it was the only conclusion that made sense. dorn starret had retroed him—the gun proved that—and luise as well. until a few minutes ago, he had thought that she had been first and he later, but that was wrong. they had been retrogressed together and dorn starret had done it; now he had come back to make certain that they didn't trace him.

neat—but it wasn't going to work. luis grinned wryly to himself. he had a weapon in his pocket that was assurance it wouldn't work.

he got off the belt near the building he had seen luise leaving yesterday. he went into the lobby and located memory lab, a suite on the top floor. it wasn't necessary, but he checked rental dates. the lab had been there exactly three weeks. this tied in with luise's release from retro-therapy. every connection he had anticipated was there.

he rode up to the top floor. there wasn't a chance that starret would recognize him; physically he must have changed too much since the criminal had last seen him. and while luise hadn't concealed that she was a retro and so had given herself away, he wasn't going to make that mistake.

the sign on the door stood out as he came near and disappeared as he went by. memory lab, that was all—no other name, even here. naturally. a false name would be occasion for police action. the right one would evoke luise's and his own memories.

he turned back and went into the waiting room. no robot receptionist. he expected that; the man didn't intend to be around very long.

"who's there?" the voice came from a speaker in the wall; the screen beside it remained blank, though obviously the man was in the next room. for a commercial establishment, the lab was not considerate of potential clients.

luis smiled sourly and loosened the weapon in his pocket. "i saw your advertisement," he said. no name; let him guess.

"i'm very busy. can you come back tomorrow?"

luis frowned. this was not according to plan. first, he didn't recognize the voice, though the speaker could account for that if it were intentionally distorted. second, luise was inside and he had to protect her. he could break in, but he preferred that the man come out.

he thought swiftly. "i'm chals putsyn, gallium importer," he called. "tomorrow i'll be away on business. can you give me an appointment for another time?"

there was a long silence. "wait. i'll be out."

he'd thought the mention of gallium would do it. true, the mine starret owned was probably worthless, but he couldn't restrain his curiosity.