The Manster

Did he come back?

He's down in the lab now.

I locked the door.

You'd better take this with you.

I thought he'd come back.

He's like an animal now.

He comes back to where he was fed the last time,

but he never should have gotten out in the first place.

He visited a house in our village last night.

It's not easy to keep a thing like that

from attracting too much attention.

I'm afraid there's only one thing to do Genji now.

Genji.

Genji!

Genji!

Be quiet, Emiko.

I can kindly let you out of there.

I was careless with Genji and look what happened.

You don't understand me anymore, do you?

I'm sorry, Emiko.

Genji, get back!

You've changed even more, haven't you?

Back Genji.

Back.

I don't suppose you understand me now

any more than she does.

You were my brother.

You're an experiment that didn't work out.

I'm sorry, Genji.

Yes?

Seems silly to ask you this at Dr. Robert Suzuki's place,

it's the only place around here.

I'm afraid you can't see the doctor now.

Oh, now, wait a minute.

I've come all the way from Tokyo

and halfway up the mountainside

in a taxi they saved from the ark,

and then by making like a mountain goat

for the last few hundred yards.

Now, where's the good doctor?

Are you the man from World Press?

That's right.

Larry Stanford, the brilliant and highly underpaid

foreign correspondent.

Tell you the truth, from what my boss says,

I don't think there's much of a story here,

but if there is I wanna get it.

Perhaps the doctor can give you a few minutes.

I'll tell him you're here.

Please come in.

Thank you.

Mr. Stanford, I'm sorry I kept you waiting.

I've forgotten about your appointment.

As a matter of fact your chief, Mr. Matthews,

more or less pushed me into it over the phone.

I'm not sure my work is ready for publicity yet.

Well, from what the boss said,

I gather you're working on the secrets of evolution

or something like that.

Sounds great, but will it sell newspapers?

Well, I'm a theoretical scientist.

Most of my work goes down on paper.

Have you anything ready for publication yet, doc?

Not yet.

I can only tell you this.

Look into the sky at night,

and you will see a star maybe one billion light years away.

The light that you see started from that star,

even before this world existed.

That's my work.

The principles of existence.

But sometimes it frightens me.

Good, then maybe we got a story.

One more good one before I leave Japan.

Oh, are you leaving?

Yeah, after this assignment.

This globe trotting is gettin' me down.

Besides, I have a wife in New York

that I haven't seen for a long time, far too long.

How old are you, Mr. Stanford?

35.

Forgive me.

I ask personal questions sometimes.

It's the scientist in me.

I'm interested in the way people develop.

The glandular type and so on.

May I ask a few more questions?

Well, I'm supposed to be the interviewer,

but if you wanna, go ahead.

You look like a strong man.

Have you ever had any major illnesses?

Well, this sounds like the army all over again.

Nothing worse than chicken pox.

And in this time you've been separated from your wife,

have you been, dare to say,

have you had any other kind of companionship?

Well, I've been a good boy, if that's what you mean, doc,

but now maybe we are getting just a little personal.

I'm sorry.

You want to hear about my work, don't you?

All right.

Could use a little refreshment while we're talking.

As long as it's daytime size.

Scotch?

A local version of it.

I thought it tasted different.

Well, doc, what's the story?

Well, Mr. Stanford, are you familiar with later thinking

about cosmic rays and evolution?

Vaguely--

the rays come out of space,

and every thousand years or so they cause a mutation,

cause some animal to give birth

to a slightly different species, that right?

That'll do.

Now you can understand what I mean

when I tell you that I've a theory

as to the cause of this changing species, this mutation.

I believe it can be done.

Not with radiation, Mr. Stanford, but chemically.

I've tried a few experiments with plants and fungus.

You got any samples?

Unfortunately, nothing I can show.

Only theoretical records.

But I don't think they make sense to you.

Well, it sounds great in scientific circles, doc,

but it's not exactly what I'd call front page stuff.

You know, it's kind of stuffy in here.

It's the heat from the mountain.

I use it sometimes for experiments.

Will you excuse me, Mr. Stanford?

I'll go down to the lab

and bring you up some photos of my fungus experiments.

They might prove interesting to you.

I'd appreciate that.

Robert, are you sure what you're doing

is absolutely right?

Right?

Don't you see him?

He's perfect for it.

Besides, I've changed the enzyme.

It's got to work this time.

A physical and a psychological change.

We'll keep records on every move he makes.

That's not what I mean.

Do you have the right to do this to him?

After all, the others were different, they volunteered.

But Tara, he's exactly the type I need.

This is for science, for human knowledge.

What happens to one man doesn't make any difference.

You didn't seem to care for the others, Tara.

I forgot how to care about anybody a long time ago.

You ought to know that.

Good.

Keep it that way.

Oh, hello doc.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude,

but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

Oh, I feel that way myself,

many times up here.

Seem to have collected myself a kink in the neck too.

These are the pictures

I thought you might be interested in.

Well, I'll take those back to Tokyo with me

if you don't mind, doc.

Oh, by all means.

How about one for the road?

That's not a bad idea.

Might wake me up.

I'll be coming down to Tokyo very shortly.

We must get together there.

I could use a little vacation from my work.

Sure, that'll be fine.

Here's the morning report for you.

Thanks.

I'm forced to agree with you, Larry.

Not much to this Dr. Suzuki report.

I understand he's independently wealthy,

one of these wealthy crackpots.

Oh, he's not such a bad guy.

He serves lousy whiskey though,

gave me a hangover on two of them.

As a matter of fact, he phoned up this morning,

said he was coming to Tokyo.

Wants to take me out on some fancy dinner or something.

Geisha party?

Who knows?

Anyway, I'm just filling in time

'til I head for New York and Linda.

This globe trotting almost broke us up.

By the way, Larry, you're gonna be here a few days.

I've got a report here on some smuggling going on

down in Hong Kong.

I wonder if you could hop a plane and go down there.

Uh-uh, no dice, Ian.

You pull this one more story routine on me

once too often.

This time I'm going home.

I'll tell you what you can do with that report.

What's that?