Horning sank numbly to the seat.
"Who are you? Why did you come here?"
Some of the numbness left Horning. Cold anger came in its place. "Why ask me?" he lashed back. "I thought you knew all the answers."
The man's knuckles whitened on the pistol. "I want the truth!"
Horning laughed. Of a sudden he felt bold and reckless. "I told you the first time. I came from another world, a different plane—"
The gun moved in a flat, incisive gesture. "I know all that! The parallel worlds, the Worlds of 'If'. Parmenides and his theory of the Eternal Now. The idea that life's a book with an infinity of pages; that every event automatically creates coexisting planes, one for each possible outcome—" Horning's captor broke off. "But why? What drove you to cross the barrier?"
Horning shrugged. "It was Myrtle—" he began wryly.
The other started; fell back a step. "Myrtle—?"
"My wife. I wanted to leave her."
"You mean—you breached the continuum for no better reason...?"