Fractions Read Free Page B

establishments, universities, worthy causes a speciality.’
    Janis examined the hologrammed business card suspiciously.
    â€˜You’re commies?’
    Kohn inhaled deeply, held his breath for seconds before replying.
    â€˜Sharp of you to notice. Some of us are, but the main reason we picked the name was so we’d sound really heavy but, you know, right-on. Later – when we could afford market research – we found out most people thought Felix Dzerzhinsky was in the Bolshoi, not the Bolsheviks.’
    Janis spread her hands.
    â€˜Doesn’t mean anything to me,’ she said. ‘It was just the “Workers’ Defence” bit. I’m not into…all that. In my experience politics is guys with guns ripping me off at roadblocks.’
    â€˜Aha,’ Kohn said. He looked like the THC was getting to him. ‘A liberal. Maybe even a liber tarian. Remember school?’
    â€˜What?’
    He gave her a disconcertingly objective look.
    â€˜Maybe the first couple years of primary school, for you.’ He raised his right hand. ‘“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Republic, and to the States for which it stands, three nations, individual—”’
    â€˜Jesus Christ! Will you shut up !’
    Janis actually found herself looking over her shoulder. It had been years —
    â€˜I thought this was an F S Zee,’ Kohn said mildly.
    â€˜High treason is taking it a bit far!’
    â€˜OK. So I won’t ask you if you’ve ever, ever consciously and publicly repudiated that. I haven’t.’
    â€˜You’re not—?’
    Janis glanced sidelong, swivelled her eyes back.
    â€˜ ANR ? Good goddess no. They’re terrorists , Doctor. We are a legal co-op and, uh, to be honest I’m touting for business. Now, just what has been going on here?’
    She told him, briefly, while she did her rounds. At least the mice were all right. Apart from her precious drug-free controls being stoned out of their little skulls.
    â€˜Very odd. I thought it was creeps when it happened – you know, animal liberationists. Doesn’t look like that,’ he remarked.
    â€˜You said it.’
    â€˜Mind you – this isn’t what I imagined an animal-research lab would look like.’
    Janis stopped feeding cornflakes to the mice for a moment.
    â€˜What did you expect? Monkeys with trodes in their heads? Do you know what monkeys cost ?’
    â€˜Marmosets thirty K,’ said a tiny, tinny voice. ‘Rhesus macaques fifty K, chimps two hundred—’
    â€˜Oh, shut up, gun.’ Kohn’s face reddened. ‘Didn’t even know the damn’ thing had a speaker. I must have thought it was a mike.’
    â€˜An easy mistake.’ She was struggling not to laugh.
    Kohn moved on quickly: ‘What do you do, anyway, if that’s not an awkward question?’
    â€˜It’s no secret. Basically we dose the mice with various drugs to see if they act any smarter.’
    â€˜Smarter?’ he said. ‘ Mice ?’
    â€˜Faster learning. Longer attention span. Greater retention.’
    Kohn looked away for a moment, looked back. ‘You’re talking about memory drugs.’ His voice was flat.
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜Any success?’
    â€˜Well,’ she said, ‘there was one batch that looked promising, but they built a little paper hang-glider and escaped through that window…Naw, all we’ve had is stoned rodents. They take even longer to run the mazes. A result some of us could take to heart. Still…we’re like Edison. We ransack nature. And unlike him we have computers to give us variations that nature hasn’t come up with.’
    â€˜Who’s paying for it?’
    â€˜Now that ’s a secret. I don’t know. But a team from a front for a subsidiary for an agency of whoever it is will be here in – oh god, an hour, so would you mind?’
    Kohn looked