wanted them as a team again. I could hardly invite Vera, under the circumstances, but I could hire Tony Cooper, knowing he’d bring Vera along. You were perfectly correct in saying I didn’t need a bone man. But I did need another surgeon on the team, and Tony Cooper filled the bill. It got me Vera Morgan in the most natural way possible—a way which even Freddy couldn’t object to.”
“You say you couldn’t invite Vera directly under the circumstances. What circumstances?”
“About a year ago Tony Cooper received a grant to study the results of bone-marrow transplant in animals. It’s still a fairly new field, though work’s been done off and on for decades. He met Freddy and Vera, who by this time were deeply into the cryogenic aspects of transplant. You see, bone marrow presents a special transplant problem because it’s so often rejected. Transplants in humans have usually succeeded only when the donor was a twin—or at least a sibling—of the patient. Cooper’s experiments, following work done by others, were attempting to prove that marrow transplants in dogs could be successful if the donor’s marrow was mixed with previously frozen marrow from the dog itself. You’ve no doubt read the recent discussions about the possibility of a TCM bank—a cryonic storehouse for healthy tissue, cells, and marrow, which people would contribute when they were young and healthy, to be held against the day when they might need them back to fight the ravages of injury or disease.”
“I’ve heard something of it,” Earl admitted.
“Of course the Russians are ahead of us in some aspects of this. The Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at Riga has been most successful in transplanting the frozen fingers of cadavers to living persons who’ve lost fingers.”
“Would the Russians be interested in what we’ve done here?”
“Most interested,” Hobbes assured him. “If they knew about it. Happily, I imagine they have me down as a harmless eccentric who lives on an island with a bunch of frozen bodies.”
“To get back to Freddy and Vera,” Earl prodded gently.
“Yes—you have to forgive my wandering mind at times. I’ve been so involved in every aspect of this project for so long! Anyway, Vera and Tony Cooper met and fell in love—if that term is still used by young people today. She moved out on Freddy and moved in with Cooper, and then the damnedest thing happened. The way I got the story, one day outside the lab Freddy caught Cooper by the elevator and said something—one of his vulgar remarks—that led to a scuffle. Then Cooper actually challenged Freddy to a duel with laser pistols! Can you imagine such a thing? Of course the weapons are illegal, and they both could have been arrested. But the following morning they were both out in a field overlooking Chesapeake Bay with their illegal weapons.”
“What happened?”
“Freddy O’Connor backed down. He apologized. Can you believe that?”
“It explains a great deal about his attitude, I suppose. If Cooper and Vera know him to have been a coward, he’d naturally try to cover it up by constantly riding them about sexual matters.”
Lawrence Hobbes snorted. “I for one don’t consider it cowardly to refuse to fight a duel. In fact it would have been sheer madness to go through with it. A laser beam can do terrible damage.”
Earl was remembering Hobbes’s earlier mention of the weapons. “I hope you keep yours safely locked up.”
“Oh yes.”
Down on the operating table, Frank stirred again. “If he doesn’t come to soon, won’t he need further feeding?”
Hobbes nodded. “I believe Armstrong is considering some sort of aerosol nutrient, but we may not need it.”
Earl stood up and stretched. “Take care of yourself, Doctor. I’m going back upstairs.”
“Send someone else down between four and five.”
Earl promised to do so and headed for the stairs. On the way up he met Harry Armstrong, who was going down for
“You say you couldn’t invite Vera directly under the circumstances. What circumstances?”
“About a year ago Tony Cooper received a grant to study the results of bone-marrow transplant in animals. It’s still a fairly new field, though work’s been done off and on for decades. He met Freddy and Vera, who by this time were deeply into the cryogenic aspects of transplant. You see, bone marrow presents a special transplant problem because it’s so often rejected. Transplants in humans have usually succeeded only when the donor was a twin—or at least a sibling—of the patient. Cooper’s experiments, following work done by others, were attempting to prove that marrow transplants in dogs could be successful if the donor’s marrow was mixed with previously frozen marrow from the dog itself. You’ve no doubt read the recent discussions about the possibility of a TCM bank—a cryonic storehouse for healthy tissue, cells, and marrow, which people would contribute when they were young and healthy, to be held against the day when they might need them back to fight the ravages of injury or disease.”
“I’ve heard something of it,” Earl admitted.
“Of course the Russians are ahead of us in some aspects of this. The Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at Riga has been most successful in transplanting the frozen fingers of cadavers to living persons who’ve lost fingers.”
“Would the Russians be interested in what we’ve done here?”
“Most interested,” Hobbes assured him. “If they knew about it. Happily, I imagine they have me down as a harmless eccentric who lives on an island with a bunch of frozen bodies.”
“To get back to Freddy and Vera,” Earl prodded gently.
“Yes—you have to forgive my wandering mind at times. I’ve been so involved in every aspect of this project for so long! Anyway, Vera and Tony Cooper met and fell in love—if that term is still used by young people today. She moved out on Freddy and moved in with Cooper, and then the damnedest thing happened. The way I got the story, one day outside the lab Freddy caught Cooper by the elevator and said something—one of his vulgar remarks—that led to a scuffle. Then Cooper actually challenged Freddy to a duel with laser pistols! Can you imagine such a thing? Of course the weapons are illegal, and they both could have been arrested. But the following morning they were both out in a field overlooking Chesapeake Bay with their illegal weapons.”
“What happened?”
“Freddy O’Connor backed down. He apologized. Can you believe that?”
“It explains a great deal about his attitude, I suppose. If Cooper and Vera know him to have been a coward, he’d naturally try to cover it up by constantly riding them about sexual matters.”
Lawrence Hobbes snorted. “I for one don’t consider it cowardly to refuse to fight a duel. In fact it would have been sheer madness to go through with it. A laser beam can do terrible damage.”
Earl was remembering Hobbes’s earlier mention of the weapons. “I hope you keep yours safely locked up.”
“Oh yes.”
Down on the operating table, Frank stirred again. “If he doesn’t come to soon, won’t he need further feeding?”
Hobbes nodded. “I believe Armstrong is considering some sort of aerosol nutrient, but we may not need it.”
Earl stood up and stretched. “Take care of yourself, Doctor. I’m going back upstairs.”
“Send someone else down between four and five.”
Earl promised to do so and headed for the stairs. On the way up he met Harry Armstrong, who was going down for
Similar Books
