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Chapter Seven. Resisting
SAM AICKMAN said, "Play the bastard's call one more rime, will you, Jerry?"
Hoskins slipped the transcript cube into the access slot. On the screen at the front end of the boardroom Bruce Ma
Ma
The well-known advocate for the rights of children looked very sincere, very earnest, very serious.
To Hoskins he also looked very a
On-screen, Ma
"Why?" die Hoskins on the screen replied. "Has my word suddenly become untrustworthy?"
"That's not the point, doctor. We have no reason to doubt your word. But we have no reason to take it at face value, either, and some members of my advisory board have begun to feel that I've been too willing up to now to accept your own evaluations of the boy's status. The point is that diere's been no on-site inspection."
"You speak of die child as though he's some kind of hidden weapon, Mr. Ma
Ma
"You and I have been through all this more dian once," said Hoskins. "The child is receiving the best care in the world, and you know it. He has twenty-four-hour-a-day nursing attention and daily medical checkups and he's on a perfectly balanced diet that has already done wonders for his physical condition. We'd be crazy to do tilings any other way, and whatever else we may be, we aren't crazy."
"I grant you that you've told me all that. But you still aren't allowing any outside confirmation of the things you claim. And the letters and calls that I'm receiving daily- the outcries, the pressure from concerned individuals-"
"If you're under pressure, Mr. Ma
"That's the way to talk to him, Jerry-boy!" said Charlie McDermott, the comptroller.
"Maybe a bit on the blunt side, seems to me," Ned Cassiday said. He was the head of Legal: it was his job to err on the side of prudence.
The recorded conversation was proceeding on the screen.
"-neither here nor there, Dr. Hoskins. We have to keep returning to one basic point here, which is that a child has been ripped away from his parents and his home-"
"A Neanderthal child, Mr. Ma
"Are you telling me that Neanderthals are no more than animals?" Ma
"Certainly not. We aren't trying to pretend anything of the sort. Neanderthals were primitive but they were unquestionably human."
"-Because if you're going to try to claim that your captive has no human rights because he isn't human, Dr. Hoskins, then I must point out that scientists are completely unanimous in their belief that Homo neanderthatensis is in fact simply a subspecies of our own race, Homo sapiens, and therefore-"
"Jesus Suffering Christ," Hoskins exploded, "aren't you listening to me at all? I just got through saying that we concede the point that Tirnmie is human."
"Timmie?" Ma
"The child has been nicknamed Timmie around here, yes. It's been in all the news reports."
From the sidelines Ned Cassiday murmured, "Which was probably a mistake. Creates too much identification with the child as child per se. You give them names, you start making them seem too real in the eyes of the public, and then if there happens to be any sort of trouble-"
"The child is real, Ned," Hoskins said. "And there's not going to be any trouble."
On screen Ma
"Legal claim? What legality? Where? Tell me what laws I've broken. Show me the Pleistocene court where I can be brought to justice!"
"The fact that Pleistocene people have no courts doesn't mean that they have no rights," said Ma
would have the right to reach into some village in contemporary Brazil or Zaire or Indonesia and simply seize any child it felt like seizing, purely for the sake of-"
"This is a unique experiment of immense scientific importance, Mr. Ma
"Now I think you're failing to listen to me, Dr. Hoskins. I'm not discussing motive; I'm discussing simple legalities. Even for the sake of scientific research, would you feel justified in swooping down on some child in his native village in some present-day tribal culture and bringing him here so that anthropologists could study him, regardless of the feelings of the child's parents or other guardians?"
"Of course not."
"But tribal cultures of the past are fair game?"
Hoskins said, "There's no analogy. The past is a closed book. The child now in our custody has been dead, Mr. Ma
Ned Cassiday let out a gasp and began to shake his head violently. It struck Hoskins that Cassiday must see novel and disturbing legal ramifications here that probably should never have been allowed into the discussion.
Ma
"I object to your use of the word 'unfortunate.' I've made it clear again and again that the child is-"
"All right. I retract the word if it bothers you so much. The rest of my statement stands as is."
Hoskins said, making no attempt to conceal his thi
"I've told you. On-site inspection, so that we can see the child's condition and attitude for ourselves."
The on-screen Hoskins closed his eyes a moment. "You're very persistent, aren't you? Nothing will please you short of coming in here and checking things out in person?"
"You know the answer to that."
"Well, I'll have to get back to you, Mr. Ma
The screen went dark.
Hoskins looked around the room.
"Well? There it is. You see the problem. He's like a bulldog who's got his teeth in the cuff of my pants. He won't let go no matter how I try to shake him off."
Ned Cassiday said, "And if you do manage somehow to shake the bulldog off, he'll come right at you again, and this time the teeth very likely will clamp onto your leg, Jerry, not just your pants cuff."