Chapter 23

23 EXACTLY TWELVE KILOMETERS AWAY FROM LAKE MIDVILLE, thirty-two meters above ground level, on a tall hill, in the operator's cab of a tower crane, through the lenses of black, compact, folding, day-and night-vision binoculars, T. Edison watches a small raft spin around a whirlpool next to the Midville Hydroelectric Dam. T. Edison watches the raft drop into the swirling funnel and disappear from view.

"Success! What a fantastic plan!" Mr. Chimp, still wearing his yellow hard hat, gives a thumbs-up and turns back to the crane controls. "We are nowhere near Lake Midville. That lamebrain Einstein and his dorky friend and idiot robots have just had a terrible

hydroelectric-turbine accident. It's clear I had nothing to do with it, because I am miles away. And everyone will forget about Einstein's stupid 'free wireless energy' invention." Mr. Chimp pulls the cab control joystick toward himself with one big toe. The cab glides down the tower back toward the ground. "Now all of Midville must buy its power from me!" Mr. Chimp's big toe twitches forward. The cab jerks to a stop, still twenty meters above the ground. Edison lurches up, then falls back into his seat. "I wish you would learn how to operate your heavy machinery just a bit more smoothly." Mr. Chimp stares at Edison. "What?" Mr. Chimp stares.

A red-tailed hawk flies by at cab-window level. "What?" Mr. Chimp signs: Edison frowns. "Listen, you tree-swinging reject. Edison Energy is my company, and people will be buying energy from me, not us. Edison Energy. Not Chimp Energy. You will get your share. Now stop monkeying around... and get us down on the ground so I can get to the real work." Mr. Chimp takes his feet off the controls. He leans forward until his chimp nose is almost touching Edison's human nose. Mr.

Chimp tenses the muscles in his face, pulling his lips up and slightly apart. It looks like a smile. But it is not a smile. Mr. Chimp leans back in his seat. He pulls his operator's seat belt tight, pauses for two seconds, then jams the control joystick UP, DOWN, TILT LEFT, TILT RIGHT... Edison slides-flips-flops out of his seat, smacks against the cab's glass side, and sees the ground twenty long meters below. Mr. Chimp toggles DOWN, TILT, DROP, TILT, UP, FREE FALL. "I was just kidding!" yells Edison. He bounces off the ceiling, then the floor. "Stop!" Smack, bang, boom. Mr. Chimp pauses. "OK, OK. It's our company— EdisonChimp." Mr. Chimp reaches for the control joystick again.

"OK! ChimpEdison!" Mr. Chimp leans back again. He nods. He folds his arms behind his head, grips the joystick with his left toe, and eases the cab smoothly to the ground. Edison crawls back into his seat, now with a lump on his forehead. He turns to look out the glass wall and mumbles something that sounds an awful lot like "Dumb monkey." Mr. Chimp hears. He doesn't care about insults. But he does care about accuracy. He signs: Then he twitches two muscles in his face. And this time he smiles a real smile.