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Chapter One
The headlight beams of Dr. Sergey Kaidanov's battered SAAB bounced off a stand of Douglas
firs then came to rest on the unpainted wall of a one-story, cinderblock building buried
in the woods several miles from downtown Portland. As soon as Kaidanov unlocked the front
door of the building the rhesus monkeys started making that half-cooing, half-barking
sound that set his nerves on edge. The volume of noise increased when Kaidanov flipped on
the lights.
Most of the monkeys were housed in two rooms at the back of the building. Kaidanov walked
down a narrow hall and stood in front of a thick metal door that sealed off one of the
rooms. He slid back a metal sheet and studied the animals through the window it concealed.
There were sixteen rhesus monkeys in each room. Each monkey was in its own steel mesh
cage. The cages were stacked two high and two across on a flatcar with rollers. Kaidanov
hated everything about the monkeys -- their sour, unwashed smell, the noises they made,
the unnerving way they followed his every move.
As soon as Kaidanov's face was framed in the window, the monkey two from the door in the
top cage leaped toward him and stared him down. Its fur was brownish gray and it gripped
the mesh with hands containing opposable thumbs on both arms and legs. This was the
dominant monkey in the room and it had established its dominance within three weeks even
though there was no way it could get at the others.
Rhesus monkeys were very aggressive, very nervous, and always alert. It was bad etiquette
to look one in the eye, but Kaidanov did it just to show the little bastard who was the
boss. The monkey didn't blink. It stretched its doglike muzzle through the mesh as far as
it could, baring a set of vicious canines. At two feet tall and forty pounds, the monkey
didn't look like it could do much damage to a one-hundred-and-ninety-pound,
five-foot-eight male human, but it was much stronger than it looked.
Kaidanov checked his watch. it was three in the morning. He couldn't imagine what was so
important that he had to meet here at this hour, but the person whose call had dragged him
from a deep sleep paid Kaidanov to do as he was told, no questions asked.
aidanov needed caffeine. He was about to go to his office to brew a pot of coffee when he
noticed that the padlock on the dominant monkey's cage was open. He must have forgotten to
close it after the last feeding. The scientist started to open the door but stopped when
he remembered that the key to the monkey rooms was in his office.
Kaidanov returned to the front of the building. His office was twelve by fifteen and
stuffed with lab equipment. A small desk on casters stood just inside the door. it was
covered by a phone book, articles from research journals, and printouts of contractions
that the monkeys experienced during pregnancy. Behind the table was a cheap office chair.
Along the walls were metal filing cabinets, a sink, and a paper towel dispenser.
Kaidanov walked around the desk. The coffeepot was sitting on a table alongside a
centrifuge, scales, a rack of test rubes, and a Pokémon mug filled with Magic Markers,
pens, and pencils. Above the table was a television screen attached to a security camera
that showed the front of the building.
The pot of coffee was almost brewed when Kaidanov heard a car pull up and a door slam. On
the television a figure in a hooded windbreaker ran toward the lab. Kaidanov left his
office and opened the front door. The scientist peered at the hooded face and saw two cold
eyes staring at him through the slits in a ski mask. Before he could speak, a gun butt
struck his forehead, blinding him with pain. Kaidanov collapsed to the floor. The muzzle
of a gun ground into his neck.
"Move," a muffled voice commanded. He scrambled to his knees and a booted foot
shoved him forward. The pain in his face brought tears to his eyes as he crawled the short
distance to his office.
"The keys to the monkey rooms."
Kaidanov pointed toward a hook on the wall. Seconds later a blow to the
back of his head knocked him unconscious.
Kaidanov had no idea how long he had been out. The first thing he heard when he came to
were the hysterical shrieks of terrified monkeys and the sound of cages crashing together.
The scientist felt like a nail had been driven into his skull, but he managed to struggle
into a sitting position. Around him filing cabinets had been opened and overturned. The
floor was littered with gasoline-drenched paper, but that was not the only object doused
in gasoline -- his clothing, face, and hands reeked of it. Then the acrid smell of smoke
assailed his nostrils and his stomach turned when he saw the shadow of flames dancing on
the wall outside his office.
Fear dragged Kaidanov to his knees just as his assailant reentered the office holding the
gun and a five-gallon can of gas. Kaidanov scurried back against the wall, much the way
the more docile monkeys skittered to the back of their cages whenever he entered the
monkey room. The gas can hit the desk with a metallic thud and Kaidanov's assailant pulled
out a lighter. Kaidanov tried to speak, but terror made him mute. Just as the lid of the
lighter flipped open, an insane shriek issued from the doorway. An apparition, engulfed in
flame, eyes wide with panic and pain, filled the entrance to the office. The dominant
monkey, Kaidanov thought. It had been able to force open its cage door because Kaidanov
had forgotten to secure the padlock.
The term...
Excerpted from THE ASSOCIATE © Copyright 2001 by Phillip Margolin. Reprinted with permission by Harper Collins. All rights reserved.
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