The Plague Dogs Page #5

What sort of operation? - A brain operation.

Something quite new, I think.

Confusing the subjective with the objective in the animal's mind.

Yeah, I think that's right. I wasn't all that involved in it.

Terrible waste, you know. All that work down the drain.

Now we'll never know if it was successful.

I suppose there are compensations...

...Defense contracts...?

...Hush-hush stuff?

No, I don't get that sort of work.

Goodner's the chap for that.

Far off, Tod.

Look, out tere.

That's the sea. Have you never seen it before?

Salt an' the weeds. It's all water there.

If only I could've stayed inside my head this morning...

...I might've been able to decide how to get there.

How to reach it.

It was the police, I had to go.

By going with them, it looks as though we're admitting our connection with the matter.

Oh well, it can't be helped now.

Perhaps our best cause is to make a short announcement, acknowledging that two dogs have escaped.

You think that'll satisfy them? - All they're concerned with, is not getting involved.

They know the kind of work we do here.

If we prove to be an embarrassment...

They'll drop us in a minute.

Lakeland shopkeeper Phyllis Dawson was awakened early yesterday by two dogs...

...which have recently been causing havoc with farmers around Dunnerdale, in the heart of the Lake District.

Scientist Stephen Powell, hastening 18 miles from the Lawson park animal research station, arrived too late to...

Accidental death? Aw, well that's all he could've found.

Couldn't have found nothin' else, Dennis, could he?

He never said nothin' about a dog though, did he?

But it was a bloody dog, brought it about.

Well, Coroner couldn't bring that up. No evidence.

And even if he had, they'd still call it accidental death, wouldn't they?

Aye. but if the Coroner had pinned blame fair and square on the dogs...

...then the police should have sommit.

Go out, find 'em and shoot 'em.

The way it's been left now, we could lose a couple more sheep tonight, and three next week...

...an' nobody'd give a damn.

...Are these dogs indeed a public danger, as local farmers haughtily maintain...

...or are they wrongly blamed?

This is Lynn Driver, reporting from Coniston.

Wait a minute, Rowf.

I know where we are.

That first night after we escaped...

...after we'd left those sheep dogs, who got so angry with us...

Would you remember?

And then we changed into wild animals. - You two?

Wild animals? Don't be daft.

This story of his, about killin' a man with a gun...

...is it true?

Or is it just the crack in his head talking?

As far as I can make out, it's true.

I don't know how it happened, exactly.

You know how he goes on.

By... the little bugger, shoot a man. Now that's something.

Mind, it's bad.

Damn these cobwebs!

Your mate's gone daft as a brush, ya know.

If I had the sense I was born with, I'd be off an' away, an' leave you to it.

You're always leaving when it gets rough.

Give ower, bonny lad. No need to go on so.

Do you know why we're still alive, with hundreds, maybe thousands of men that'd be glad to kill us?

They wouldn't dare.

I've only got to drown...

...or jump under a truck, and the sky will fall down, and all the men will die.

Have you ever thought of that, Rowf?

That puts us one up on them.

I'll tell the pair of ya why.

Because I know them. The way they think.

So as long as you do what I say, we'll stay ahead of them.

If not, there's just no chance.

...I don't have nothing to do with it. It's secret, like I told ya.

Do you have any idea what he does?

He works in a special place, like, an' it's kept locked.

But I do know it's got to do with rats.

Dr. Goodner were talking to me about dispose of the beasts' bodies, and I've seen a letter at his office.

It were from government. And marked. Secret.

What I want to know is, how did the media get hold of all this?

Have you said anything to anyone? - Me?

No, not a thing.

You're absolutely certain? Not to anyone?

Oh well I... I might've mentioned...

...something about dogs to a lady who drove me back to the lab after the incident with the police.

But nothing about Goodner's work, or bubonic plague.

I couldn't, could I?

I didn't even know he was working with the damn plague.

...Sometimes I feel sure I caused everything bad to happen.

But if you really can do these things, why don't you make men afraid of us...

...and send us a nice warm chicken?

Now that really would be something. - I wouldn't go in there.

There's two of them blatherin' away.

What's that you're licking off your face?

Oh eggs, hinny.

There was a lay-away nest in the nettles 'round the back. I ate the whole lot.

You... What about us?

Goes in there...

...stuffs itself full of eggs.

I'm finished with him.

And for good, this time. We don't need him to help us, we never did.

He can't help what he is.

Anyway... I admire him.

He's... natural. - Natural?

It drives me crazy.

But Rowf, the Tod warned us... - I don't care what the damn Tod said!

We're going to eat.

Don't!

Look at them collars!

Didn't they say something on telly about dogs with green collars escaping from Lawson park?

Plagued, they said.

What're you going to do with them after they're shot?

Let 'em go.

And let them take contaminated chickens with 'em.

I'll call police. They can catch them if they want.

Awkward.

If the media are intent on making a meal of this plague business, it could be extremely awkward.

I agree.

But tell me, could the dogs in fact have had any contact?

Almost certainly not, Boycott says it's out of the question.

But, uh... fleas, cracks, doors.

Precisely.

How can the secretary of state stand up in the house and swear for certain...

...that not a single flea escaped and popped on one of the dogs?

Damn Tod. - He was only doing what he'd have done for himself if he was alone.

I wish you hadn't driven him away. He'll never come back now.

Good riddance.

Just the smell of him...

...My paw's starting to hurt again.

Getting harder and harder...

...like...like...

Like what?

Like the white-coats' tank.

Last night, the medical officer of health for Coniston...

...reported that farmers near Glenridding were attacked by two dogs...

...thought to be as escapes from the Lawson park animal research laboratories.

The dogs, one described as a fox terrier with a wound on his head, and a mixed labrador retriever...

...have been terrorizing a large section of the Lake District, killing sheep and other livestock.

Of perhaps more importance...

...is the accidental killing of wealthy landowner Mr. Pierce Chetwind...

...with who's death the dogs are implicated.

The police have asked the public to look out for the dogs...

...and phone them at Coniston 1798, should they be seen.

Why, do you suppose they've done it?

To try and kill us, I suppose.

They're trying to make it too cold for us to live.

Ooh, they're clever.

Everywhere we go, they can see where we've been.

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