approaching. We know that some of the others died on their birthdays, some died after, and some died before. You’re a bit different, so there’s no way to know exactly when your heart will stop. But it’s safe to say that you won’t live past your birthday, and there’s a good chance you won’t even make it until then.” She closes her eyes for a moment. “If a young man dies, an autopsy will be ordered. All of the others were subjected to autopsies, and you will be too. You know what happens in an autopsy.”
A shiver runs down my spine like the blunt end of a scalpel is pressing against the center of my back. In an autopsy, they take out all of your organs. They weigh them, examine them, and then they stick them back in, but they don’t reattach anything. They just put them in and sew you up, like sticking in candy in a piñata.
“We have to make certain that does not happen, and since 2 5 7
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there is no way to predict exactly when you are going to die, we need to act quickly. The sooner, the better.”
“B-but,” Dad stutters, “how long do you think he’ll be frozen? How sure are you that you can bring him back?”
“We’ve had great success recently with freezing organs.
We’ve tested slices of brain and found that after the vitrification process, the slices were able to send neurological signals.
And there was a dog—”
“Have they ever unfrozen a person?” I interrupt.
Her head tilts sympathetically. “No, but the science is almost there. With nanotechnologies, we’ll soon have tiny robots that can go into a body and repair damaged cells. And hopefully, they’ll be able to plug a new sequence into your DNA—
all of your DNA—to keep your heart from stopping. The advancements in nanomolecular science are staggering. My team is on the cusp of being able to prevent strokes and heart attacks, even killing cancer cells as soon as they start forming, by using this technology. This will work, Kyle. I’m certain of it. Scientific advancements are happening at such a staggering pace. Not even two centuries ago doctors didn’t know enough to wash their hands between patients. Now we’ve mapped the entire human genetic code.”
“When will I die? I mean, I will die, right? You can’t be alive and frozen.” I don’t want to ask. I don’t want to know because I don’t want to do this, but my parents . . . I can see the fear in their eyes, but I can also see the hope. “Will it hurt?”
Dr. Bartholomew gives me a reassuring smile. “You’ll go to sleep. That’s all. You’ll be given anesthesia, and you’ll go to sleep.
2 5 8
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They won’t so much as prick your finger until you’re completely under; I promise. Your body will be cooled gradually while certain processes are being performed.”
“Like draining my blood and replacing it with ‘antifreeze’?”
“Yes.”
I look down at the veins in my arms. At the blood moving through them. “How cold will my body be once it’s done?” I hear my voice, but it can’t be me. I can’t be talking or breathing or doing anything but fighting the urge to run as far and as fast as I can.
She hesitates, like she’d like to lie to me but has too much integrity to do so. “The entire cooling process takes a few weeks, but when it’s complete, you’ll be cooled to negative one hundred ninety-six degrees Celsius.”
I was never good at converting Fahrenheit into Celsius, but if 32 degrees Fahrenheit is freezing, negative 196 degrees Celsius is . . .
“Why so cold?”
“It’s the temperature of liquid nitrogen. They’re experimenting with alternatives to liquid nitrogen as the primary cooling agent, but for now . . .”
I remember a movie I saw once about a caveman found frozen in the ice somewhere near the North Pole. He was really confused once he thawed out. He’d never seen an airplane, or for that matter, a person with straight teeth. He couldn’t take it, and he ended up killing himself. What if it’s not just a couple of years? What if they fix me, and my parents are dead and people are flying hovercrafts instead of driving cars, or what if 2 5 9
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there’s a nuclear war and the scientists aren’t around