of Smallpox in both countries. An unforeseen event that, even with his enhanced intelligence, he had not anticipated. Only a human would do that to a fellow human being, and the last time he had checked the news, the virus was spreading like wildfire around the globe.
The effects of the synthesized compound that dissolved so well in water were spreading around the globe as well, but at a much slower pace than he had hoped. There were pockets of intelligent animals cropping up in the damnedest places, with varying responses from the locals. The local humans, that is. Some animals with enhanced intelligence were met with awe, astonishment and a perverse sense of wonder and glee. In most places however, intelligent animals caused an upwelling of fear and violence that forced the animals to flee or hide; often going underground with the help of an ever-increasing league of intelligent and sympathetic animals; creatures who had wisely kept their intelligence a secret from their human keepers and owners. The tide was turning though, slowly maybe, but inexorably. The humans were creating and dispensing the compound themselves. ‘As usual,’ he noted with no trace of humor, ‘humans were their own worst enemy.’