Free The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick Page B

never been able to get straight with the University of Vermont. “The verge stabilizers failed and the meson-field inverted and vectorized. The congruence factors went to infinity and…” He seized control of himself. “You’re not supposed to see
any
of this.”
    “These things are yours, then?” I said. “So you’d know. They’re
Triceratops
, right?”
    “
Triceratops horridus,
” he said distractedly. I felt unreasonably pleased with myself. “For the most part. There might be a couple other species of
Triceratops
mixed in there as well. They’re like ducks in that regard. They’re not fussy about what company they keep.”
    Gretta shot out her wrist and glanced meaningfully at her watch. Like everything else she owned, it was expensive. She worked for a firm in Essex Junction that did systems analysis for companies that were considering downsizing. Her job was to find out exactly what everybody did and then tell the CEO who could be safely cut. “I’m losing money,” she grumbled.
    I ignored her.
    “Listen,” the kid said. “You’ve got to keep quiet about this. We can’t afford to have it get out. It has to be kept a secret.”
    “A secret?” On the far side of the herd, three cars had drawn up and stopped. Their passengers were standing in the road, gawking. A Ford Taurus pulled up behind us, and its driver rolled down his window for a better look. “You’re planning to keep a herd of dinosaurs secret? There must be dozens of these things.”
    “Hundreds,” he said despairingly. “They were migrating. The herd broke up after it came through. This is only a fragment of it.”
    “Then I don’t see how you’re going to keep this a secret. I mean, just look at them. They’re practically the size of tanks. People are bound to notice.”
    “My God, my God.”
    Somebody on the other side had a camera out and was taking pictures. I didn’t point this out to the young man.
    Gretta had been getting more and more impatient as the conversation proceeded. Now she climbed down out of the truck and said, “I can’t afford to waste any more time here. I’ve got work to do.”
    “Well, so do I, Gretta.”
    She snorted derisively. “Ripping out toilets, and nailing up sheet rock! Already, I’ve lost more money than you earn in a week.”
    She stuck out her hand at the young man. “Give me your car keys.”
    Dazed, the kid obeyed. Gretta climbed down, got in the Hyundai, and wheeled it around. “I’ll have somebody return this to the Institute later today.”
    Then she was gone, off to find another route around the herd.
    She should have waited, because a minute later the beasts decided to leave, and in no time at all were nowhere to be seen. They’d be easy enough to find, though. They pretty much trampled everything flat in their wake.
    The kid shook himself, as if coming out of a trance. “Hey,” he said. “She took my
car.
”
    “Climb into the cab,” I said. “There’s a bar a ways up the road. I think you need a drink.”
    He said his name was Everett McCoughlan, and he clutched his glass like he would fall off the face of the Earth if he were to let go. It took a couple of whiskeys to get the full story out of him. Then I sat silent for a long time. I don’t mind admitting that what he’d said made me feel a little funny. “How long?” I asked at last.
    “Ten weeks, maybe three months, tops. No more.”
    I took a long swig of my soda water. (I’ve never been much of a drinker. Also, it was pretty early in the morning.) Then I told Everett that I’d be right back.
    I went out to the truck, and dug the cell phone out of the glove compartment.
    First I called home. Delia had already left for the bridal shop, and they didn’t like her getting personal calls at work, so I left a message saying that I loved her. Then I called Green Mountain Books. It wasn’t open yet, but Randy likes to come in early and he picked up the phone when he heard my voice on the machine. I asked him