Филип Керр - The Second Angel

‘Thanks for the advice,’ grunted Raft.

‘I’m marking the site with the laser, Peter. I also recommend you exsanguinate with a tourniquet as soon as possible.’

‘You’d better fetch six units of RHH,’ he told Berger, as he started to tie Cavor’s upper arm.

Berger, a large, strapping woman wearing the same kind of red overalls as Raft, had just started toward the cryoprecipitation room when Florence stopped her with the clearing of an artificial throat.

‘Ahem. Just a moment please, Helen,’ said the computer. ‘Recombinant human hemoglobin may cause this patient some significant problems. According to his records, he’s not suffering from any extravascular hemolytic disorders.’

‘What’s that?’ Raft frowned. ‘No EHDs? Come on, Florence. You must have made a mistake.’

‘Either that or you’re just bullshitting us,’ snorted Berger. ‘Having a laugh at our expense.’

‘Helen,’ Florence said sternly, ‘you know I’m only programmed for white lies. To protect the sensitivities of terminal patients. It is not within me to lie for my own amusement or personal gain.’

‘No shit,’ said Berger.

‘Would you care to see a biosynthetic profile of his blood group antigens?’ Florence asked calmly.

‘Look, Florence, those records are probably fake,’ suggested Raft. ‘On Earth, people go to considerable lengths to forge their blood tests. For obvious reasons. However, I’m a little surprised to find this kind of thing happening up here. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like a negative blood test is going to make any difference in a penal colony.’

‘The record is quite genuine, Peter,’ insisted Florence. ‘Let me explain. Sixteen months ago Cavor had a small injury requiring clinical treatment, during which process he deposited a small amount of blood on the scanner. I tested the sample for clinically significant antibodies and found none. Until now, I was obliged to respect that confidentiality.’

‘No P2?’ Raft was amazed. ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

‘No P2,’ confirmed Florence. ‘Immunohematologically speaking, he’s RES Class One.’ [4] The immune system of humans consists of a number of organs and different cell types that have evolved to recognize non-self-antigens. The most ubiquitous immunologic cell, tissue, and organ system is called the reticuloendothelial system (RES).

‘Jesus.’

‘Now there’s a novelty,’ said Berger.

Raft glanced at Cavor’s deathly pale face and shook his head wearily. He said, ‘Florence? It’s RHH or nothing for this guy. If there was any other blood component we could use, we’d use it. But there’s no question of using real blood here, even if we had such a thing. You know that. So the bottom line is that he’ll probably die right here on this flatbed scanner if he doesn’t get a transfusion of the usual shit.’

Florence stayed silent as Raft finished applying the tourniquet.

‘I’ll fetch those RHH units,’ said Berger, as she left the emergency room.

‘At least this way, he’ll get to live,’ Raft shrugged. ‘Who knows how much longer? Ten. Maybe even twenty years. Me, I’ve had it for the best part of ten years, with very few ill effects.’

Pushing an infusion computer in front of her, Berger came back through the door in a swirl of gritty moondust. The nurse enjoyed her work. You earned fewer credits than you did crushing rocks all day, but medical work was more interesting, and certainly more satisfying. She set up the machine next to the flatbed scanner, drew out the cannulae assembly, and let it attach itself automatically to Cavor’s good arm. The computer croaked like a large frog as it made its own tourniquet, swabbed Cavor’s skin, and then inserted the infusion needle.

‘I wonder how he escaped getting it for so long?’ mused Raft.

‘Maybe he comes from a rich family,’ suggested Berger.

‘RHH warming to thirty-seven degrees,’ reported the infusion computer. ‘Filtration removing synthetic debris. I’m ready when you are.’

Berger flicked a switch to initiate the infusion process, and the RHH began to snake around the transparent plastic tube entering Cavor’s arm. To look at, the dark red liquid was indistinguishable from healthy human blood. [5] In the early part of the twenty-first century, advances made in the field of genetic manipulation produced recombinant technology. The successful manufacture of recombinant DNA was followed by the development of recombinant human hemoglobin. RHH is a polymorphic or universal red-cell blood substitute — a synthetic blood that could be infused into a patient regardless of his or her blood type. Pioneered by the U.S. military for use in the field, RHH involved the creation of completely novel red cells by the combination of unrelated red cells. Red cells were able to replicate independently of a host organism by means of a vector, or cloning vehicle. The vehicle chosen was an apparently harmless form of the parvovirus. No one could have foreseen that the virus chosen would, through a combination of factors, mutate into the much more deadly form of the virus P2 and that RHH would become one of P2’s main reservoirs of infection. It could keep you alive, but it could also kill you. She stroked Cavor’s forehead for a moment and, adding a note of weary resignation to her smoky voice, said, ‘Sorry, friend.’

‘Sorry my ass,’ said Raft. ‘You can’t feel sorry for a statistical freak. In this place, he was bound to get it. Sooner or later.’

He could feel no sympathy for his patient’s immune system while the more pressing problem of completing the amputation successfully was still before him, and with his scalpel, he divided Cavor’s upper-arm muscles with a raking incision that went right down to the bone. More blood spurted from the incision, spilling onto the floor, and Raft shook his head at the waste of such a precious resource. With a fluid ounce of quality-assured whole blood costing around half as much as gold, [6] The latest World Association of Blood Ranks (WABB) has priced one liter of RES Class One whole blood, containing a standard 25 X 10 12 healthy red cells, at $1.48 million. Cavor, an average-sized male, would have a total blood volume of about five liters. This means that if all the blood in his body could have been transfused, it would have been worth $7.4 million. he reckoned he was stepping into and out of a pool that was worth several thousand dollars. Probably more.

For the next thirty minutes, Raft carefully followed Florence’s gently worded prompts, severing the narrowest part of Cavor’s humerus with a laser saw that simultaneously ligated all the major blood vessels. When the amputation was complete, he wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped back.

‘With all that healthy blood in him, I’m amazed he’s managed not to get himself killed. There are plenty of bastards in this place who would cheerfully have cut his throat for a complete change of blood.’

Berger removed the severed limb from the flatbed scanner.

‘Me included,’ she said. ‘Only the blood’s no good without the right drugs. And so long as they’re banned from all Moon colonies, what would be the point of killing him?’

Raft nodded. ‘I guess you’re right. But back on Earth I’d have been sorely tempted to drain off a couple of healthy liters before giving him the RHH.’ He shrugged off the thought. ‘I wonder what he did to end up here? Instead of a private jail like the rest of his RES class.’

It was Florence, the computer, who answered him.

‘Prisoner-patient Cavor. Sentenced to ten years’ hard labor on Artemis Seven without benefit of parole for the brutal murder of his wife. She just happened to be the daughter of an important city official. He has already served four years of his sentence.’