The next meeting was delayed. Roger had to return to Boston for additional training on the new machine and a couple of the others had things come up that caused them to just cancel that meeting. The next time they met, it was in Justin’s apartment.

Justin was the newest and youngest member of the “team”. He was not long out of school and still lived like he was in school. That meant eating his own cooking when he didn’t eat out and living in an apartment building. It also meant his apartment was furnished like an apartment shared by a bunch of young guys. Justin had lived nearby while working on his PhD and had shared the apartment he had there with a succession of roommates. Each had contributed furniture to the apartment collected from their parents, grandparents, or other relatives having unwanted furniture. As they finished their degrees and moved away, they often left the larger or older pieces they had contributed. So many in fact that Justin had to donate much of it when he moved to his present apartment. Justin was no interior decorator, and what he kept could be called eclectic, or just cheap. Nothing matched.

Like many apartments, they had rules against having your own grills, and the kitchen wasn’t so large, so the food for the gatherings at Justin’s was often cheap, filling, and could be delivered. That meant pizza. Without salad.

It was always interesting to look around when the meeting was at Justin’s to see what he had been reading or doing. The answers to both curiosities could be discerned within about 10 seconds after entering his apartment.

He was an avid reader, reading many genres of fiction and also history and science publications. Just look around and you would see it there. His computer was usually on his dining room table and the screen was on showing the most recent thing that held his interest.

Ryan was the first to notice, and likely would have been the only one to notice, that the screen showed was the login page for openai.com, the owners of ChatGPT. This immediately piqued Ryan’s interest.

Tom, Noah, and Roger had arrived a little earlier and were sitting in the small living room talking while Justin had gone to his car to carry in the evenings liquid refreshments. So Ryan couldn’t resist examining Justin’s browsing history just a little. He had not gone far before hearing Justin coming up the stairs. But he did notice Justin had been reading up on Sodium Thiopental. He paused to remember the short mention Tom made of it that had at their last meeting. It apparently was more interesting to Justin.

Ryan went to open the door for Justin and help him carry in the beer. “PBR? How can you drink this stuff?” asked Ryan.

“I got a taste for it in school when it was about all I could afford. And, it was on sale.” said Justin.

“You mean you had to learn to drink it. You must have killed your last taste bud by now. Last time you got Coors and Guinness. I know you’re saving up for your honeymoon, but couldn’t you do better than this swill? Are they not paying you enough at the lab?” said Ryan.

“Don’t worry. There’s more in the trunk still. The good stuff. I couldn’t get it all in one trip. You could have come out and helped me you know.” said Justin.

Relieved, Ryan followed Justin back out to the car for the rest of the beer. While they were out there, the pizza delivery man arrived and they called Chris out to help carry the beer and pizza back in.

Tom, Noah, and Roger were talking about several news topics that mentioned China and the Chinese government. One mentioned Chinese hackers from some group code named Storm-0558 by Microsoft gaining access to Microsoft email accounts of over 20 US Govt. agencies. The group apparently also got access to the personal accounts of some of the agencies’ employees. Another told of a Chinese-linked company running an unlicensed biolab in California that had been discovered by federal agents in Fresno County. Although registered in Nevada the owners of the company, Prestige BioTech, used empty offices and addresses in China that were not verifiable. The company was not licensed in California and had stocks of infectious diseases including coronavirus, HIV, and hepatitis. A third was a story about a 20 something CEO who was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee about Chinese government spending on AI research. He told them the Chinese government was spending 3 times the amount the US government was spending on research because they saw AI’s potential to disrupt warfare. Heavy stuff indeed. But the sudden appearance of the beer and pizza interrupted their conversation.

The conversations were less intense for a while as the group focused more on devouring the pizza and beer.

After the pizza was consumed and the beer about half gone, they moved to the small living room for the evening’s board game……Clue. Justin had gotten hooked on it while in college and it was one of the few games he had that he had all the cards and pieces for.

‘Can’t we have something easier?” asked Chris. “I was wanting to give my brain a break tonight.”

“You said that last time we played it.” said Justin. “And when do you not want to give your brain a break?”

“Well, maybe at work.” Replied Chris. “But only maybe.”

While Justin and Tom set about getting all the cards, board, figures, and other pieces arranged on the coffee table around which they all sat or reclined, a couple of the others groaned a little. It was not one of the more popular game choices since the beer consumption meant the mental acuity needed was sometimes lacking to varying degrees as the game progressed. And they were a competitive group.

Although it could move slowly, it gave plenty of time to finish the beer and talk about whatever was thrown out by one of them.

After the game was underway, Justin, being the evening’s host decided he might have a little luck talking sports. The local university had finished the prior football season in the NCAA division 1 top ten and was pre-season ranked to finish in the top ten in the upcoming season.

“How could we get so lucky to be not only in the same conference but in the same division as the Bulldogs?” said Justin. “That almost guarantees at least one loss.”

“Well the operative word there is almost.” Said Noah. “And almost isn’t certain.”

“Well, it’s almost certain.” Justin shot back. “And how could we return so many starters and still be ranked below Clemson after beating them?”

“It was just a poll.” said Roger. “And a coaches poll. So how often does the season follow a pre-season poll? I would think the coach could use it as motivation for the team. After all, when you’re ranked #1 you’ve got nowhere to go but down.”

As the game progressed, they talked awhile about how many good players had transferred out and in during the transfer portal. They talked about their views on the changes that allowed college players to be paid by their teams and what it meant for college football and competitiveness. They talked about other things Justin liked. It was unlike the group to spend as much time talking about a subject he brought up. But they lived in a town that was all about football. At least during football season.

Since it was one of those take-your-turn games, most would take advantage of the time after their move to go grab a beer from the fridge. As this went on, the thing that sometimes limited the time spent in a certain line of conversation was the bladder tone of the one who pushed it.

As Justin’s bladder necessitated a trip to the bathroom, Roger took advantage of the opportunity to talk about his recent trip to Boston, speaking mostly about the meals and extracurricular activities he had enjoyed while there.

“There’s a lot of Irishmen up there.” said Roger. “And their reputation for enjoying a good drink seems well deserved. I met one over on business from Galway when we were in a pub one night. We were talking about the price of a good pint and he told me the pubs in Ireland had minimum prices set by one of their government agencies. I asked him why they would set minimum prices and he told me it kept the prices high enough to reduce the alcohol consumption somewhat. At least in theory.”

“I can believe it.” said Tom. “I took our family to Scotland a few years ago and we went to a small town named Kilkenny. There had been a scotch distillery there and they were trying to get it working again. The town was ancient. There was a place that supposedly had operated as a pub since sometime in the 1300s and we ate there. Lots of old churches too. As we walked by one that occupied a large lot with evergreen trees, the kind where the branches hang all the way to the ground, what do you think happened? An intoxicated bum that had been hidden by branches crawls out from under the tree and heads toward the town center. It was like something you would see in an old movie and it happened right in front of us.”

“Scotland isn’t Ireland.” Said Noah.

“Close enough.” said Tom. “Just look at a map”

Every time the games turn passed to the next one of them and it was their time to roll the dice, the conversation paused briefly to see what they would do. Anyone wanting to move the conversation in a different direction knew this was a good opportunity to do so. As it was Roger’s turn to roll, his attention would be at least temporarily needed to play his turn.

Justin must have heard the tail end of Tom, Roger and Noah’s conversation earlier because seemingly out of nowhere, he said, “I wonder if the government in China lies as much as ours does?”

“Who knows?” said Roger. “Maybe you should ask Lo Phat. He would be the only one around here who may know.”

“But how would you ask a question like that. Do you think it would offend him? He is our boss you know.” said Justin.

“Well he’s never seemed like such a tremendous Chinese patriot.” said Tom. “But he does tend to keep to himself around us. So we can’t be certain.”

“I say they don’t lie to their own people as much because they just don’t tell them as much.” said Chris. “They don’t have to. It’s not like they have a lot of investigative journalists trying to turn up their dirty laundry all the time.”

“Maybe it’s a cultural thing.” said Tom. “They may have old customs that frown on lying. They do seem to be more modest in their dress, morals, and behavior than the west.”

“Or maybe they only lie to their enemies.” said Ryan. “The pragmatic approach to the truth, or lack thereof.”

“Cultural thing.” murmured Justin. “I wonder if lying prevalence is more common in certain cultures?”

“Who would know that?” said Noah.

“I know who would.” said Ryan. “AI. It knows everything”

‘Says you.” said Tom. “You mean you think it knows everything. I have news for you. It does not.”

Ryan did not really think AI knew everything. He just said it did to try to turn the discussion. And especially to try to get Justin to tell about his apparent interest in it.

“What do you think Justin?” prodded Ryan.

“I think culture may have something to do with it.” Replied Justin.

“I meant do, you think AI knows everything?” said Ryan.

“Oh, that.” said Justin. Pausing briefly and staring at the game board, he said “What is everything?”

“Don’t know exactly.” said Ryan. “But I think a good working definition could be the sum total of human knowledge plus knowledge that can be extrapolated from that.”

“So you think human knowledge plus knowledge that can be extrapolated from that is everything? I think that would be far short of everything.” said Justin.

“Do you think it could discover new knowledge and make new discoveries with that?” said Roger.

“Possibly. Quite possibly.” said Ryan. “Why not?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t say why not.” said Justin. But instead, “Hope not.”

“Yeah. You know a lot of our research is preceded by simulations on the computer and as often as not we are just doing things hands on to prove what we think we can do based on the simulations.” said Noah. “I don’t think AI could do hands on experiments. It doesn’t have hands. But it may not need to do things hands on. Just run enough simulations with software and learn a little each time until it reaches the desired result. You know it can run trials at the speed of light practically.”

“And it’s likely just a matter of time before it has hands.” added Ryan. “Or something more useful to it than hands. Have you seen the battlefield robots DARPA has built in the last few years? Marry AI to some of those and it could be all over for the human race.

I saw a YouTube video that showed a Russian soldier being chased by an aerial drone. The soldier was alone in what must have been a forest before it got shelled. The trees had no leaves and the guy was trying to outrun the drone. That didn’t work. It kept swooping at him and he would run a while and get exhausted and go around a big leafless bush. But through the sticks the drone could see him. It would circle around and find an opening and just before it attacked the soldier took off running again. The poor guy gradually got exhausted from running. The video lasted about 5 or 6 minutes. One time the drone had a clear approach and this time the guy ran too late. The drone picture ended just after it impacted near him and exploded. I can only imagine the terror he felt hearing that drone chasing him like a big bee with a deadly sting.”

“Kind of like a scene in a movie from the late 60s I like. 2001 A Space Odyssey.” Said Tom.” “Have any of you seen it?

Chris said he had and didn’t remember much about it but didn’t think there was a scene with a drone chasing anyone in it.

“You’ve got a movie for every situation don’t you Tom?” said Roger. “But aren’t the 60s too recent for you?”

“Well I do make exceptions sometimes and it has been said there’s nothing new under the sun.” said Tom. “I think Hollywood has made movies about almost all of the things under the Sun at least two or three times. Anyway, there’s this scene about halfway through when the computer controlling most of the spaceship, including the life support systems, begins to suspect the crew is considering turning it off. The computer’s name is HAL which is an acronym for something I don’t remember. There had been some unexpected accidents during the mission and the crew began to suspect HAL could be behind them. There are microphones throughout the spaceship and the crew speaks to HAL and HAL responds just like Alexa would. A couple of the guys begin talking about HAL and realize HAL can hear them. They arrange to continue the conversation in one of the few places where there are no microphones so they can talk in private. They go there and start talking about how they can turn HAL off. They don’t realize that although HAL can’t hear what their saying, there are cameras aimed toward them and HAL reads their lips and discovers their plot. It gets bad for the crew after that. Although HAL doesn’t have hands, he’s hooked in and controls so many of the processes on the ship he can plot and prevent them from turning him off.”

“I guess they didn’t think about lying to HAL.” said Justin.

“You seem to think about lying more often these days. At least you mention it more often. You better get that out of your system before you get married.” said Noah.

“It just seems to be everywhere now. Maybe I just didn’t notice it as much before but I do now. You can’t turn on any tv or radio news program without someone trying to get you to swallow a load of horse shit.” said Justin.

Justin’s response was uncharacteristically blunt.

“I’m thinking the world needs a permanent dose of that thiopental stuff.” Justin added.

“Well just remember it also makes you like a zombie. But that’s OK. I pass many of them driving to work every morning.” said Roger.

“What if it didn’t make you like a zombie? What if it just made you tell the truth?” said Justin.

“Then it wouldn’t work.” said Tom. “The sedative effects are what causes the person given it to tell the truth.”

“But there are drugs that work at what they do and are designed to be non-sedating. Like some antihistamines that treat allergies.” said Justin. “They bind to the histamine receptors but don’t activate them. They are made to be more receptor-specific and are less likely to cross the blood-brain barrier and avoid unwanted sedating effects.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Said Chris. “Since when are you a pharmacological expert?”

“I’m no expert. But like anyone of us I can read and if something interests me I will find out what I can about it to satisfy my curiosity.” Said Justin.

“Curiosity aside, don’t you think real researchers would have found out how to do that if it could be done?” said Chris.

“Maybe.” said Justin. “But the stuff was discovered back in the 1930s and maybe they did not have the knowledge to do that at the time. And anyway, they used it to cause someone to tell the truth and maybe it didn’t matter to them if the person being interrogated was a zombie or not. So they just didn’t pursue that characteristic.”

“But that’s been 90 years ago. Why don’t you think someone has taken up the challenge of making it non-sedating before now?” said Tom.

“I can think of at least several reasons.” said Justin. “For one thing, again, maybe it wasn’t a problem back then that it caused sedation. If there’s no problem, there’s no one trying to solve it. And how much research is done to solve non-existent problems? Even if someone had tried, good luck getting the research funded if the aim was something better, since what they already had was good enough. Think of how much research has been done in the last 90 years. It may have been impossible at that time with what they knew even if they did try to work it out. They worked with slide rules, blackboards, chalk, and test tubes. They didn’t have computers back then programmed with all sorts of prior research and able to simulate experiments without actually running them.

“And they didn’t have AI.” said Ryan, with a sly grin.

“These days it’s just on to the next thing that can be patented that works almost as good as the old stuff and won’t kill the patient. It may have a list of side-effects longer than its benefits, but that’s OK because they have other drugs for the side-effects. They may make more money treating the side-effects than the main problem.” added Justin.

“I say it’s because it can’t be done.” Said Chris.

“They said man couldn’t fly. Could never reach the moon. And a long and growing list of “can’t- be-dones.” Said Noah. “I say it could be done.”

“You’re a chemist and a pretty good one from what I’ve seen. You’ve been reading about it and learned as much as I’m sure you can that way.” said Chris. “Since you seem so confident that it could be done, would you like to make a little bet that it can be done?”

“A hundred dollars says it can be.” Said Justin, almost before realizing he had accepted Chris’ challenge.

“You’re on.” Said Chris.

Noah had stepped out of the room to relieve himself and came back in at this point. “Who’s on?” he said.

“Justin and Chris have a bet that sodium thiopental can be made to be non-sedating.” said Tom. “If it can be done, Chris owes Justin $100. If it can’t, Justin owes Chris $100.”

“Who cares about that?” said Noah.

“I think Justin cares more than Chris. Chris just sees an opportunity to pick up some extra money.” said Tom.

“Why does Justin care?” said Noah.

“He seems to be on this truth kick.” said Tom. “I think he’s been spending too much time with the news feeds. I’m wondering if it could be done though.”

“Maybe just moving some of the atoms around the ring structure to find the right isomer.” said Justin.

“Possibly.” said Tom. “I knew a guy who had been a chemist for a major pharmaceutical company. I think Upjohn. He worked at a lab literally in the jungle in South America somewhere. He told me they would occasionally discover plants containing compounds that had a beneficial effect in treating various conditions. When they did, they had to first isolate the compound, then figure how to change it enough to patent it to treat the condition. This was quite the challenge since sometimes changing it just a little would make the compound dangerous instead of beneficial.”

“Why did they have to change it at all?” asked Chris.

“He told me a naturally occurring compound can’t be patented. It would be like trying to get a patent on water.” said Tom. “You could face the same challenge changing the chemistry of anything. Even for just rearranging the atoms already there. How would you figure that out Justin?”

“Guess I’d have to work on that. But now I have a hundred dollars riding on it and a certain amount of pride.” Justin said.

“And how would you test it?” said Chris. “Human subjects would obviously be out of the question.”

“Yes……..obviously.” murmured Justin.

“Do you really expect to be able to just do some reading on the web and figure out how to do this? Even if you could run simulations and thought you had something that would work, you would have to synthesize it. I guess you’ll just mix up a few things in the bathtub from your medicine cabinet and voilà, you’ll have it.” said Chris. “And you can’t prove what you can’t produce.”

“You’re good at finding problems. I’m good at finding answers. Finding answers is what keeps us all employed.” said Justin.

“True.” said Chris. “But some problems don’t have answers we can find. We do run in to that at the lab you know. And not infrequently.”

“Why did you have to bring work up?” said Ryan. “Look at the clock.”

The clock read 10:45pm.

“Justin will have to learn to forget the clock.” said Chris. “He’ll have to work around the clock for years to crack the nut he’s got. We should set a time limit on how long he has to perform this feat of pharmaceutical wizardry. What do you all think is fair?”

“I’ll start by saying he needs to finish the work while you both are still employed at the lab.” Said Roger. “That way we will all know how well the work is going. That should get him at least a few months.”

”Not when he starts falling asleep at work or not showing up due to exhaustion.” said Chris.

“Can he have someone help him or does he have to work alone?” said Tom.

“I’m in a good mood. He can have all the help he can find.” Said Chris. “Won’t do any good anyway. But why are you asking Tom?”

“At my age, I’m running out of years to do something different. Maybe this is the opportunity I need.” said Tom. “I was just reading today an article of all the people that are going up Mt. Everest. A cheap expedition costs $65,000 and that’s after you travel to Nepal and spend time there to acclimate. And the experience can kill you. The article said frozen bodies of those who didn’t make it are not a rare sight on the climb. At least offering Justin a little help wouldn’t be dangerous or require me to travel half way around the world. And it’s hardly like anyone else will help.”

“Not so fast.” said Roger, unexpectedly. “Count me in too.”

“What???” said Chris. “You’re not running out of years or especially idealistic. Why would you help?”

“Just plain old curiosity.” said Roger. “And if you could ever bring yourself to admit it Chris, I’ll bet there’s even a little curiosity in you wondering if it could be done.”

“I will admit to being curious.” said Chris. “But more about what would happen if a working formula got out. You remember all the uses I gave that we make of lies? I found that movie Tom mentioned, Lost Horizon, on the internet archive and watched it one night. The way the society in Shangri-La worked was so totally different than reality it made me think about what if people lived like that. If no one lied, I think society would move in that direction. There, they seemed to have most of society’s problems solve. So that’s where my curiosity lies.”

“So you ought to jump on board and help.” said Justin.

“But I’m betting it can’t be done. Why should I help solving a problem I’m betting can’t be solved.” said Chris.

“Well,” said Tom, “are you conceited enough to think your help would make the difference between solving the problem and not solving it? I mean, you’re a smart guy Chris. But c’mon. And besides that, if I were you I would gladly lose a hundred dollars to have a hand in cracking that nut. Think how much that formula would be worth.”

“True.” said Chris. But we wouldn’t get all the money for it. Don’t you remember we all signed a contract with the lab that says they own any discovery we make while working for them. I’m sure they would give us a bigger office, a bonus, and maybe even a closer parking space.” But about anything more than that would go to the company. Plus I’m wondering if the government wouldn’t be more interested in keeping it buried than letting it out.”

“Yes. That could cause some of them problems.” said Noah.

“Yeah.” said Ryan, who had loudly complained last year about the tax penalties he had to pay when he underpaid his taxes due to a simple math error he made when filing. “My chance to make them squirm for a change. I think I’m about to talk myself into helping.”

“So get off the fence you’ve put yourself on. Just start out with us and let’s see what happens.” said Justin.

“Couldn’t hurt. Guess I’m in.” said Ryan.

“Great. That just leaves Noah.” Said Justin.

“Wait a minute. I didn’t say I was going to help.” said Chris.

“Well you did in so many words. I mean, Shangri-La….you know?” said Justin.

“I guess I am the only one who would win either way. If it works, Shangri-La. If it doesn’t, a hundred bucks. Guess I’ll have a go then.” Said Chris.

“Fine. Now it’s down to Noah. How about it Noah?” said Justin. “Then it will be unanimous.”

“What can I say? I’m sure it’s all you guys will talk about until it’s done or we give up.” said Noah.

“So you’re with us?” said Tom.

“Why not. One for all and all for one. Just like the 3 musketeers.” said Noah.

A fairly long silence followed as everyone just looked around at one another.

Finally Roger said, “I feel like I’m in that scene in the movie where the fellowship of the ring forms.”

“Well I’ve always thought you looked a little like Sam, so I guess that should be no surprise.” said Noah.

“I feel like the dog that was chasing the car and caught it.” said Tom.

“How did the dog feel?” said Ryan.

“Like it didn’t know what to do next.” answered Tom.

“So what do we do next? Where do we go from here?” said Justin.

“First we divide into 2 teams. Just like we do at the lab when we are trying to solve a problem. That way we can explore more possibilities in less time and if one path hits a dead end we only lose the time one team has spent on it.” said Ryan.

“When do we work on it? The lab does expect us to put in a full day’s work every day, and my creditors would appreciate me maintaining the income stream that produces.” Said Noah.

“Before we do any team work I think we each need to do some individual research to see what would be good possibilities to explore. I don’t think any of us would even know where to start without doing that. We’ve already said no one before us ever looked at doing this.” said Justin.

“No one that we know of.” said Tom. “Sodium Thiopental has been around about 90 years. Maybe some graduate student long since dead did research somewhere on this and tried to get a dissertation out of it and it’s buried in musty stacks in a university library somewhere. Maybe he almost got there but ran out of time before found the answer, and if we happened upon something like that, we could start our work most of the way to the objective.”

“Maybe, maybe, maybe. We should just each do all the Google searches we can and look at some specialized search engines also and try to have one good idea before we meet next time.” said Justin. “We can take turns presenting and defending our ideas to the group and try to agree on which two look most promising. If we can do that, each team can take one of the two and get underway.”

“How would we test it?” said Chris.

“Let’s wait until we have something to test.” said Roger. “Without something to test, time spent on figuring that out is just wasted.”

“We should each get a VPN and set up a good encrypted messaging app. I’ll try to do a little research on those if no one else has already done that so I can make a recommendation when we’re ready for that.” said Ryan.

“I’ve got one called messages on my phone.” said Roger. Is that any good.”

“Good if we all had apple phones.” said Ryan. “I don’t have one and I don’t think Tom does either.”

“Me either.” said Noah.

I don’t think we should be talking about this at the office either.” said Tom.

“I would considered that a foregone conclusion.” said Ryan.

“So there will be no more fun and games at our meetings for a while. Couldn’t we take a break from this new work every now and then?” asked Noah.

“I’m not for turning this into a second job.” Said Chris. “All work and no play, and you know how the rest of that goes.”

“Let’s just see how it goes for a meeting or two. We may hit roadblocks early on or just get burned out on it.” said Justin. “Even if we don’t, we should likely not work on it more than two out of every three get-togethers. But if we really get into it, I’m thinking we may not want to break.”

“Games.” said Roger, having gotten caught up in the conversation and forgetting about the game. “I finished my move and think I know the answer. It was Colonel Mustard with a lead pipe in the kitchen.”

No one could disprove Roger’s guess so he took the envelope and checked its contents. He found the cards for Colonel Mustard, the lead pipe, and the kitchen.

Everyone groaned.

“That was a lucky guess if there ever was one.” said Ryan. “We’ve not been around the table 4 whole times yet.”

“When you’re good, you’re good.” Roger said.

“We’ll have to make a lot of lucky guesses to have any chance to figure out the formula that will work like we want it to.” said Noah.

“Chris asked earlier how we would test it. If we were able to do this and it by chance passed the test, I wonder what use we would make of it?” said Tom.

“In his mind, Justin already has the world inoculated like it was the latest COVID vaccine or something.” said Roger.

“Oppenheimer had well-documented regrets over the bomb. He told Truman during a meeting he had blood on his hands.” said Chris. “If people couldn’t handle the truth, like the visitors in that movie Lost Horizon Tom was talking about, things could change.”

“All we’ve done so far is talk. Talk is worthless unless it leads to success. And success is what we’re after. Let’s worry about what we do with it after we have it.” said Justin.

“Don’t know.” said Chris. “That’s easier to say now than it may be later. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle once she’s out.”

“Mr. Encouragement.” said Justin. “You’re just trying to sabotage our job and we’ve not even begun yet. And you’re the one who says it can’t be done. So what are you worried about?”

“Yeah.” said Chris. “There really is nothing to worry about. My mind just ran away with me there for a minute. Except for….”

“For what?” said Noah.

“When Tom asked how much a formula like that would be worth. I just thought of something?” said Chris.

“So. You thought….?” said Noah.

“I thought it could be worth our lives.” said Chris. “Let that sink in a minute.”

Tom, having walked out to the fridge for another beer and missing Chris’ last comment returned and said, “OK. Who got the last beer?”

Ryan proudly released a long belch.

“Question withdrawn.” said Tom. “Do you think you missed any in your trunk Justin?”

“If there is, it would be too warm to drink. But I doubt there is any.” he replied. “Anyway it’s getting about time to close up for the night. I don’t have to drive home but the rest of you do. We’ve got a lot to think about before our next appointment. Don’t forget to read all you can about sodium thiopental and come with some suggestions about how it could be modified or how we could base something new on it that would do what we want.”

“I forgot. What do we want?” asked Noah.

“We want to make something that works like sodium thiopental that is doesn’t put the receiver to sleep.” said Tom.

“And remind me why that’s important.” said Noah.

“So the person who’s had it wouldn’t be like a zombie. But would always tell the truth.” said Justin

“If that could be done, they may not even know they had been given it.” said Roger.

“Hmmm. Maybe not.” said Ryan.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4