‘Seem to know a lot about it.’
‘In view of the fact that we were to expose ourselves to hypothermic conditions, naturally it made sense to become a little better informed about the subject.’
‘I guess so. The brain, too.’
‘I’ve always been interested in the brain.’
‘Brains in general or just one brain in particular?’
Dallas looked puzzled.
‘Cavor’s brain, for instance,’ added Gates.
‘Could be.’
Gates waited for Dallas to say something more. When he didn’t, he shook his head sadly and then rolled onto his front.
‘Still don’t quite trust me, huh?’ he said.
‘Surely that’s one of the purposes of this simulation,’ said Dallas. ‘To find out how much we can trust each other.’
‘That’s not the kind of trust I meant, and you know it.’ Gates managed to raise himself onto all fours.
‘After metabolic icebox, you shouldn’t move for a while.’
‘Negative. I’ve got to pee.’
Dallas helped him into the washroom, Gates having refused to pee on the floor.
‘I’ve got my standards,’ he said. ‘Even in a Simworld.’
A few minutes later, after another hot drink, Gates pronounced himself equal to the next stage of the plan, which involved drilling out a block of concrete from the labyrinth wall. At least, he felt equal to it until Dallas informed him of the location he had in mind for this particular task.
‘All sections of the labyrinth wall are smart. Lots of metal wire running through the mortar. And fitted with vibration detectors,’ Dallas told him. ‘If one of those picks up the feel of a drill, the metal wire conducts electric current to the point of vibration. Quite enough to kill you and anyone standing next to you. All the walls except one, that is. You see, there are two power sources for this facility. There’s the solar power field we saw from the air. And there’s a small nuclear reactor that’s inside the main facility on the other side of the building from where we are now. The walls of the containment room in the reactor don’t have any vibration detectors because of the vibrations from the reactor turbine.’
‘And,’ remarked an incredulous Gates, ‘because only an idiot would be crazy enough to choose the containment room to try and effect an entrance to the labyrinth.’
‘That’s what I once thought myself,’ conceded Dallas. ‘However, I now see that this is the weakest part of my original design; and therefore, as a corollary, the best part of my current plan.’
‘I don’t see how,’ argued Gates. ‘There’s the small matter of radiation, Dallas. We spend any time in the containment room — like maybe the sort of high-exposure time it takes to get through a concrete wall — we’ll die. Maybe not in the simulation. But for sure when we try it in reality.’
Dallas shook his head. ‘I don’t believe that’s the case. I believe we can do this and survive the radiation.’
‘These are space suits, Dallas. Made of toughened latex, not lead. Protection against cosmic radiation, maybe. But not on the scale of what you’re proposing. You’re talking gamma, beta, alpha, the whole lousy uranium molecule. Shit, the cold must have affected you more than I thought.’
‘We can do it and we can survive,’ insisted Dallas. ‘Here’s how. The amount of damage to human tissue depends on the number of atoms ionized per human kilogram. That depends on the amount of energy deposited in each kilo of human flesh. A unit of absorbed dose is called a gray, which amounts to the deposition of one joule of energy per human kilo. For the sake of precision, doses are quoted in centigrays. Now, as well as a dose unit we need a dose rate — the centigray per hour. Total dose in centigrays equals dose rate in centigrays per hour times exposure time in hours. Are you with me?’
‘So far, so lethal,’ said Gates. ‘Go on, I’m listening. My hair may be falling out, and my gums might be bleeding, but I’m with you, Dallas.’
‘What I’m getting to is that the early somatic effects of radiation on the human body can be very precisely measured. More importantly, they can be very precisely dealt with.’
‘I read about the war, Dallas. I know what treatment most people got for the usual effects of radiation on the human body — cancer, general circulatory collapse, whatever. It was very precise. Massive overdose of morphine was what they got. That or a bullet in the head. Whichever was available.’
‘Since you mention the general circulatory system, let’s talk about that for a moment,’ said Dallas. ‘Radiation alters or destroys some of the constituents of the body’s cells. Those most affected are the blood-forming cells in the human bone marrow that maintain the body’s supply of white blood cells. A radiation dose in excess of one hundred and fifty centigrays will cause the white blood cell count to fall. Anything above five hundred and there’s a fifty percent chance you’ll die. It’s called the LD fifty — the lethal dose to fifty percent.’
‘Fifty percent, huh? Sounds like a reasonable chance, when you say it that way. An even chance you’ll die, more like.’
‘Okay, what’s the treatment for radiation exposure?’
‘These days?’ Gates shrugged. ‘Most people check into a hyperbaric hotel.’
‘Most people,’ agreed Dallas. ‘Only for those people this is not a perfect world, right?’
‘So I’ve been led to believe.’
‘No, the ideal treatment,’ said Dallas, ‘remains blood infusion. And with an unlimited supply of infusable blood, the LD fifty decreases significantly. Maybe ten percent mortality at most.’
Suddenly Gates caught the thrust of Dallas’s argument. ‘Oh Jesus,’ he said. ‘You don’t mean?’
‘I do mean.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘You know something, Rameses? This is the real point of this simulation. To measure how many centigrays we’ll absorb in the time it takes to get through that containment room wall.’
‘And then to figure out how many blood transfusions we’ll need not to die? Is that it?’
‘If you want to put it like that. I prefer to look at it in terms of using an unlimited number of infusions to achieve a vast reduction in the LD fifty.’
‘Same thing.’
‘Like I said before, Rameses, it’s the best part of the plan because the containment room in the reactor was the weakest part of my design. It’s amazing I never foresaw that anyone would be prepared to take such a risk. But when you think about it, where better to take such a risk than somewhere like this? Somewhere with an unlimited supply of blood. The very thing that makes the risk feasible.’
‘But won’t radiation from the reactor come through the hole with us? And contaminate the blood?’
‘It might if we weren’t going to replace the block of concrete that we’re going to shift. And if the vault wasn’t lead-lined.’
‘You still haven’t told me how you propose to get through that.’
‘No, I haven’t, have I?’
‘Well, maybe Cav will think of a way.’
‘Maybe he will at that.’
Gates sighed and shook his head. ‘Freeze to death or fry to death. Christ, Dallas.’
‘If the simulation shows it can’t be done, then we’ll have to think of something else. I don’t want to die any more than you do. And I’m not the one who has to have an infusion of blood whatever happens. Think about that for a moment.’
Gates nodded reluctantly. ‘Okay, you’ve convinced me. Let’s do it.’
‘Okay,’ smiled Dallas. But gradually his smile gave way to a frown.
‘ “S” matter? Thought of some other lethal shit that you forgot to tell me about?’