The rear seats had a small amount of recline, so Caitlin had pulled the lever to set it to maximum and turned over onto her side, facing away from the others. "Hey, Dormouse, can we speak privately?" She whispered quietly. The 'Suit' that was dormouse closed in over her face, shutting out the heat.
"What would you like to talk about?" Said Dormouse directly into her ear.
"I had an idea about how to make it cooler in here. Mum and dad had a ground source heat pump installed last year. It uses the ground outside the house to cool the house in the summer and keep it warm in the winter. I think you're doing something similar keeping me cool."
"Correct."
"Instead of releasing my heat into the car, can't we send it somewhere else?"
"That would require extensions into the surrounding concrete."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes. I would have to take on more material from the interior of the car."
"If Frank moved into the front seat, there's plenty of plastic and material back here."
"An adequate coolant would be required."
"Doesn't the car have that for the aircon?"
"Correct."
"So, you could take that from the engine, use the plastics back here to make some tubes and things; and cool it down in here?"
"Correct."
She turned over. "Guys..." Then realised her face was closed over. "Er, Dormouse, I need to speak to the guys. Can you open up please?" The mask melted away, blasting her face with heat and the smell of two men sweating heavily.
"Guys. I have an idea to cool it down in here."
"Yeah?" Frank was fanning his face with a magazine he'd found. "How's that going to work?"
"Dormouse says that he can move the heat outside if we sacrifice the seats back here and the plastic trim bits."
"OK..." Pete sounded unsure. "Where's the heat going to go?"
Dormouse whispered in Caitlin's ear. "Into a big lump of concrete, away from us. Apparently the melting point of concrete is one thousand five hundred and twenty seven degrees." She watched as they both did the mental calculation to convert to Fahrenheit.
"Twenty eight hundred degrees, that's a lot of headroom Pete."
"Caitlin, does Dormouse know the temp in here right now?" Asked Pete.
She nodded. "It's thirty eight degrees c and climbing."
"Pete, if that crazy robot suit on her can do it, we should probably let it."
Pete nodded. "Agreed."
Frank started clambering over into the front seat before stopping, reaching back, and grabbing the cooler box. "The rear's all yours mouse-bot."
"Caitlin... Please lie down on your front." Whispered Dormouse. She did as she was told, and watched as creepy, black, lines spread out from Dormouse like the veins in her skin. Around her the material, the plastic, even some of the metal was eaten by the carbon black of Dormouse. A thicker, arterial, tube, extended out along the transmission tunnel and disappeared into the dashboard.
"Not gonna lie, this is freaking me out a little." Said Frank.
"Along Caitlin/Dormouse's back, tiny cilia emerged wafting back and forth as water condensed and dripped down. Cool air pooled like ice water around their feet.
Frank visibly relaxed. "OK, freaking out is stopping now. Oh, God that's nice."
"Er, Dormouse, can I sit up?" Asked Caitlin.
"Yes. But please sit forward to maximise surface area." Caitlin sat up, mindful of what seemed to be two, inch thick, pipes that now sprouted from her back. She was still comfortable but now, so too, were Pete and Frank.
Pete leaned round. "Smart girl. I can see why the boss asked you to be friends. Well done! You probably just saved me and Frank from heat exhaustion and death. Didn't she Frank."
Frank started snoring.