in truth he might have sabotaged his own radio and telephone lines and taken an ax to his own boat. The success of the operation was an urgent necessity to ICI, and Hobbes wasn’t about to let a couple of killings stand in the way of it.
But what would he do if his patient proved to be a resurrected murderer?
After lunch he managed to get Hobbes aside to continue their interrupted conversation at the boathouse. “You were starting to tell me earlier about Vera and the two doctors.”
Lawrence Hobbes raised his eyebrows. “Was I?”
“You were.”
Hobbes glanced at his digital watch. “We really should relieve poor Whalen. Come down with me if you want. We can talk there as well as anyplace.”
“Except that Frank will hear us, if he’s listening.”
“You’re getting as bad as the others, Jazine. Our patient is not a monster, nor a murderer. He’s simply a man awakening from a long sleep.”
They went down to the operating amphitheater and relieved a grateful Whalen. “He’s real good company.”
“Any more movement to report?”
“He shifts now and then but he’s still out of it.”
Hobbes nodded. “I’ll be staying the four hours. Jazine’s just keeping me company for a bit.”
After Whalen left Earl suggested they move to the rear of the amphitheater. “We can watch him just as well from back here and our voices won’t carry.”
“Oh, very well” Hobbes agreed.
Earl settled into the molded plastic scat, remembering how old Emily Watson had sat there all during the lengthy operation. It couldn’t have been awfully comfortable for a woman her age. He stared down at the operating table where Frank still lay, moving occasionally as if struggling to rid himself of the clouds from a thirty-year sleep.
“Now, about Vera and Freddy and Tony Cooper.”
Hobbes leaned back and started talking. “I don’t know all the bizarre details, of course, and I suppose no one does except the three of them. Well, I believe I mentioned earlier that Freddy O’Connor had performed a number of brain transplants involving animals. He was doing these at a private research laboratory in Maryland, not far from Washington. Vera Morgan was working there as a research chemist, testing the results of the transplant operations on various brain tissues and body fluids. Vera and Freddy just naturally fell into an affair and started living together. Knowing the two of them, it might have been unusual if their proximity to each other hadn’t set off sparks. From what I hear, there’s never a woman safe when Freddy’s in the area.”
“Did you know him in those days?”
“I’d met him, of course. In fact, we once had some preliminary discussions about the possibility of a human brain transplant using some of my cryonic bodies. This was maybe three years back. At the time Freddy hadn’t had that much experience in low-temperature surgery, but he plunged into the subject with great interest. The main problem of all body freezing has always been with the brain, you know, and so Freddy O’Connor became a key member of, my team even before I decided to use a shell body that had suffered from a brain tumor.”
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Earl interrupted. “Not being a medical man, I don’t understand the problem with the brain. The early cryonic-society literature mentioned no special problem with the brain that I remember.”
“Some writers like Ettinger did, though. You see, during freezing the protein molecules within the cells collapse due to dehydration. Such denaturing has a devastating effect on the brain. It was in this area especially that Freddy and Vera were working in recent years. Vera’s lab tests have tended to show that massive injections of protein might be the solution to the problem. That’s what we’ve tried here, whether you knew it or not. And that is why I wanted Vera on the scene. You see, she and Freddy were a team once, during an important part of the brain research work. I
But what would he do if his patient proved to be a resurrected murderer?
After lunch he managed to get Hobbes aside to continue their interrupted conversation at the boathouse. “You were starting to tell me earlier about Vera and the two doctors.”
Lawrence Hobbes raised his eyebrows. “Was I?”
“You were.”
Hobbes glanced at his digital watch. “We really should relieve poor Whalen. Come down with me if you want. We can talk there as well as anyplace.”
“Except that Frank will hear us, if he’s listening.”
“You’re getting as bad as the others, Jazine. Our patient is not a monster, nor a murderer. He’s simply a man awakening from a long sleep.”
They went down to the operating amphitheater and relieved a grateful Whalen. “He’s real good company.”
“Any more movement to report?”
“He shifts now and then but he’s still out of it.”
Hobbes nodded. “I’ll be staying the four hours. Jazine’s just keeping me company for a bit.”
After Whalen left Earl suggested they move to the rear of the amphitheater. “We can watch him just as well from back here and our voices won’t carry.”
“Oh, very well” Hobbes agreed.
Earl settled into the molded plastic scat, remembering how old Emily Watson had sat there all during the lengthy operation. It couldn’t have been awfully comfortable for a woman her age. He stared down at the operating table where Frank still lay, moving occasionally as if struggling to rid himself of the clouds from a thirty-year sleep.
“Now, about Vera and Freddy and Tony Cooper.”
Hobbes leaned back and started talking. “I don’t know all the bizarre details, of course, and I suppose no one does except the three of them. Well, I believe I mentioned earlier that Freddy O’Connor had performed a number of brain transplants involving animals. He was doing these at a private research laboratory in Maryland, not far from Washington. Vera Morgan was working there as a research chemist, testing the results of the transplant operations on various brain tissues and body fluids. Vera and Freddy just naturally fell into an affair and started living together. Knowing the two of them, it might have been unusual if their proximity to each other hadn’t set off sparks. From what I hear, there’s never a woman safe when Freddy’s in the area.”
“Did you know him in those days?”
“I’d met him, of course. In fact, we once had some preliminary discussions about the possibility of a human brain transplant using some of my cryonic bodies. This was maybe three years back. At the time Freddy hadn’t had that much experience in low-temperature surgery, but he plunged into the subject with great interest. The main problem of all body freezing has always been with the brain, you know, and so Freddy O’Connor became a key member of, my team even before I decided to use a shell body that had suffered from a brain tumor.”
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Earl interrupted. “Not being a medical man, I don’t understand the problem with the brain. The early cryonic-society literature mentioned no special problem with the brain that I remember.”
“Some writers like Ettinger did, though. You see, during freezing the protein molecules within the cells collapse due to dehydration. Such denaturing has a devastating effect on the brain. It was in this area especially that Freddy and Vera were working in recent years. Vera’s lab tests have tended to show that massive injections of protein might be the solution to the problem. That’s what we’ve tried here, whether you knew it or not. And that is why I wanted Vera on the scene. You see, she and Freddy were a team once, during an important part of the brain research work. I
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