‘Here comes the head,’ he said.
Immediately he removed the forceps, and having cleaned the baby’s nose, mouth, and eyes with a sterile swab, he set about aspirating the throat and mouth with a small piece of plastic tubing that had been improvised from Jack’s discarded SCE suit.
Boyd watched him spit several times on the floor and grimaced. ‘I don’t know how you can do that. Jesus, it spoils my dinner just watching you.’
‘We’re almost there now,’ said Jameson, hardly conscious that Boyd had said anything.
‘Nobody’s asking you to watch,’ Swift said irritably, suddenly feeling a powerful sense of sorority with the labouring female in the face of such stupid male disgust. ‘You’re the one who said this was just a hallucination, remember?’
‘You’re right,’ said Boyd. ‘I was out of line, I admit it.’ He smiled amiably. ‘Hey, I’m just glad she’s not a single mother, y’know?’
Swift looked puzzled.
‘I mean, she’s wearing a gold ring,’ explained Boyd. ‘How come?’
Swift explained what had happened to Didier Lauren and how the yeti must have taken the ring from his dead finger.
‘Primates have a fascination for shiny objects,’ added Cody. ‘In that respect they’re just like children.’
‘Is that so?’
The rest of the delivery was easy, and minutes later, Jameson laid the yeti baby on the still sedated mother’s abdomen. Already breathing normally, the baby lay there and twitched a little, its head looking distinctly pointed, and its thick hair plastered down onto its body by the vernix. Gradually as the blue skin colour disappeared, the baby grasped its mother’s fur with two small fists, and grimacing angrily, it uttered a short cry.
‘Wow,’ muttered Boyd. ‘Eraserhead.’
‘Wonderful,’ said Mac, quickly thumbing another roll of film into his still camera.
‘It’s a male,’ said Jameson, clamping the umbilical cord with a bulldog clip.
Swift stepped forward to take a closer look at the newborn yeti baby.
‘Isn’t he... sweet...?’ She smiled.
Jameson severed the umbilical cord and then began to pull on the cord that remained inside the mother’s body, trying to hasten the placenta out of the uterus.
‘What are we going to call him?’ he grunted.
‘You delivered him,’ said Swift. ‘You should name him.’
‘That’s right,’ said Jutta. ‘It’s your call.’
‘By the way,’ said Cody, ‘congratulations. I think you did a fine job.’
Jameson fell silent for a moment as the placenta was finally expelled into his hands. Soon after, Jutta began to repair the episiotomy, carefully suturing the posterior wall of the yeti’s vagina with a few stitches.
‘Here, Link,’ said Jameson. ‘I imagine you’ll want to have this.’
‘You bet I do,’ said Warner, and holding out a plastic bucket, he took possession of the yeti placenta.
For Lincoln Warner, this was the most exciting moment of all, the moment he had been waiting for, when he could finally go to work on a specimen of the baby’s blood. It was easily collected from the cord attached to the placenta by simply removing the clamp. He showed the contents of the bucket to Swift with delight.
‘Well, now I can get started,’ he said. ‘At last.’ And immediately he sat down at his makeshift lab table and began to prepare some slides.
‘I was wondering,’ Boyd said to Cody. ‘What do you suppose happens to the placenta and the cord in the natural state? I mean, in the wild a yeti won’t have Miles and Jutta to help. So how does Junior get separated from the cord?’
‘The mother eats it, of course,’ said Cody. ‘There are dietary, possibly even antibiotic benefits to be gained from eating it.’
Boyd affected a queasy look and turned away.
‘I thought of a name,’ said Jameson. ‘Esau. I vote we call him Esau. That’s what you called the skull Jack found, isn’t it. Swift? When you started to think about this expedition?’
‘Esau,’ she repeated. ‘I like that.’
‘Means we’ve got a name for his mother too,’ said Jameson. ‘Esau was the son of Rebecca and Isaac.’
‘Let’s hope Isaac doesn’t come looking for them both,’ said Mac. ‘He might be none too pleased.’
‘Like it or not,’ said Jameson, ‘we’re stuck with her for a couple of days. We can’t let her go until those stitches are out. As soon as she starts to come around, we’re going to have to give her a local anaesthetic so she won’t try to take them out herself.’
‘Are you finished now. Miles?’ asked Cody.
‘I think so, yes.’
‘Only I’d like to examine her in more detail before she wakes up again. Swift? What do you say?’
‘Try to stop me.’
HUSTLER. HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW? THEY FOUND A YETI. NO KIDDING, THEY REALLY DID FIND ONE. IT LOOKS LIKE DR. JEKYLL AFTER He’d HAD THAT ALL–IMPORTANT LITTLE DRINK, Y’KNOW? EXCEPT THAT ITS A FEMALE. THEY GAVE HER A NAME: REBECCA. NOW IF THAT WASn’t INCREDIBLE ENOUGH, It’s JUST POSSIBLE THAT THE YET! IS GOING TO HELP UNCLE SAM OUT. I HAVE YET TO RUN A SMALL TEST ON HER TO MAKE SURE OF THIS, BUT I DOn’t THINK I’M PUTTING MY BIG FOOT IN IT HERE WHEN I SAY THAT I THINK WE MIGHT JUST BE NEARLY THERE. UNTIL THEN, BE COOL. CASTORP.
When Perrins read CASTORp’s latest message, he groaned and picked up the telephone.
‘Chaz? It’s Bryan. Check the In Box from CASTORP. I think our man has completely flipped his lid.’
Twenty-four
‘In my beginning is my end.’
SUMMARIES OF FINDINGS FROM THE EXAMINATIONS OF TWO YETIS
REBECCA
Fully grown female anthropoid, age unknown, examined in the Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal, by Professor Byron J. Cody and Dr. Stella A. Swift of the University of California at Berkeley, following the delivery of a baby, Esau, by Dr. Miles Jameson and Dr. Jutta Henze.
External Examination:
Weight approximately 140 kg (300 lbs.) Height approximately 186 cm (6 ft., 6 in.) Accompanying sketch shows body dimensions.
Although smaller in circumference than a typical gorilla’s 76–89 cm (30–35 in.) the yeti’s head 71 cm (28 in.) is roughly 1½ times higher above the ear, being over 17 cm (6.75 in.) high. Doubtless this large head height is needed for mastication — muscles sufficiently powerful to move the enormous lower jaw. Nevertheless, position of cranial crests confirms earlier observation that creature holds head in an upright position and, as a corollary, may be taken as prima-facie physical evidence of bipedalism. Quite pronounced nose, with small cartilage. No external parasites were found. Mammary glands in active phase, and when squeezed produced a great deal of milk. Some evidence of anemia indicated by pale pink colour of gums, although no dental caries were to be found. Large calluses on right palm seemed to indicate that Rebecca favours the use of this particular hand. Old scar tissue on left-hand side of neck, about fourteen centimetres long, possibly from a fight. More recent scar tissue on the right femur. General physical condition appeared to be good. Upper and lower body musculature quite noticeable, especially Rebecca’s legs, which were extraordinarily thick and massive, as might have been expected of a mountain-dwelling simian. Body itself covered with thick, foxy red-brown hair, about six centimetres long, quite oily to the touch and revealing itself to be completely waterproof. Most remarkable of all are the creature’s feet, 1½ times as long as those of the largest gorilla. The heel is noticeably massive, as is the hallux, or big toe, which is typically prehensile and doubtless well-adapted both for support and for gripping bare rock.