Becoming Animals

by Olga Werby

  The view shook; Ben was running with the camera. And then the camera was on the ground.

  “We got him,” Will said over the comm link.

  “Thank God,” said Lilly.

  With the rat safe, Vikka turned her attention to Toby. She took the BBI cap from the girl’s head and held her in her arms, rocking her back and forth like a baby. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Everything is okay now,” she murmured.

  “It’s tragic. He was a homeless guy,” Will said to the major over the phone. “No one knew he was there. The fire department pulled him out…”

  When he got off the phone, he turned to the team. “George was very impressed,” he said.

  They were all in Toby’s office. Toby was sitting next to Vikka on the little blue couch, petting Rufus, who had burrowed into her blue sweater—he liked climbing into the sleeves. Lilly and Ben were standing by the door. Will was at the desk.

  On balance, it had been a good day for his project, even if it had been a difficult one. They would have to unpack the events later, when Toby was up to it. She was clearly shaken, but she had performed heroically today and he was very proud of her. She and Rufus had proved that in a desperate situation—like the aftermath of an earthquake—they could be the difference between life and death for those trapped in the rubble.

  George arrived at the lab with Lieutenants Kyle Davis and May Flowers. He had decided to assign them to the lab and he justified them to Will as needed security. The Brats project was the most sophisticated use of human-animal mind control on the planet and it was way past time for advanced security; the near-disaster of the search and rescue experiment had proven it. George recognized that his emotional attachment to Will and Toby had gotten in the way of his judgment. Lieutenants Davis and Flowers were here to rectify this omission.

  “More?” Will asked, looking at the cage in May’s hands. It contained a litter of black and white rats, the same breed as Rufus. “I thought we were focusing on portability? We just tested Rufus out in the field and we need better connectivity, better antennas, more control. What are we going to do with a whole new batch of rats?”

  “They’re adorable!” Toby exclaimed. “Ruffy will love them!”

  “Didn’t you say that rats were social animals?” George said to Will. He had found Will more difficult to manage since his wife died. Change, any change, made Will emotionally labile.

  “Yes, but—”

  “Look, we have only one animal subject and only one researcher capable of operating the BBIs. This is just not acceptable,” George said. This was not the first time he’d raised the issue of redundancy. And after what had happened in the collapsed building…they could have lost their only animal and then where would they be?

  “You know we’d like to not be so reliant on Toby,” Will said. “But both Ben and I tried, and neither of us can do what Toby can, Major.”

  “Geo, please.”

  “George,” Will said. “But trust me, I know as well as anyone that we can’t have this technology work only with little girls.”

  “Dad! I stopped being little a long time ago.” Toby gave her dad a dirty look. She was eleven now.

  “That’s not how I meant it, honey,” Will said. “I’m just explaining to Major Watson—”

  “Geo,” Ben and Lilly corrected, in unison.

  “Well, while you’re trying to solve the problem of human controllers,” George said, “you can also expand your testing by adding more animal subjects.”

  He tried to sound very reasonable; he hated having these stupid arguments with Will. Dr. Crowe was a smart man, but he got hung up on details. What George really wanted was to add a few more members to Will’s Brats team. But Vikka had told him she thought it would push the scientist over the edge. She was concerned about Will’s emotional stability.

  Besides, the most important thing at the moment was to expand the number of animals. After all, rats didn’t live long and Rufus was over four years old—at the far edge of the fancy lab rat’s lifespan.

  “Dad, I love them! Please let them stay,” Toby begged.

  It had been Vikka’s idea to bring the baby rats directly to Toby. Will had always found it difficult to say no to his little girl, especially after Dalla’s death.

  “We have an upgraded implant…” Ben started, but Will shut him down with a look.

  “Upgrade?” George said. “Will, why don’t we go out for lunch and you can fill me in? I’m sure the new rats—”

  “Eeny, Miny, and Moe,” Toby said, naming the three new arrivals.

  “No Meeny?” Vikka asked.

  Toby shrugged. “If we had a fourth…”

  “Those are great names,” George said.

  Toby beamed.

  “Will? Vikka?” George said. “Shall we go?” He needed Vikka to come with him to help manage Will. And Toby didn’t need her. Now that the girl was older, she no longer required constant supervision. He turned to Toby. “You don’t mind staying and babysitting our three new team members, do you, Toby?”

  The girl didn’t even answer. She was mesmerized by the little creatures.

  Toby got comfortable on her couch, with Rufus on her shoulder and the cage with the baby rats on her lap. Rufus held on to her hair. She liked feeling the weight of his little furry body—it let her know he was close.

  May crouched next to Toby. “Can I see?”

  Toby extended the small plastic cage toward the woman. May was slim and athletic, and with her long, dirty blond hair, she looked nothing like Toby’s image of a soldier.

  “Very cute,” May said, petting the young rats gently with the tips of her fingers. The baby rats squirmed with pleasure under her touch.

  “There’s a law in Sweden—or is it Denmark? I don’t remember,” Toby said, “they have a law that stops people from keeping only a single guinea pig as a pet. They can have two or more, just not one.”

  “Really?” May said.

  “Guinea pigs are herd animals and they can’t handle being alone. Rats are like that too. So it’s good that Rufus has rat babies now.”

  “Do they have a law for rats too?” May asked.

  “No. Well, I don’t know. Vikka told me about the guinea pig law. We discussed cruelty to animals during one of our lessons. Isolation is bad; it’s psychologically damaging. It’s also bad for humans.”

  Toby noticed that Rufus was a bit stiff—she had gotten very good at reading his emotions—and was watching Kyle, who was leaning against the doorframe. Rufus’ attention was intense—like he was really studying the man. So Toby looked and studied him too.

  Lieutenant Kyle Davis was a prototypical marine—tall, muscular, buzzed haircut, even a silver scar rising up just above his right eye going into his dark hair. If Toby had needed to draw a soldier, she would have drawn somebody like this man. Of course, Rufus could only see a big blurry thing at the door, but something about Kyle’s demeanor was putting Rufus on edge. Toby wondered what it was. Rufus seemed to like May just fine.

  Kyle twitched his nose—rats weren’t his thing, Toby supposed. He was obviously content to observe the furry creatures from a distance.

  After a moment, Toby saw that he was looking back at her. She knew that she and Rufus were staring at him in a startlingly similar manner—and she’d learned how disconcerting this could be for lab newbies. People told her that all the time. She looked away, but she knew that Rufus continued to stare.

  Kyle stood in the door a bit longer, then walked out of the room. Toby smiled and Rufus relaxed on her shoulder. It was a silly power game, but it felt like they had won.

  May had moved over to the computer to talk with Lilly in the control room. “When will you insert the BBIs in the new rats?” she asked.

  Lilly’s voice came out of the speakers. “Next week, probably.”

  “Aren’t they too little?” Toby asked. She had felt their little heads with her fingers; they were smaller than marbles, far too small to support an implant. She didn’t remember R
ufus being so young when he got his implant.

  “It’s important to implant the connections early, before their brains mature,” Lilly said.

  “Did Ruffy get his as a baby?” Toby asked. On her shoulder, Rufus fidgeted at the sound of his name.

  May must have noticed. “He recognizes his name?” she asked, pointing at Rufus. “That’s unusual for a rat, right?”

  “Ruffy?” Toby said and Rufus dug into her hair just above the ear.

  “He obviously reacts when you say his name,” May said.

  Toby thought about being Rufus and whether she felt recognition at that sound combination. Of course she knew the name, but did Rufus know it independently of her? She wasn’t sure. He had failed the mirror test. “I don’t know,” she said honestly.

  “Rufus?” May said softly. The rat twisted on Toby’s shoulder and glanced at May. It was a very quick movement, but it didn’t feel random. “I think he knows,” she said.

  “He’s a very smart rat.” Toby scratched Rufus’s head affectionately in the spot he liked, just behind the implant.

  A week later, Major Watson was still in town. He wanted to make sure things settled back into a normal routine before he returned to DC. Today was his last day on the West Coast and he went out for coffee with Will.

  “So let me get this straight,” George said. “Toby is the only female that has ever tried the BBI?”

  “Lilly gets migraines,” Will said.

  “And you’ve never had another female assistant other than Lilly?”

  “It’s hard to get clearance.” Will gave the major a furtive look over the coffee cup and took another sip. He was drinking way too much coffee lately.

  “I see.” George inhaled deeply to regain his equilibrium. It was his fault—he should have noticed earlier. Will didn’t think like he did; it wasn’t fair to expect more of the man. And Will did just lose his wife. “Well, now you have May. And we can try Vikka too. Two possible female riders.”

  “Are you volunteering your niece?”

  “Vikka is extremely competent—despite being related to me,” George joked, trying to diffuse the situation.

  Will learned long ago that Vikka was George’s niece and, for some reason, the familial connection really irked him. He liked Vikka a lot—he had told George so many times. And, without her, Dalla’s death would have been much harder on Toby. Will knew it was Vikka who gave the girl emotional support when Will fell apart. But it was still a problem for Will that Vikka was George’s niece.

  “She’s very familiar with the project,” George added.

  “Using Vikka feels…incestuous somehow,” Will said. “It’s bad enough that Toby is my daughter.”

  “Vikka has clearance.” George watched convenience and annoyance battle on Will’s face. He was so easy to read.

  “Well…”

  “How about we start with Lieutenants Flowers and Davis. If they have a problem with riding, we use Vikka as a backup?”

  Will nodded. “As a backup.”

  “It’s settled then.”

  “But Rufus is very bonded to Toby,” Will said. “I’m not sure how a connection to a new rider would turn out. And he’s getting very old—and that comes with a loss of cognitive flexibility.”

  “You have the pups,” George said. “When will they be ready?”

  “The mischief should be ready for action in a few weeks or so.”

  “Mischief?”

  “It’s the official descriptor for a group of rats, like a herd of cows or a litter of puppies,” Will explained. “Toby looked it up the minute you brought the pups into the lab. Anyway, Lilly just did the implants this afternoon. We’re all excited to try them out.”

  “Hopefully May and Kyle can become a full members of your research team, in addition to providing some additional security.”

  Will obviously liked the idea of extra security; he bobbed his head in agreement.

  “Why don’t you make May’s BBI trial a priority,” George said. “And we can discuss the results of the experiment next time I’m in town?” He got up and paid the check. “I’ll stop by the lab to say my goodbyes to your daughter.”

  “Are Lieutenants Flowers and Davis comfortable working with a kid?” Major Evans asked.

  They’d had many discussions about who would best manage Will’s project. The Brats project needed new blood. It needed to grow.

  “May and Kyle are great people and good soldiers,” George said. “And they have years of experience as drone operators. I don’t know if that will give them an edge with the BBI technology, but it’s worth a try.”

  “It was a good idea. And if it works, I want others trained too. It’s time to move the project out into the field.”

  “I agree, Major.”

  George knew they needed a few more people on Will’s team who understood the project’s priorities. The goal of Brats was never about satisfying some scientist’s interest in interspecies communication. It was about developing a tool that the army could deploy to run missions and save lives. May and Kyle understood that. They understood the need to experiment on a sick girl.

  Toby’s life, however short, will matter, George told himself yet again. And he was sure Toby felt that way too.

  Unfortunately, Moe didn’t survive the implantation. But Eeny and Miny had no difficulties with the surgery, they recovered well and both connected with Toby for the initial bootup of their BBI links. Toby was able to control both of the young rat pups.

  Today was the first time May was going to try to assume control of Miny. Unlike Kyle, May liked the little critters; she found the pups smart and personable. She hoped her drone skills could transfer to controlling the baby rat.

  Toby and May were wearing BBI caps. Toby was plugged into Eeny, with Rufus hanging out, unattached, on her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry,” Toby said to May. “It feels strange at first, like a headache.”

  “You never complained of headaches,” Will said quietly.

  The whole team, including Vikka, May, and Kyle, were in the Brats control room. The rat pups were in the converted conference room.

  Toby let Eeny explore the enclosure—which was the maze minus the interior walls, so really it was no maze at all. Both pups had already spent time there, so the space and its smells were familiar. Toby had hidden some tasty treats behind the water bottle and among the scattered toys. She felt Eeny’s excitement at locating the precious cookie crumbs right out in the open. The aroma of peanut butter flooded her with happiness.

  But Miny seemed frozen, unable to move from the shelter of one of the outside walls. May was obviously trying to get her rat to go to the center, but it wasn’t working. May’s heart rate accelerated and Miny’s did too. The young rat was clearly anxious. May rubbed her temples, just below the BBI cap.

  “Headache?” Lilly asked.

  May shook her head. Inside the enclosure, Miny shook too. Her whole body trembled as she rubbed against the wall.

  Toby/Eeny ran over. She carried a bit of a peanut butter cookie with her incisors for Miny, to try to soothe away negative emotions. She dropped the crumb in front of the nervous rat, sidled up to her, and started grooming, gently scratching the fur on Miny’s back and around the brain implant.

  May exhaled. Her headache started to recede. She felt overwhelmed by the strong scent of peanut butter and something else…pheromones from a littermate? May wasn’t sure, but anxiety was releasing its vise grip on her chest, allowing her heart rate to return to normal. She noticed that she was nosing and scratching the other rat. The act of being physically close was very soothing.

  She heard a voice from far away. “That’s it! Relax into it.”

  May found herself running after the other rat. Eeny, she told herself. Eeny led her to a stash of peanut butter cookies behind the water container. Crunch, mush, mush. Crunch, mush, mush. Her jaws worked on the brittle pastry, reducing it to a yummy snack. Soon, there were only a few tiny crumbs left.

&nb
sp; She looked up and saw Eeny was gone. She looked around and spotted her running along the wall. Panic gripped May again and she sprinted after Eeny. She didn’t want to be alone in the wide-open space.

  They ran along the perimeter of the wall together, stopping occasionally to nuzzle each other for comfort. It was so good to touch familiar fur, to feel a familial touch. The contact was more important than the food. May felt herself ooze happiness when the animals touched.

  Toby must have sensed how uncomfortable May/Miny were. That’s why she groomed Miny, why she shared food. She’d wanted to help May overcome the initial shock of being small and vulnerable. But now, Toby…the other rat…Eeny…ran into the center of the enclosure. Rats hated running out in the open, yet Toby clearly had no problems getting Eeny to run wherever she wanted her to go. May, on the other hand, was clearly not in control of her animal ride. Perhaps forcing Miny to follow Eeny to the center of the maze would help her overcome her natural reluctance?

  May tried to follow Toby’s rat, tried to exert dominance over her own. It did no good. Miny was not leaving the wall.

  She looked out at Eeny once more. The rat was now grooming herself for comfort. Self-grooming helped with anxiety too, May had learned from the Brats experimental procedures manual. So she tried that with Miny. It felt awkward and the rat’s little body shook so hard it was almost impossible to use the little paws to do anything, but it focused Miny’s attention. This could work, if I learn how to be better at grooming, May thought.

  “Her heart rate is spiking again.”

  “We have to stop.”

  “It was good progress for a first attempt.”

  “You and Ben didn’t do nearly as well…”