Between the Strokes of Night

“Looks like it. He doesn’t sleep much, but we’ve had other subjects with less right here in the Institute.”

Judith Niles was watching him closely. “But you don’t look like a man who wasted a week on a wild-goose chase. What’s the rest of it?”

“My perceptive superior.” De Vries looked angelic. “You are quite right. On the way out I went through Ankara to check out a long shot — another one of the rumors from the Cairo labs, about a monk who keeps a vigil over the sacred relies of Saint Stephen. A vestment was stolen while he was on duty two years ago, and after that he supposedly swore he would never sleep again.”

“Well?” Judith Niles tensed as she waited for his answer.

“Not quite — but closer than we’ve ever come before.” De Vries was all sly satisfaction. “Would you believe an average total daily sleep of twenty-nine minutes? And he doesn’t sit in a chair and nod off for the odd few minutes when nobody’s looking. We had him hooked up to a telemetry unit for eleven days. We have the fullest biochemical tests that we could make. You’ll see my full report as soon as someone can transcribe it for you.”

“I want it today. Tell Joyce Savin that it’s top priority.” Judith Niles gave de Vries a little nod of approval. “Anything else?”

“Nothing good enough to tell. I’ll have my complete report for you tomorrow.” He winked across the table at Charlene. And she’ll never read it, said his expression. The Director depended on her staff to keep track of the details. No one ever knew how much time she would spend on any particular staff report. Sometimes the smallest element of data would engage her attention for days, at other times major projects would run unstudied for months.

Judith Niles took a quick look at her watch. “Dr. Bloom, you’re next. Keep it as short as possible — I’d like to squeeze our visitor in before lunch if we can.” But at my back I always hear, Time’s winged chariot hurrying near… Charlene gritted her teeth. JN was obsessed with sleep and time. And most of what Charlene could offer was bad news.

She bent her head over her notebook, reluctant to begin.

“We just lost one of the Kodiaks,” she said abruptly. There was a rustle of movement as everyone at the long table sat up straighter. Charlene kept her head bowed. “Gibbs took Dolly down to a few degrees above freezing and tried to maintain a positive level of brain activity.”

Now there was a charged silence in the room. Charlene swallowed, felt the lump in her throat, and hurried on. “The procedure is the same as I described in last week’s report for the Review Committee. But this time we couldn’t stabilize. The brain wave patterns were hunting, seeking new stable levels, and there were spurious alpha thresholds. When we started to bring the temperature back up all the body functions just went to hell. Oscillations everywhere. I brought the output listings with me, and if you want to see them I’ll pass them round.” “Later.” Judith Niles’ expression was a mixture of concentration and anger. Charlene knew the look. The Director expected everyone — everything — to share her drive toward Zero Sleep. Dolly had failed them. JN’s face had turned pale, but her voice was calm and factual.

“Gibbs, you said? Wolfgang Gibbs. He’s the heavy-set fellow with curly hair? Did he handle the descent and ascent operations himself?”

“Yes. But I have no reason to question his competence — “

“Nor do I, I’m not suggesting that. I’ve read his reports. He’s good.” Judith Niles made a gesture to the secretary at her side. “Were there any other anomalies that you consider significant?”

“There was one.” Charlene Bloom took a deep breath and turned to a new page of her notebook. “When we were about fifteen degrees above freezing, the brain wave patterns hit a very stable form. And Wolfgang Gibbs noticed one very odd thing about them. They seemed to be the same profile as the brain rhythms at normal temperature, just stretched out in time.”

She paused. At the end of the table, Judith Niles had suddenly jerked upright. “How similar?”

“We didn’t run it through the computer yet. To the eye they were identical — but fifty times as slow as usual.”

For a fraction of a second Charlene thought she saw a look flicker between Judith Niles and Jan de Vries, then the Director was staring at her with full intensity. “That’s something I want to see for myself. Later today, Dr. de Vries and I will come out to the hangar and take a look at this project. But let’s run over it in a little more detail now, when we’re all here. How long did you hold the stable phase, and what was the lowest body temperature? And what about tryptophan settings?”

Below table level, Charlene rubbed her hands along the side of her skirt. They were in for a digging session, she just knew it. Her hands were beginning to tremble, and she could feel new sweat on her palms. Was she well-prepared? She’d know in a few minutes. With the Director in the mood for detail, the visitor to the Institute might be in for a long wait.