"But I wasn't pretending. Quiet, now, and let me think."
He waited until the watchguard had passed by the door, then raised his head.
"Look here, Leah. Evidently the infection didn't take. This is what must have happened. That treatment I gave you ten years ago must have made you permanently immune to Blue Martian, and the antibodies it formed in your cells simply protected you against this new invasion of the virus. It never occurred to me that the immunity would last so long. But don't worry, I'll find a way."
She looked suspicious. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that there's no reason why Blue Martian should be the only vehicle for giving you the SDE. There must be other viruses that will work equally well. It's only a question of finding one."
"And how long will that take you?"
"How long does anything take in Research? Maybe a week, maybe a year."
"And maybe ten! I can't wait, Dr. Wong. I'm thirty-five now; I'm growing older. What good will a long life do me, if it only preserves me as the middle-aged woman I'll be by then? And all those years that I'll be getting older and older, there'll be Tanya, lively and pretty, to remind me that I was once like that, too. I can't face it!"
"The watchguard will hear you!" Haggard-faced, he watched her shaking shoulders, hearing her muffled sobs.
"You're a criminal, Dr. Wong! It was a crime, what you did to Tanya and me."