“I don’t think so. I’m ninety-nine percent sure of him. I’m not talking about doing it at the same time as we do you and me. But if we pull it off, we’d do him next. Once we’re free, we could use a drug on the others to avoid triggering their guilt responses. Sodium Pentothal would be perfect. Relieve their anxieties enough to perform the surgery.”

“How long after us would you do it? We’ll have to move fast to get to Mom and the girls. And would he come with us back to the valley?”

Cliff stopped and turned to face Eric. “I’ve been thinking a great deal about afterwards. I don’t think we ought to head for Serenity the minute we are free.”

“What?”

“I mean, I don’t think we ought to get your family and go back to the valley.”

Now it was Eric’s turn to stare. It was nearly full dark now, and they had moved just out of the circle of light from an overhead lamp post. Cliff’s eyes were hidden in the shadows, but Eric could see that his mouth was drawn into a hard line. “Eric,” he finally said, so softly that Eric stepped closer to hear him, “we can’t just walk away from all this. It isn’t enough for us to get free, or even to get your family free.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t enough. What isn’t enough?”

Cliff had never been much of a frivolous man or given to a great deal of levity, but Eric had never felt the depth of gravity that he sensed now, as Cliff reached out and gripped his arm.

“Eric, your father was a deeply religious man. He believed in God, and he tried to bring his life into conformance with that belief. As you know, when he began forming a group to survive the coming war, he selected men who were like him in that respect. They were good men, honest men, and for the most part, religious men like himself.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Many people wondered why he chose me.” He shook his head. “I wondered why he chose me.”

“But you’ve always gone to church, Cliff.”

“Once we were in the valley that was true, but before then I didn’t have much patience with organized religion. There was too much promise, too much rhetoric, too much running after the ways of the world trying to keep people happy, with little or no attention paid to true religion. I went to several churches when I was younger, but finally gave it up. But anyway, it surprised me that your father would choose me under those conditions.”

He released Eric’s arm, and dropped his hand to his side. “But I think I know now why he did.”

“Why?”