Since Natasa has quoted from my argument, I feel compelled to jump in and add that there's another important point to that argument. Here's the rest of my essay:
"As for the risk to his own life and Vila's: Not negligible, but not as great as everyone seems to be assuming either. Only Avon and Grant would have died at the instant of detonation. The risk to the rest of the population was from lethal radiation which we were told would take several hours to overspread the planet. Since Blake and Vila were 4000 miles away from the bomb, they'd have had every chance of teleporting out safely long before the radiation reached them."
In other words, Vila panicked (when didn't he?), and Blake was understandably too focused on Avon's (imminent) danger to take the time out to explain to the man that the risk to *their* lives *wasn't* imminent.
Sondra