"If you came with me, there would be two of us. We wouldn't be conspicuous that way."
He saw the flush move up through her face. "Is that the only reason?"
"You know it isn't."
She knew it. They both knew it and had probably known it for a long time. They had a lot in common, a minority of two.
And then he remembered. She wasn't really there in the Midtown with him. She was in Sunny Hill, wherever that was. They couldn't leave inconspicuously together because they weren't together now, and they couldn't get together without the Gang being together too.
The rooms, furniture, sounds, everything began to fade.
"Goodbye," Lucille said.
"Get sick or something," Kane said quickly. "Don't go with the Group to work. Stay there, wherever you are! Stay there—"
Faintly, her voice came to him out of a kind of melting mask of a face. "I'll try—"
Kane was alone in the single room and the door opened. The smiling Staff came in and shut the door.