“Yeah, okay,” Allen said. “Wait, I …”

Yavitch stared as Allen took a couple of quick, deep puffs of the cigarette before leaving. It seemed so spontaneous, such a small detail, to take those final drags before Arthur, who didn’t smoke cigarettes, emerged.

Again, the eyes went blank, the lids fluttered. He opened them, leaned back, gazed around with a haughty expression and put his fingertips together, forming a pyramid. When he spoke, it was with an upper-class British accent.

Yavitch frowned as he listened. He found himself actually seeing and hearing a new person talking to Dr. Wilbur. Arthur’s eye contact, his body language, were obviously different from Allen’s. A friend of Yavitch s, an accountant in Cleveland, was British, and Yavitch was amazed at the resemblance—the authentic speech pattern.

“I don’t believe I’ve met these people,” Arthur said.

He was introduced around, and Yavitch felt silly greeting Arthur as if he had just walked into the room. When Wilbur asked Arthur about the others, he described their roles and explained who would or would not be allowed to come out. Finally Dr. Wilbur said, “We must speak with Billy.”

“It is very dangerous to waken him,” Arthur said. “Hes quite suicidal, you know.”

“Its very important that Dr. Harding get to meet him. The outcome of the trial could depend upon it. Freedom and treatment, or else prison.”

Arthur thought about it, pursed his lips and said, “Well, really, I’m not the one to decide. Since we are in a prison—a hostile environment—Ragen is dominant, and only he makes the final decision about who does and does not come on the spot.”

“What is Ragens role in your lives?” she asked.

“Ragen is the protector and the keeper of hate.”

“All right, then,” Dr. Wilbur said sharply. “I must speak to Ragen.”

“Madam, I suggest that—”

“Arthur, we don’t have much time. A lot of busy people have given up their Sunday morning to come down here and help you. Ragen must agree to let Billy talk to us.”

Again the face went blank, eyes staring, trance like. Lips moved as if in an inner, unheard conversation. Then the jaw tightened and his brow furrowed deeply.

“Is not possible,” growled the deep Slavic voice.

“What do you mean?” Wilbur asked.

“Is not possible to speak with Billy.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Ragen Vadascovinich. Who are these people?”

Dr. Wilbur introduced everyone, and Yavitch wondered again at the change, at the striking Slavic accent. He wished he knew some phrases in Yugoslavian or Serbo-Croatian, to see if it was just the accent or if Ragen could understand the language. He wished Dr. Wilbur would probe into that. He wanted to mention it, but they had all been asked not to speak beyond the introduction.

Dr. Wilbur asked Ragen, “How did you know I wanted to speak to Billy?”

Ragen nodded with mild amusement. “Arthur asks my opinion. And I am opposed. Is my right as protector to decide who comes on spot. Not possible for Billy to come out.”