Fragment

7:23 P.M.

Hender led them back down to the B-29 fuselage, where Andy managed to tell him with hand signals that he and his human friends needed some privacy.

Hender nodded. He gestured with four hands toward the nose of the B-29, where the humans proceeded to congregate as Hender stayed near the front door, his back turned discreetly.

“We have to save them,” Nell began, standing before the patchwork window in the cockpit. The way the plane jutted over the ocean, she felt almost as if they were flying.

Cane stood with his eyes closed as if this were a bad dream. Words had come out of the mouth of what looked like a prop in a horror movie-it had called him by his name, and now there were more of them coming. He could not piece this together with the world he came from; it seemed like the world was splitting in two beneath him. He did not see the soul of his Creator in this monster. He saw another force, of awesome power, that had acted without any regard for human sensibilities to invest this animal with the appearance of a soul. Cane was convinced he was closer than he had ever been to the presence of the Devil.

“I was about to give up on this island myself,” Geoffrey told the others. “But I think we just found the only benign species possible here: intelligent beings. Think of it!”

“We have to tell the President,” Andy said. “We have to stop them.”

“Absolutely,” Zero said, recording them with both cameras.

“Let’s get to the Humvee and radio the base,” Nell decided.

“Hold on.” Thatcher raised a hand. “We are under extremely strict orders from the military about transporting any species off this island…”

Nell glared at him with a fierce challenge in her eyes. “Are you suggesting that we destroy these creatures? Is that what you’re saying, Thatcher?”

“I’m saying nothing, I’m merely questioning: What is it that makes this species any more valuable than the hundreds of species we are about to incinerate, Dr. Duckworth?”

“I can’t believe you’re even asking this,” Nell said, flushed with anger. “Hender thinks. He knows his past and plans his future. He’s a person-like you and me.”

“Surely, that’s their worst recommendation!” Thatcher shook his head, laughing contemptuously. “It makes Hender’s kind more dangerous than a plague of locusts. Don’t you see?”

“They don’t have to be like a plague of locusts, Thatcher. They have a choice,” Nell argued. “Locusts don’t have any choice.”

“Exactly,” Thatcher agreed, mildly. “Which makes us much worse than locusts. It doesn’t take many of our choices to add up to global devastation on a scale no other creature could ever match. We didn’t have to come to this island, Dr. Duckworth- but we did. And if we hadn’t, none of the creatures on this island would have to die now. Would they?”

“Spare us the irony, Thatcher,” Geoffrey said. “We’re here now, and we have a moral obligation, damn it.”

“Before we saw Hender you wanted to save this island,” Nell reminded Thatcher.

Thatcher jabbed an angry finger at her. “And you wanted to nuke it!” he snarled. He looked at the others, seeking an ally. “Hasn’t it occurred to any of you that this creature is far more dangerous than anything else on this island precisely because it is intelligent? My God, this planet will be lucky enough to survive one intelligent species-but two? Are you all mad?”

Geoffrey scoffed. “Intelligent life must have managed to live on this island in harmony with its environment for millions of years to evolve into Hender. Face it, Thatcher, that theory of yours, that intelligent life must destroy its environment, is wrong-and these beings are the proof. One of my own theories has already been shot down by this island, if that makes you feel any better. I thought an ecosystem with so little symbiotic cooperation couldn’t even exist, let alone outlast every other system on Earth. I was wrong, too. Get over it, Thatcher. Welcome to the wonderful world of science.”

“It’s funny,” Nell mused. “I thought this island would prove my theory that plants pollinated by insects would exhibit extreme genetic drift in isolation. But there were no pollen-bearing plants here. There aren’t any plants, except for this tree.” She looked at Thatcher sadly. “But what we have found instead-it’s like a miracle, Thatcher!”

Thatcher glared back at her, and smiled contemptuously.

“I had a theory,” Zero piped up, “that if you could find the most remote island on Earth, you’d find paradise. Guess my theory’s shot to hell.”

“Henders Island,” Andy said. “The place where theories come to die. Right, Thatcher?”

“What we are doing to this island only underscores the danger of making any special exception for this species,” Thatcher insisted. The edge in his voice was unmistakable.

“This isn’t a chapter in your book, Thatcher,” Zero growled. “This isn’t about winning some stupid scientific argument. We gotta save these guys, come on!”

“They’re people, Thatcher!” Andy said.

“No, they’re not!” Cane spluttered and then fell silent when he caught Hender watching him from the other end of the fuselage.

“Yes, they are!” Andy yelled.

Cane’s grip tightened on the forestock of his rifle.

“Relax, dude,” Zero told him.

“Look, Thatcher.” Nell leaned forward. “It’s no doubt true that without our intelligence this island would never have been found, and none of this would be necessary now. For life’s sake, I regret that anything on this island must be destroyed. But it would be murder to knowingly kill other intelligent beings, just as it would be murder if we were to allow other species on this island to reach the mainland. It would be murder because, unlike anything else on this island, Hender and beings like him can choose not to be monsters. And so can we. That’s why they deserve a chance. Surely you can see that, can’t you?”

Thatcher studied her with smoldering contempt. “That choice produces saints and sinners, Dr. Duckworth. Pacifists and terrorists. Angels and devils. And there is no way to predict which. To bring this creature and his ilk to the mainland will expose the rest of the world to a peril it could never withstand.”

“OK, so who’s for saving them?” Zero asked, giving Thatcher a deadly stare as he raised his hand.

Nell, Geoffrey, and Andy raised their hands. “Yes!”

Cane looked through the window as twilight filled the sky.

All the others looked at Thatcher, waiting for his response.

Behind his eyes, wheels turned, recalculating the odds against him.

Suddenly, the zoologist sighed.

“All right,” he nodded in apparent resignation, and raised his hand. “Of course, I will abide by the group’s decision, as it seems that everyone’s mind is made up. Sergeant, are you all right? I should get you back to the car. Come on.” He took Cane by the arm, and turned him toward the door. “We need to radio the base to tell them what we’ve found.”

“We’ve got twenty-two and a half hours left before we have to evacuate this island,” Geoffrey said, glancing at his watch. “You better tell them we have to start making arrangements immediately to transport these creatures.”

Andy followed them to the door as Hender stepped aside to let them through.

As soon as Thatcher pushed it open, Cane vomited outside.

“Eew, yuck!” Andy pulled the door shut behind them and went back to the others.

“Yuck!” Hender nodded.