"Ah, there you are!" the older man greeted him. "Fine! Fine! Now there is just one more little thing to take care of, then we will be all squared away. I must say I am pleased with you, Bob, very pleased indeed."
"Oh, you are, are you?" Bob faced him truculently. "Well, it's too bad I can't say the same about you! I'm not a damn bit pleased. What was the idea of shoving me into that. that daisy chain without warning me? What's the meaning of all this nonsense? Why didn't you warn me?"
"Easy, easy," said the older man, "don't get excited. Tell the truth now―if I had told you that you were going back to meet yourself face to face, would you have believed me? Come now, 'fess up."
Wilson admitted that he would not have believed it.
"Well, then," Diktor continued with a shrug, "there was no point in me telling you, was there? If I had told you, you would not have believed me, which is another way of saying that you would have believed false data. Is it not better to be in ignorance than to believe falsely?"
"I suppose so, but―"
"Wait! I did not intentionally deceive you. I did not deceive you at all. But had I told you the full truth, you would have been deceived because you would have rejected the truth. It was better for you to learn the truth with your own eyes. Otherwise―"
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" Wilson cut in. "You're getting me all tangled up. I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, if you'll come clean with me. Why did you send me back at all?"
"'Let bygones be bygones,'" Diktor repeated. "Ah, if we only could! But we can't. That's why I sent you back―in order that you might come through the Gate in the first place."
"Huh? Wait a minute―I already had come through the Gate."