Death Dream by Ben Bova

good democratic capitalists. But . . ." Martinez let the idea dangle between them.
    "Why would Yuri want to sabotage the program?" Appleton asked softly. "How could he do it?"
    "Why? To keep their air force from falling too far behind ours, maybe. Maybe they figure that some day they might have to fight us, and they don't want us to be so far ahead of them that they'll be completely outclassed."
    "I can't believe that."
    "I can."
    "But even so, how could Yuri—how could anybody tamper with the simulation so deeply that it killed Jerry?"
    Martinez shook his head slowly. "I don't know. That's your department. I'm just a fighter jock. You're the scientist."
    "Well then, I know what I'd like to do."
    "What?"
    "I'd like to get Jace and Dan back here."
    Martinez blew smoke through his nose. "Fat chance."
    "They designed the simulation, originally. I'd like to get them to take a look at it, see if we're missing something. See if somebody's tinkered with it."
    "They're not working for us anymore."
    "I think they'd come back if I asked them to. Just for a week or so, just to check the program over. Dan would, I'm sure. Jace—" Appleton waggled one hand in the air.
    "I've got a better idea," Martinez said. "One that'll work without going crawling to those two turncoats."
    Appleton's pale eyebrows rose.
    "I'll fly the simulation myself. I'll check it out from the user's perspective."
    "But you've been redlined."
    "For actual flight," Martinez snapped. "This is a sim. I won't leave the ground."
    Appleton sank back in his chair, fiddling with the unlit pipe. "But if you think it's been sabotaged . . ."
    "The fastest way to find out is to try it again."
    "As you yourself pointed out, Ralph, this is a rough simulation. Even if nobody's messed it up, you purposely made it as rough as you could."
    "Yeah. I did. So I ought to be the one to try it next."
    "I don't know . . ."
    Martinez put on a grim smile. "Listen, Doc. If a grounded old geezer like me can fly that simulation without trouble then we've proved it didn't kill Jerry. Right? And we'll have proved it hasn't been buggered."
    "I suppose so."
    "Then let's do it!"
    "We'll have to take the simulator apart first and check it out thoroughly."
    "That could take weeks!" argued Martinez. "Months!"
    With a nod, Appleton said, "Still, it's got to be done. Standard practice after an accident. You know that."
    The colonel fumed but muttered, "Yeah. I know."
    "I'd still like to see if I can get Jace and Dan back here first."
    "To hell with them! We don't need them!"
    Appleton lifted his thin shoulders in a small shrug, but privately decided he would at least call Dan Santorini before he allowed the colonel or anyone else to fly the simulator again. He could not believe that one rather shy, inoffensive Russian who had been at the lab for only a few months had deliberately sabotaged their simulation. How could he? How could anyone?

CHAPTER 8

    Angela Santorini bit her lip in concentration. All around her swam pretty colored spheres the size of tennis balls. But they were really atoms. Each different kind of atom had its own distinctive color. Hydrogen was red. Oxygen was blue. Nitrogen was yellow. Carbon was sooty black. Gold was—well, gold, of course. Then there were some strange ones: shimmery pink helium and bright green neon. And some others she couldn't remember. They all looked pretty, though, floating around in the deep blackness.
    "What is water made of?" asked the instructor's voice in her headphones. "Can you put the atoms together to make a molecule of water?"
    The voice was a recording and the whole chemistry simulation was an interactive VR program. Angela was actually sitting in one of the telephone-booth sized compartments in the rear of her classroom. She wore a helmet—with a visor that covered her eyes and instrumented data gloves on her hands. On the inside of the visor a pair of miniature TV screens played stereoscopic images into her eyes.
    If Angela got things right the