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Show 16 Then it is quiet. If we look in through the window, we will see Mustard standing motionless, his tail still and his eyes fixed dully on the wall of the box in front of him. The tone sounds again, this time he fails to lift his leg, and after precisely five seconds the shock is presented. He jerks his leg rapidly, since that is the only movement he can make, and then holds his leg up, unaware that the terminal is taped to his wrist and cannot be avoided. He struggles in the harness, but the canvas is tough, unyielding, and he cannot free himself. He drools heavily. It is difficult to tell just how much more time elapsed before the end came, though surely Maia could figure it out from the dog's records, from the protocol sheets or the data tapes or even the learning graphs taped to the walls. And it is hard to say just when the decision was made that the end had come: that some of the dogs had learned as much as required, according to the design of the experiment, that the experimental data on them was complete. It must have been Boaz, sitting engrossed over long columns of figures recorded by the apparatus, who sees first that three of the dogs are finished. Or it may have been Maia, watching each through the thick window of the box, who sees the end: Mustard, frail Theresa, and Pablo. Or perhaps no decision was made at all; perhaps Boaz simply telephoned the animal surgery laboratory. |