Sunday August 2, 2009
Book 11: Massively Parallel — Part II: Barsoom Circus Command

Transcript

SCHLOCK: Uh-oh.  She's not here.

HANDLER: Somebody stole Betsumei?

SCHLOCK: No, she stole herself.  She's an ellie, a sophont.  An ordinary animal pen won't hold her.

SCHLOCK: She knows we're on to her, that she killed Zysk.

HANDLER: That's crazy.

HANDLER: Jum-jum killed Zysk, and it was an accident.

SCHLOCK: A nice theory.  But what if Betsumei infected Jum-jum with musth, and then threw Zysk into Jum-jum's pen?

HANDLER: A nice theory, but musth isn't an infection.  It's hormonal, and modern nanotics have it under control.

CHISULO: So there's no way that the musth symptoms among the rest of these bulls could possibly be actual musth, then?

HANDLER: What symptoms?

CHISULO: The usual: stinky urine, weeping temporal glands, naked aggression at our noisy intrusion...

HANDLER: Umm... who let them out of their pens?