Tim had been writing in his notebook and he looked up now, the pen arrested over the page, and gave him a puzzled look that morphed almost immediately into his trademark grin. “Fitz,” he called, “where’s the fire?”

The room was warm. It had been a hot day, muggy, and the evening hadn’t cooled things off at all. There was the sound of insects shrieking in the darkness beyond the windows and the periodic buzz of moths at the window screens. Fitz stood there, just inside the door, trying to smile back. “I just wanted to apologize,” he said.

Tim frowned. “Yes, well, I understand, Fitz, I do. We all go through these things, but the point is we have to be on our very best behavior in a little burg like this, you know? We’re members of the community now, but never forget it’s a community of hicks and yahoos, conservatives, Catholics, and we don’t need to be giving them any extra ammunition when we’re in their crosshairs to begin with.” He paused, set down his pen, interlocked the fingers of both hands and stretched his arms out before him. There was a bottle of scotch on the desk, a glass half full beside it. Moths flapped. The screens rattled. “Apology accepted,” he said.

“Don’t go,” Fitz said suddenly, and he didn’t know why he’d said it except that everything seemed to be closing in on him.

“Go? Go where?”

“India. Tibet.” A pleading tone had come into his voice, a tone he didn’t like, gosling and gander, but he couldn’t help himself. “We’re only getting started here, this experiment, I mean. We’re, we’re—we have breakthroughs coming.”

Tim held up a palm to forestall him. “It’s okay, Fitz, don’t worry. You’ll be in good hands with Dick. And Michael—Michael’s going to stay on. And I’ll be back before you know it, I promise.” He swiveled around and gestured to the easy chair beside the bed. “Look, have a seat, why don’t you. You want a drink?”

“Yes,” he said, easing himself down. “Or no”—and he was the one grinning now—“drink is what got me in trouble. With our friend Officer Salter. What I was thinking is maybe a little taste of the heavenly blue? Will you do it with me?”