He faltered, looked around bemusedly, spied the tubing lying on the chair arm, snatched it up. ‘This,’ he said triumphantly. ‘It’s part of the—the—oh, damn it!’
She waited until he had calmed down enough to hear her. She said, ‘You see?’
‘See what?’ he asked brokenly, uncaring, miserable.
‘If you go out there tomorrow, you’ll walk into a situation you don’t understand, for reasons you can’t remember, asking for someone you can’t place, in order to go find out something you can’t conceive of. But,’ she admitted, ‘you are right, Hip—you can do it.’
‘If I did,’ he said, ‘it would all come back.’
She shook her head. He said harshly, ‘You know everything, don’t you?’
‘Yes, Hip.’
‘Well, I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway.’
She took one deep breath. ‘You’ll be killed.’
‘ What? ’