DN - Drinking Radiation

“Please drink several deep swallows of this,” says Doc Impossible.

“What is it?” I ask, and then start sucking on the tube hesitantly.

“Cherry soda,” she says. I take a deep swallow. It’s just the right level of cold and fizzy. “And also enough radioactive contrast dye to light you up like Chernobyl.”

“What?”

“You’re wearing the mantle of Dreadnought, Danny. You really think a little thing like cesium is going to hurt you? Now hold still for a moment, I want to watch what it does.”

The sensor ring drops down again and scans my stomach intensively for a few moments. “Okay, now drink from the tube again.”

Root beer this time.

“What’s in that? Cyanide?”

“Naw. Strychnine.”

“What could you possibly learn from that?”

“By itself? Not much. But it is also irradiated, and strychnine permeates the body’s tissues very quickly. In your case that happens to be all it will do. I presume you want to be done with this before the sun gets up.”

- Dreadnought, Chapter 5