"And then the lights would come on again, and there would be Johnny lying next to me smiling a little, and his curly hair would be all tousled from sleep, and he'd say to me, 'Baby, you've been dreaming again. Don't you know I'm here? Don't you know I'll always be here? Don't you know that, Baby?' And then it would be all right, and the roaring jets would be only the dawn shift going out on Security Patrol. And then I could go back to sleep again."
She stopped. Portal Waiting had become a gray ghost of a thing with nothing living in it, only the clouds of memory like smoke veils swirling, drifting here and there, soon gone.
And then: "They'll let him go, Tony. He's innocent, you know. They have to let him go."
He didn't look at her. He got up from his chair, put his hands rigidly at his sides. Then he did look, just once, and very hard.
"Get out of here!" he growled.
"No, Tony."
He took a deep breath, turned, went across the foyer to the levelators. As he passed under the huge Master Screen, her voice came again, but quite thin:
"You'll let me know, Tony? You'll let me know as soon as you get word?"
He didn't answer, didn't look back, didn't do anything except keep going to the levelators. He went upstairs, found the door of Executions, opened it, went through, let it slam shut.