"Be careful, will you?"
"Yes." He pulled a different weapon from among the equipment against the wall, examined it carefully. "I have to go." He started for the door. She stopped him halfway and embraced him, her eyes gleaming at the corners.
"Be careful."
"I will." He pulled away and stood in the entrance. He looked back at her strangely, hesitated as if wanting to say more, then turned and was gone. He did not return that night.
*
The next day the woman was genuinely concerned. She had just begun to lose hope, when the smoky film of the entrance dissolved and opened out onto the cleft. A man stepped through, but it was not Lawrence.
"Morgan? What's wrong, where's Lawrence?"
"He's dead."
Such an empty shock. "What? What happened?"
He was trying to sabotage a missile base, with several others. His papers were challenged and he was shot. I'm sorry."