f it is lost
then I. . .I would not want to live. We have left the mainstream. I
do not want to go back." The room was still, and no one spoke.

Finally Dimitriev rose and came toward him. He offered him his hand,
and Dobrynin took it in both of his own.

"Good hunting, Nicholai. I am with you." He turned and left the room.
Stein rose also.

"I will have an approximate time, and prep the computer, at Leopold
before I go..... I think that it is possible."

"Thank you, Thomas."

The scientist bowed his head and was gone. For a moment father and son
stood looking down, and neither spoke.

"Why couldn't I do it in your place?"

"You have not the skill..... Your mother needs you."

"And not you? Will you leave her alone?"

"She has always been alone. Forgive me."

"Father." He was crying now, ashamed.

"Please, Leon." His throat was thick. "You must be strong now. I
need you to be strong..... There is a chance I will not die." His son
left the room.

Leopold Station. He sat with the button in front of him, on a console
shelf amidst computers. He studied its scopes and readouts carefully:
eight minutes.

He was glad that it was far away. It did not seem real. Almost---he
was thinking in Russian now---he was not afraid. Perhaps he could
reach the tube and down into the shelter in time. If that would help.
I MUST CONCENTRATE. He breathed deeply, and watched the counter tick
away his life. Seven minutes. Six.

He heard a sound behind him. At that moment the image on one of the
screens shifted slightly.

"Turn around Dobrynin."

He whirled, startled, then returned quickly to the console, made the
necessary adjustments. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Putting an end to your brave little noise." Dobrynin said nothing.
"This gun fires nerve pellets as well as the other, Nicholai. I can
paralyze you without killing you." Pecci's voice was calm, but there
was fear beneath it.

"And I can press this button and kill us both. And if I die, how will
you survive? Doctor Stein says the planet will not last another hour;
do you not feel the quakes? You will perish along with it." As he
spoke he watched and moved his hands across the console, all the while
fighting the bitter urge to detonate now: too soon.

"You lie."

"No, Franz, in this I speak the truth. Your only chance is to get down
to the shelter, now, and I will forget what has passed between us."
Pecci sai