MICHAEL CRICHTON

covered with Amy’s finger paintings. Windy had something further on his mind.“She’s still making these same pictures?” he asked, finally.“Yes,” Elliot said.“And you still have no idea what they mean?”Elliot paused; at best it was premature to tell Weldon what they thought thepictures meant. “No idea,” he said.“Are you sure?” Weldon asked, frowning. “I think somebody knows what theymean.”“Why is that?”“Something very strange has happened,” Weldon said. “Someone has offeredto buy Amy.”“To buy her? What are you talking about, to buy her?”“A lawyer in Los Angeles called my office yesterday and offered to buy her fora hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”“It must be some rich do-gooder,” Elliot said, “trying to save Amy from torture.”“I don’t think so,” Weldon said. “For one thing, the otter came from Japan.Someone named Morikawa—he’s in electronics in Tokyo. I found that out whenthe lawyer called back this morning, to increase his offer to two hundred and fiftythousand dollars.”“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?” Elliot said. “For Amy?” Of course itwas out of the question. He would never sell her. But why would anyone offer somuch money?Weldon had an answer. “This kind of money, a quarter of a million dollars, canonly be coming from private enterprise. Industry. Clearly, Morikawa has readabout your work and found a use for speaking primates in an industrial context.”Windy stared at the ceiling, a sure sign he was about to wax eloquent. “I think anew field might be opening up here, the training of primates for industrialapplications in the real world.”Peter Elliot swore. He was not teaching Amy language in order to put a hardhat on her head and a lunch pail in her hand, and he said so.“You’re not thinking it through,” Weldon said. “What if we are on the verge of anew field of applied behavior for the great apes? Think what it means. Not onlyfunding to the Department, and an opportunity for applied research. Mostimportant, there would be a reason to keep these animals alive. You know thatthe great apes are becoming extinct.41