The biologist said tenderly, "Come, Mary."
Jack's trembling arm tightened a trifle on Mary's waist. He could feel her trembling.
"Come, Mary," Kesserich repeated.
Still she didn't reply.
Jack wet his lips. "Mary isn't going with you, Professor," he said.
"Quiet, Barr," Kesserich ordered absently. "Mary, it is necessary that you and I leave the island at once. Please come."
"But Mary isn't coming," Jack repeated.
Kesserich looked at him for the first time. "I'm grateful to you for the unusual sense of loyalty—or whatever motive it may have been—that led you to follow me out here tonight. And of course I'm profoundly grateful to you for saving Mary's life. But I must ask you not to interfere further in a matter which you can't possibly understand."
He turned to Mary. "I know how shocked and frightened you must feel. Living two lives and then having to face two deaths—it must be more terrible than anyone can realize. I expected this meeting to take place under very different circumstances. I wanted to explain everything to you very naturally and gently, like the messages I've sent you every day of your second life. Unfortunately, that can't be.