's
hand.

Victor stopped in the doorway, a gas pain shooting up his side. He
thought at that moment, inanely, he should play more handball.

"Galileo," Donald Fairfield said, "it came to me just a few moments ago.
Galileo. It was on the tip of my tongue all the time, I just couldn't
think of it. What were we saying about him, do you remember? What
brought it up?"

Victor braced himself up against the doorway, breathing hard. He stared
at the gun in Donald's hand. Donald followed his gaze down his side to
the gun, and seemed surprised when he saw it. "Oh, yes. She's in the
bathroom," he said, waving his gun towards the closed door. "She's
locked the door."

Victor belched.

"For God's sake," said Donald. "There's a time and a place for
everything."

Victor crossed to the door. "Mimi," he called. "Mimi, it's me, Victor."

The lock clicked, the door opened, and Mimi walked out and folded
herself into his arms. He held her until she stopped shaking, then until
he himself stopped shaking and until his breath came more easily. He
kept all the while his back toward Donald and the gun, and his arms
folded around her so that she was safe from him. Then he turned and
calmly as he could, he asked what in the holy hell was going on.

"He wants me to go back with him, right now," Mimi said. She was
shivering in his arms. "I'm not going, I'm not going with him."

"Of course, you're not," Victor said. He turned back to Donald. "What's
the rush all of a sudden?" he asked. "What's the big emergency?" he
smiled.

"Don't turn on the personality, Dr. Quink," Fairfield said. "It's too
complicated to explain, but time's run out on us. We've got to go
tonight, and I'm taking her with me dead or alive, I don't give a damn
which way anymore, she's coming with me dead or alive."

Victor let go of Mimi and took a step toward him, but the hand with the
gun came up and gun was pointed straight at him, and the voice was flat
and tired and desperate, "I can't leave her here, you can see what it
would mean. They're very strict about time traveling, they have to be,
and she can't stay here. She hasn't lost her memory, she knows damned
well where she comes from, and she's going back now, one way or the
other. I don't know what'll happen to me when we get back if I kill her,
but it's my decision and I can't let her stay behind, no matter what."
His voice started to rise and the words began to come faster. He was
working himself up dangerou