ak it up. Come on, break it up....

ALARIC ARKALION: (To himself) I wish I saw that ten million dollars
already--_if_ I ever get to see it.

* * * * *

They drove for hours through the fresh country air, feeling the wind
against their faces, listening to the roar their ground-jet made, all
alone on the rimrock highway.

"Where are we going, Kit?"

"Search me. Just driving."

"I'm glad they let you come out this once. I don't know what they
would have done to me if they didn't. I had to see you this once. I--"

Temple smiled. He had absented himself without leave. It had been
difficult enough and he might yet be in a lot of hot water, but it
would be senseless to worry Stephanie. "It's just for a few hours," he
said.

"Hours. When we want a whole lifetime. Kit. Oh, Kit--why don't we run
away? Just the two of us, someplace where they'll never find you. I
could be packed and ready and--"

"Don't talk like that. We can't."

"You want to go where they're sending you. You want to go."

"For God's sake, how can you talk like that? I don't want to go
anyplace, except with you. But we can't run away, Steffy. I've got to
face it, whatever it is."

"No you don't. It's noble to be patriotic, sure. It always was. But
this is different, Kit. They don't ask for part of your life. Not for
two years, or three, or a gamble because maybe you won't ever come
back. They ask for all of you, for the rest of your life, forever, and
they don't even tell you why. Kit, don't go! We'll hide someplace and
get married and--"

"And nothing." Temple stopped the ground-jet, climbed out, opened the
door for Stephanie. "Don't you see? There's no place to hide. Wherever
you go, they'd look. You wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life
running, Steffy. Not with me or anyone else."

"I would. I would!"

"Know what would happen after a few years? We'd hate each other. You'd
look at me and say 'I wouldn't be hiding like this, except for you.
I'm young and--'"

"Kit, that's cruel! I would not."

"Yes, you would. Steffy, I--" A lump rose in his throat. He'd tell her
goodbye, permanently. He had to do it that way, did not want her to
wait endlessly and hopelessly for a return that would not materialize.
"I didn't get permission to leave, Steffy." He hadn't meant to tell
her that, but suddenly it seemed an easy way to break into goodbye.

"What do you mean? No--you didn't...."

"I had to see you. What c