“I don't know. I think the reason was I didn't ever get home. Mentally, I mean. I live in Queens. I've got a house with a lab in the basement. One night I'd been doing some work downstairs and I was kind of lost in it and my wife came down and said dinner was ready. I wasn't paying any attention and I told her about the experiment and I said, 'You know, this feels just like home.' And she said, This is your home.' ”

Rune said, “Don't be too hard on yourself. Takes two.”

He nodded.

“Still in love with her, huh?”

“No way,” he said quickly.

“Uh-huh.”

“No, really.”

The sound of wind rilled the range. He became silent, almost impenetrable.

Which would have been one of his wife's gripes. The difficulty of reaching him.

After a moment Healy said, “All of a sudden, out of the blue, she says she can't stand me. I'm just one big irritation. I don't understand her. I'm never there for her. I was floored. I really asked for it, in a way — I pushed her, I kept telling her how much I loved her, how sorry I was, how I'd do anything... She said that was just torturing her. I went a little nuts.”

“Lovers can do that to you,” Rune said.

Healy continued. “For instance — when she left, Cheryl took the TV. So the next day all I can think about is getting a replacement. I went out and bought Consumer Reports and read all about the different kinds of sets. I mean, I had to buy the best TV there was. It became an obsession. Finally, I went to SaveMart and spent — God, I can't believe it — eleven hundred on this set...”

“Whoa, that must be one hyper TV.”

"Sure, but the thing is: I never watch television. I don't like TV. I'd do things like that. I was pretty depressed. Then one day we got a call on this pipe bomb. See, they're real dangerous because they're usually filled with gunpowder, which is awfully unstable. Thing weighed about thirty pounds. Turns out it's planted in front of a big bank downtown. In a stairwell. We can't get the robot in there so I get a bomb suit on and take a look at it. I could just carry it out to where the robot can pick it up, then put it in the containment vehicle. But I'm thinking, I don't care if I'm dead or not. So I decide to do a render-safe myself.

“I started twisting the end off the pipe. And what happened was some of the powder got in the threads of the cap and the friction set off the charge.”

“God, Sam...”