"Who would you have me send instead? I am most qualified, except perhaps for Stein. And this….." He spoke now with difficulty. "This is my home. It is everything I have worked for. If 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."