Fursenko's eyes darted to the back of the room, but the man who had been watching Luger was already moving toward him from behind.

Luger felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Doc. Hey. . ." Luger's face fell into despair, then brightened somewhat. "Hey, Doc where have you been?"

"I think it is time to go, Ivan," Viktor Gabovich-known to David Luger as Dr. Petyr Kaminski-said gently. "That was a very good presentation."

"So why are these guys looking at me like this?" Luger asked. "Why are they staring at me?" He glared at one of the delegates and raged in English, "You got a problem? I'm right about those vertical stabilizers, man. You gotta take those suckers off-"

"Speak Russian, Ivan," Gabovich urged him quietly. "Some of these gentlemen don't understand English too well."

"Well, I suppose that's my fucking fault too, huh?" Luger shouted. A tiny drop of spittle rested on a corner of his mouth. "Just like it's my fault I can't get to sleep at night, right? And my fault the first prototype crashed.. . and now you're saying it's my fault that these morons can't understand me? Well, fuck you, Kaminski."

By this time Gabovich had led Luger out of the conference room and into an anterior hallway. "Hey, I wasn't finished with my points, friend, I gotta go back there-"

A fist plunged hard and deep into Luger's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

Luger tried to take a breath, failed, wheezed, and sank to his knees, gasping for breath.

Gabovich's deputy, Vadim Teresov, rubbed his knuckles for a moment, then pulled Luger's head up by his hair. "Quit whining, Luger!"

"Nyet," Gabovich said. "You idiot-his name is Ozerov." The two Russians helped Luger to his feet. Luger's face was turning red from the pain and exertion, but Gabovich could see he was taking deeper breaths. "You must learn not to get so excited, Ivan Sergeiovich,"

Gabovich told him. "You will just get yourself and those around you upset for no reason."

"Why the fuck did you do that?" Luger croaked. "Why did you do that . 9"

"Colonel Teresov was only trying to get your attention," Gabovich said. "Your excitement raises a lot of concern among your colleagues here."

"No one listens to me," Luger muttered. "I don't know any of these people. . . I don't know... I don't know who I am... sometimes

It was happening again, Gabovich thought.

Luger was losing his carefully regimented programming. After years of hard work, the effects they had so wondrously achieved were being nullified. This was the third incident in just two weeks. Gabovich wondered if Luger wasn't getting addicted to the pain to which he was being subjected, because it always took more and more of a booster to get him through a day's work.

"You must not get so excited," Gabovich said patiently. He snapped his fingers for some nearby guards, both known personally to him- Luger was too valuable to be entrusted to an uncleared person. "Come,