On the screen in front of them the trace of brain activity was reduced to a single horizontal line. They watched in silence for a full minute, until there was a final, faint shiver from the heart monitor.

The man leaned forward and turned the gain as high as it would go. He grunted. “Nothing. She’s gone. Poor old Dolly.”

“And what do I tell JN?”

“The truth. She already knows most of it. We’ve gone farther with Jinx and Dolly than JN had any reason to hope we could. I told you we were into a risky area with the bears, but we kept pushing on.”

“I was hoping to keep Jinx under at least another four days. Now, we can’t risk it. I’ll have to tell JN we’re going to wake him up now.”

“It’s that, or kill him. You saw the monitors.” As he spoke, he had already switched to the injection control system for the second experimental chamber, and was carefully increasing the hormonal levels through Jinx’s half-ton body mass. “But you’re the boss. If you insist on it, I’ll hold him under a bit longer.”

“No.” She was chewing her lip, rocking backwards and forwards in front of the screen. “We can’t take the risk. Go ahead, Wolfgang, bring him up all the way. Full consciousness. How long had Dolly been under, total time?”

“One hundred and ninety one hours and fourteen minutes.”

She laughed nervously and wriggled her feet back into her shoes. “Well, it’s a record for the species. We have that much to comfort us. I have to go. Can you finish all right without me?”

“I’ll have to, won’t I? Don’t worry, this is my fourth hour of overtime already today.” He smiled sourly, but more to himself than to Charlene. “You know what I think? If JN ever does find a way for a human to stay awake and sane for twenty-four hours a day, first thing she’ll do is work people like us triple shifts.”