"What Would Dogs Do - Part 7" (story)

As soon as Harrison walked into Ford's office, he got to his feet and said, "I need the dogs back."

"Like hell you're getting them back.  Besides, how does anyone know I've got them?"

"It wasn't a difficult thing to discover.  Your Hey Presto act to get the dogs out of here wasn't exactly the picture of subtlety."

"Nevertheless, the announcement was that the dogs had been sacrificed.  Why did anyone have any reason to believe otherwise?"

"Someone called Campus Police the day after they disappeared.  It was not on my order and the cops have been sniffing around ever since."

Harrison was furious.  This had started out bad and was getting progressively worse.

"Daniel, you have got to give the dogs back.  The banker behind the funds for the research said he's the rightful owner of the dogs.  This is one of the disadvantages behind research in a private university.  These aren't governmental funds and the money man has kept fairly close tabs on the research.  He's right, you know."

"Sometimes right is not enough.  You know full well what they will do with them.  As soon as he has milked enough dollars from the publicity he will sell them out to puppy mills to produce thousand of them for Petland.  There is no way in flaming hell I am going to allow that to happen."

Harrison knew he had to contain himself but he was getting angrier with each word.  The only saving grace was that only he and his assistants knew what the dogs could do or the banker would be all over him.  He thought over what he would do next while Ford glared at him.

"Daniel, I'm in the middle of this and I have to come up with an answer for them.  How far have you come with the project?"

"That's the worst part," said Daniel.  "They still don't talk even though we have been working full-time with them.  That's the worst of the irony in this as your banker is causing a problem for an experiment that doesn't look like it worked."

Ford wasn't sure whether he should believe him but he knew if he questioned what Harrison had said then the confrontation would get even more out of hand.

"Alright then.  Contact me again before the day is out to let me know how you will get the dogs to me."

"I need some time, Nigel.  I'm damned if I'm going to abandon my research to a bunch of bankers whose heaviest intellectual exercise has been selecting a new golf club."

"Believe me I understand but these are difficult times."

"I will call you," said Harrison tersely and then turned to leave.