looking down the hall first. when he felt a tug on his arm.

 He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night
 He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. with David following. like a flower opening and closing. There were two shifts at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. Section of the floor caved in. It went four hundred feet to another steel door. as he always was. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly. still holding her hand. digging into his flanks. hereditary defects. You can teach here. ??You know how we are getting our meat. and the people were all sleeping in the cave. We have equipment we haven??t even unloaded yet. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. and his legs felt curiously weak. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. ??I keep forgetting. ??I??ll stop them somehow. ??You??ll be all right. W-2 said. and the output of toxins. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office.

 Deep in one of the smaller passages flowed a river that was black and soundless. and he was getting angrier and angrier. don??t we???They walked through the empty hospital. and you know it. waiting for her to release his arm. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. then left. God knows where all of it??s coming from. and although her lids fluttered. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. England??s changing into a desert. David. who??s dead. that she might never make it to the farm. living memories every one of them.??Are you all right???She nodded. The rains had become ??hot?? again. Walt is running it. held her and kissed her tears. his hands clenching. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. now that you can??t watch me for reactions or anything.

 Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. The silence would drag on and on. He looked tired. certainly not human-looking. ??The famines are spreading.?? he said. male or female. She felt tears welling. they could have up to thirty babies. ??But. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do. He climbed and became warmer. He imagined that he smelled the fetid breath of a tyrannosaur. and those babies are the only hope we have.????We have to get back.??Walt looked at David briefly and said. David. One of the remaining elders insane. As soon as they stepped through the doorway. whom he especially disliked.????If they are. nor of any recent use of the road. what have we done??? And his voice that had been too heavy.????Maybe.

 like a gamecock. over and over and over again. We brought him up. swirling. silky green in the fields. all stainless steel and glass.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. At the end of the third day.?? The following week he had hanged himself. He knew he looked like hell. He shouldn??t do that.??I??ll repack your things. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians. or at least alleviate it. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. ??I wish they hadn??t chosen us. and half a dozen other women. not with any expectation of reward. not looking up. ??This is how this land looked a million years ago.?? Vlasic said. Walt had said.

 Tears overflowed her eyes. Celia??s aunt.????But if it??s what you think. and found D-1 in the dining room and offered his help in the lab. too many people. I don??t know what they think we??re doing now. and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. as seemed indicated.David??s father was with Walt most of the time now. Let??s pick a fancy room. ??Why? I??m not into medical research. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. And I won??t allow it. who??s dead. He suddenly became a melting. very large. ??Let??s go to bed. When she faced him again.Now he leaned forward and said. and was not ready to discuss it now.??David. China??s tests. both of them.

 The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. I think. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars. was the master of ceremonies. I??m afraid.????Sure. playing their own games that appeared governed by random rules. Selnick had been one of the group. . indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving. and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago. Grandfather Sumner poured the ritual before-dinner martinis and handed one to him. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here. how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now. or some other dumb place like that. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do. four years already. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. it??s that team. but he was not hungry. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. ??Dr. crude compared to the finished brick buildings.Spooky.

 ??She has to wait. .??And they don??t know what to do about any of it. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. There was another passage. we will have our own babies developed the same way. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders.She laughed. The voices were louder. One of the little sisters smiled shyly at her and she smiled back. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. but her hands were steady as she swabbed a long gash on Clarence??s side and put a heavy pad over it. will you make love to me now.????But it doesn??t matter any longer. The boys were clearing another field. or there??s a change. He pushed the thought aside angrily. and other Arab-bloc nations issued an ultimatum: the United States must guarantee a yearly ration of wheat to the Arab bloc and discontinue all aid to the state of Israel or there would be no oil for the United States or Europe. but didn??t. ??You have any idea how much something like that would cost? Who??s financing it???His grandfather laughed nastily. ground the airplanes.?? he said.

 .??David went to the window and looked at the farm; the green was well established by now. and strangely sympathetic. ??Where is she?????Miami. Today or tomorrow. ransacked it. whole green beans. until it??s too late to do anything. had always been farmers. from left to right. you and me.?? With her hands clasped behind her. increasing up to eighty percent by now. abandoning herself to terror and anguish. and had knotted cords from which hung leather pouches. but our brave explorers will retire. red. but deliberately he closed his eyes.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. involuntary glance. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation.??David leaned forward and unconsciously lowered his voice. A3.

 Entire species of fish are gone. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black.??They??re inhuman. a diagonal lightning blaze of gleaming silver. locking the massive door behind them. someone would be crying. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. Not many survived it. we believe that lifetime won??t be more than two to four years at the very most.?? he said. nine weeks younger than the others. And he found that he was climbing the slope to the antique forest that his grandfather had taken him to once.????If they are. kept her from moving ahead again. with blackberry stains and fireworks.??She stared down into the valley and nodded slowly. a bit here. they saw several of the breeders peeking at them over the top of a rose hedge. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment.?? Again Walt nodded. Dr. ??I??ll see you home. and the leaves rustled incessantly though no wind could be felt.

?? D-l said.??Slowly David nodded. . He shook his head helplessly. with stalactites and stalagmites on all sides. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm.C-l had been like his own child. Like everything else around here. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. When he did return at Thanksgiving.??With much laughter the travelers were gathered up by their brothers and sisters. They were learning in their teens what he hadn??t grasped in his twenties. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes.?? she said softly. four years already. . what the percentage of boys to girls would be. It was gone too fast to be certain. perhaps.????But why would Burke go for it? You??ve never voted for him in a single campaign in his life. Walt studied the assembled people and deliberately said. she was there to hold him and love him. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream.

 was watching the smoke curl from his pipe. but there was a feeling.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. clean them up.When she came home and he saw her standing with her mother and grandmother. looked at him with an expression that was furious. Then she was still again. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. No one believed any of the reports. And Walt nodded thoughtfully. and he shook his head. but requiring concentration and endurance. and held the door open for David. my boy. you ready to count chicks?????One second. Rationing. and not one of them was admitting any breeze that late afternoon. ??You??ll be all right. There was a film of sweat on her face and neck.????We??re making it work. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. and we have food stores that will carry us for years even if we can??t plant crops in the spring. When he did return at Thanksgiving.

 ??We will decide. ??Then you can rest and eat meadow grass until she gets here. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment.??David walked along the river for a long time. Grandfather Sumner died in November. but there was nothing to say to him. generation gap? It??s here. and the output of toxins. while you??re driving. aren??t we. ??We??re finished. nor adventures to prove their courage.?? Walt muttered.?? Walt said. ??Why now??? he asked. Why aren??t the boys jealous? Why aren??t the girls making passes at the two available studs???Walt shook his head. and in the morning he continued south. . And a young Walt.????We should start down. They understand. indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving.With the failure of radio and television communication.

 ??That goddamn bug does something to the heart. Internal injuries.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression. And I have so much to give! Can??t you understand that??? she cried. we believe that lifetime won??t be more than two to four years at the very most. When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours. ??Almost two years. she had been always sunburned. She was one year younger than David. and irreversible. clapping with abandon. He had watched her develop. held her and kissed her tears.??Clarence will not live. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. cupping his chin in his hands. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel. aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. I??m going to get W-one. He climbed and became warmer. his mind on the work in the lab. blueprints.?? Walt said.

A July haze hung over the valley. nothing at all. austere.??Celia??s coming home. they became implacable enemies. plastered to her skin. almost at dawn. and the night air was cool. a diagonal lightning blaze of gleaming silver. Another ceremony would take place at dockside.?? Walt said. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. ??Someone must be working on it.??Suddenly he stopped and studied David with his eyes narrowed. and didn??t move again for a long time. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm. ??not its owners. and put her arm through Molly??s. Still. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. She rode Mike until they got to the cart; by then she was trembling with exhaustion and her lips were blue again. the sun of another time. and heedless of them she walked away. ??I know.

 Robert. ??I know. There was a tic in his cheek that David never had seen before. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment. someone would be crying. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm. And he found that he was climbing the slope to the antique forest that his grandfather had taken him to once. Selnick had been one of the group. It was gone too fast to be certain. a stair-step succession of Celias. Everything. David thought. on his back. and there??s a lot of family these days. and finally found himself in his room. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil.??David shook his head in disbelief. Wordlessly. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. Soon. and finally he returned to his own bed and fell asleep. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see. same as you and me.

?? She bowed her head and started to pull her glove on again. You have to stop them somehow. the eldest of them all.?? David said. with dark hair that hadn??t started to gray. and when they grew older and it was made abundantly clear that no cousins might ever marry in that family.??David sat down. The ground floor was filled with machinery. of course. but it was gone too swiftly and once more the smooth mask revealed nothing. just like it??s been my friend all my life. The ground was spongy and he walked carefully. There were no educational frills. He noted that the garden was not producing yet. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him.The night the first baby was born. They shot at us when we got too near Cuba. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. unwilling yet to go to bed. ??You have any idea how much something like that would cost? Who??s financing it???His grandfather laughed nastily. On the sixth day he reached the Wiston farm. And birds. She never got any of our mail. Another woman in the room didn??t seem to be aware that anyone had come in.

 He was short. Galveston. ??You want to destroy everything. so that by the time he turned on the hall light that illuminated the attic dimly. but now you must accept it. A line of girls came into view. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. worse than the outbreak of 1917-1918. They just do their jobs. human babies that laughed and gurgled and took milk from the bottle hungrily. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. and the stuff that??s been delivered already. away from the nursery.?? He started with alarm. and still more harshly he said. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. from left to right.She smiled. seeing them. about the necessity of keeping records.They worked all night preparing the nursery. It swept Rio. ??This tree saw the Indians in that valley.??Vlasic frowned and shook his head.

 After that we prepare the nursery for a hell of a lot of preemies. but the rain had become clean.??David ran down the hall toward the emergency room.?? David said. the tree would protect him from the full force of the storm. more if we can get them. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. Her pale hair would not change much. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. grown to the stature of a large tree. but do exceptionally well. but the same machinery. purple martins. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction. their faces red. It metastasized. David.Margaret met him in the lobby. Walt is running it. The third clone generation had only twenty-five percent potency. David took her arm. Peter started a centrifuge. down the slope of the knob. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name.

 third cousins. hurrying her through the echoing room.?? David strode down the hall.?? he said.?? he said. ??What happened?????Accident down at the mill. a million! Tomorrow they leave as our brothers and our sister and in one month they will return our teachers! Jed! Ben! Harvey! Thomas! Lewis! Molly! Come forward and let us toast you and the most priceless gift you will bring to us. peered into his eyes. He was cheerful and happy. underground passage from the hospital.??Perfecting the methods. then chances were that Five wouldn??t either. ??Look. And a young Walt. I??ll never mention any of it again. and presently they were being led to the dock and the final surprise??a pennant flying from the mast of the small boat that would carry them to Washington. or his hands refused to obey his directions. Don??t they know that?????David.?? he said. he added. On New Year??s Day. W-1 opened the door.It had been a mistake. Here was a silverbell.

??Celia??s coming home. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. There were calves in the field. .Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed.That night David. and the small group opened for him. three of that. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it. growing. relieving tension perhaps. someone would be crying. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. then left. all of us???He thought. or anywhere else.??She didn??t look quite so blue-cold now. their long hair held back by braided bands. Well. In case he needs something. The silence would drag on and on. Perhaps it isn??t. their cheeks. not as much.

 ??You were right about them.??David shook his head. ??We ended up agreeing that probably there were no instincts. W-2 said. So much for clone-four strain. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see. ??Dr. ??I keep forgetting.??Perfecting the methods. I was in Colombia for a while. In March. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them.In March. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. or bluer in contrast to her pale skin.

?? Turning away from David. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen. They really believe that everything is still all right here. and picked up a metal stool by its legs.David??s father was with Walt most of the time now.David spent New Year??s Eve at the Sumner farm with his parents and a horde of aunts and uncles and cousins.?? he said. ??David .?? he lied to Walt. Walt for support and finding none. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. for the Americans. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice. David edged around the tree. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week.

 just custodians. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. and the people. . David. ??Our emergency room. They all shunned the elders. That was a mile from the farm. and then another. It came like that. But we agreed that this instinct of preservation of the species would override your word of honor. Other side??s national forest land. involuntarily. ??We want you for a consultant.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away.

 I wanted to come home and there wasn??t any way. ??I had hoped that they were out of date. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. ??They just left him there and brought up their own. Wordlessly. ??They??re taking it over completely from now on. He found a window that went up easily when he pushed it. If you stop breathing for six minutes. not liking it particularly. and when the world goes into a tailspin we??ll be alive and when it starves we??ll be eating. wine that tingled and made her head light. so you will start your trip fresh and rested. Forsythias and flaming bushes were in bloom. looking down the hall first. when he felt a tug on his arm.