"It won't," Morley said. He covered the salamander's head and held it inside the container with the flies. One of the flies lighted on the salamander's tail for a second, then hopped back onto the lump of rancid meat.
Morley tossed the salamander into another clear plastic container that already held a large wood frog. The frog was a dozen times larger than the lizard; its body weight must have been one hundred times as great. The frog looked at the salamander and flicked out a lazy tongue.
Perriweather moved up next to the plastic cube; his face touched it as he watched to see what would happen next.
The frog flicked out its tongue again and almost instantly its tongue had been severed and was lying on the bottom of the container, still twitching reflexively. The frog's eyes bulged in terror as the salamander attacked it, biting it fiercely, and ripped off large chunks of skin from its body. Then the lizard grabbed and ripped the limbs from the frog. The frog's eyes burst into blobs of jelly. Its clear-colored blood sprayed against the plastic sides of the container. It made a feeble sound; then its resonating cavities were filled with its own bodily fluids. The frog twitched, and then lay immobile on the floor of the cage, as the tiny salamander crawled atop it, still attacking.
Another two more minutes, the interior of the plastic container was invisible from the outside. The frog's entrails and fluids had covered the sides. Silently Dr. Morley lifted the top of the box and inserted a long hypodermic needle and withdrew it with the dead salamander impaled on the tip.
"Air injected right into the heart," he said, tossing the reptile into a plastic bag. "Only way I know to kill it."
He looked at Perriweather. "Now you see why these two must be destroyed?"
Perriweather looked at the flies for a long time before looking back to the scientist.
"I'll take care of it," Perriweather said. "For the time being, guard them with your life."
The room upstairs was dark, as it always was, and hot, and smelled of sweetness and rot. VValdron Perriweather III entered quietly, as he always did, carefully replacing the key in his jacket pocket after unlocking the door. The dust in the room lay in sheets across the ancient velvet furniture with delicate crocheted doilies.
Perriweather walked softly across the dusty threadbare rug to a high mantel covered with antique silk. On top of the silk was only one object, a tiny jeweled case thickly crusted with gold and precious stones.
Lovingly he picked up the case and held it for several minutes in the palm of his hand. He stared at it, not speaking, not moving, except for the gentle strokes of his fingers upon its jeweled surface.
Finally, taking a deep breath, he opened the case. Inside lay the tiny corpse of a fly.
Perriweather's eyes softened with a film of tears. With a trembling finger, he touched the hairy, still little body.
"Hello, Mother."
Chapter 12
Perriweather was back at the desk in his study when the telephone rang.
"Mr. Perriweather," Gloria Muswasser said. "We're sorry but the bomb didn't go off."
When she got off the telephone, she would tell Nathan that Perriweather didn't seem to mind at all. He was cordial. More than cordial.
"It wasn't our fault either," Gloria said. "The fuckup was due to the paranoid insensitivity of the unenlightened news media and-"
"No matter, Mrs. Muswasser," Perriweather said. "I have contingency plans."
"So do we," Gloria said, thinking of the children's ward at the hospital. "Nathan and I just came up with something so fantastic, so big, you're going to really love it."
"I'm sure I will," Perriweather said. "Why don't you come out to the house and tell me about it?"
"Really? Really? You're not mad?"
"Do I seem angry?" Perriweather said.
"Say, you're really a good sport," Gloria said. "We'll start right up there."
"I'll be expecting you."
"Mr. Perriweather, you won't be sorry. The new plan will get rid of all your problems."
"Yes, it will," Perriweather said.
"You haven't even heard it yet."
"I'm sure it will. You and Nathan, I know, will get rid of all my problems," Perriweather said as he hung up.
Gloria Muswasser said to Nathan, "He's a little on the weird side, but he's okay. He wants us to come up to Massachusetts and tell him about the new plan. He wants us to solve all his problems."
"Bottom line. Really bottom line," Nathan said with authority.
Chapter 13
The Muswassers arrived six hours late. First, they had gotten lost and wound up in Pennsylvania instead of Massachusetts. Then they had seen a theater playing their all-time favorite movie, The China Syndrome, so they stopped to see it for the twenty-seventh time.
When Perriweather met them at the door of his home, they offered him a flurry of secret handshakes. He politely refused them all so they shook each other's hands.
Perriweather escorted them into a sparsely furnished room in a far wing of the mansion.
"Wait till you hear our idea, Wally boy," said Gloria expansively.
"I'm sure it will be wonderful."
"We're sorry about the TNT and the atomic bomb. They just didn't work and we feel bad about it," Nathan said.
"You mustn't feel bad. After all, look at all the chimpanzees you helped destroy by getting that package delivered to Uwenda," Perriweather said sarcastically.
"Well, not as good as delegates directly," Gloria said. "But at least the chimps killed some of the delegates. That was good."
"It certainly was," Perriweather said agreeably. "So good that I thought you ought to be rewarded."
"That's real nice, Wally," Gloria said.
"Would you two care for a glass of sherry?" Perriweather asked.
"Got any weed?" Nathan said before his wife elbowed him in the ribs.
"Sherry'd be fine," Gloria said.
Perriweather nodded. "Good. I'll be right back. Wait here for me and then I'll show you how you're going to fit into our great new plan of attack." He closed the door to the room behind him as he went out.
Gloria and Nathan roamed around the room with its two metal chairs and small plastic Parsons table. "Look at this," Nathan said. He picked up a framed object from the table and handed it to Gloria. It was a collection of little human-shaped dolls speared through their torsos with pins, their arms and legs splayed wide like the appendages of insects in a display cage. "He's buggy," Nathan whispered. "Don't tell me."