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Windblown rain rattled against theand gurgled noisily in a downspout beyond the outside wall against which the bed stood

Since awakening from his nap Stefan had looked healthier, and he had perked up even more with the hot soup But now, as he recalled a youth spent in a cauldron of hatred and death, he paled again, and his eyes seemed to sink deeper into the darkness under his brow ’ ’I never left the SS because it was such a desired position and there was no way to leave without arousing suspicion that I’d lost my faith in our revered leader But year by year, month by month, then day by day I became sickened by what I saw, by the madness and murder and terror"

Neither the brown-pepper shrier, and Laura’s mouth was so dry that the rice stuck to the roof of it She pushed the food aside, sipped her Coke "But if you never left the SSwhen did you go to college, when did you get involved in scientific research?"

"Oh," he said, "I wasn’t at the institute as a researcher I’ve no university education Exceptfor two years I received intensive instruction in English, trying to learn to speak with an acceptable American accent I was part of a project that dropped hundreds of deep-cover agents into Britain and the United States But I never could quite cast off the accent, so I was never sent overseas; besides, because my father was an early supporter of Hitler, they felt I was trustworthy, so they found other uses for niven sensitive jobs, usually as a liaison between squabbling factions of the government It was an excellent position from which to obtain information useful to the British, which I did from 1938 on"

"You were a spy?" Chris asked excitedly

"Of a sort I had to do what little I could to bring down the Reich, topart of it I had to atone-though atoning seemed ian to have so anined to the institute as an observer, as der Fuhrer’s personal representative Also as a guinea pig, as the first human to be sent forward in time You see, when they were ready to send a man into the future, they did not want to risk Penlovski or Januskaya or Helmut Volkaw or Mitter or Shenck or one of the other scientists whose loss would dae the project No one knew if a man would come back as reliably as the animals did-or if he would come back sane and whole"

Chris nodded soleht’ve been painful or , yeah Who could know?"

Who could know indeed? Laura thought

Stefan said, "They also wanted who his mission a secret I was the ideal choice"

"An SS officer, a spy, and the first chrononaut," Chris said "Wohat a fascinating life"

"May God give you a life far less eventful," Stefan Krieger said Then he looked at Laura more directly than previously His eyes were a beautiful, pure blue, yet they revealed a tortured soul "Laurawhat do you think of your guardian now? Not an angel but an aide to Hitler, an SS thug"

"No thug," she said "Your father, your ti of you, but there was an inner core they couldn’t bend Not a thug, Stefan Krieger Never Not you"

"No angel, though," he said "Far froel, Laura Upon my death, when the stains on ivenon the roof see away, manythrough gutters and downspouts, draining aasted

After she had gathered up the unfinished food and thrown it into duotten three more Cokes frouardian the question she had wanted to ask him from the moment he had come out of his coma: ’Why? Why did you focus on , to save my butt now and then? For God’s sake, how does my fate tie up with Nazis, time travelers, the fate of the world?"

On his third trip into the future, he explained, he had traveled to California in 1984 California because his previous two trips - teeks in 1954, teeks in 1964 - had shown hi cultural and current scientific center of the hty-four because it was a neat forty years froale by then; four others beganjaunts as soon as it was proved safe On that third trip Stefan had still been scouting the future, learning in detail what had happened to the world during and after the war He was also learning what scientific develop forty years would most likely be taken back to Berlin in ’44 to win the war for Hitler, not because he intended to help in that design but because he hoped to sabotage it His researches involved reading newspapers, watching television, and just circulating in A a feel for the late twentieth century

Leaning back on his pillo, recalling that third journey in a voice utterly different froriine what it was like for eles for the first time If I had traveled one thousand years into the future instead of forty, it couldn’t have seemed more wondrous The cars! Cars everywhere -and so iveness for the war, acceptance of the new Germany, and I was moved by that"

"We have a Mercedes," Chris said "It’s neat, but I like the Jeep better"

"The cars," Stefan said, "the styles, the aital watches, horoom! Even after five days of my visit had passed, I was in a state of pleasant shock, and looked forward eachto neonders On the sixth day, as I passed a bookstore in Westwood, I saw a line of people waiting to have copies of a novel signed by the author I went inside to browse and to see what kind of book was so popular, to helpAmerican society And there you were, Laura, at a table piled with copies of your third novel and your first es"

Laura leaned forward, as if puzzlees’? But I’ve never written a book with that title"

Again, Chris understood "That was a book you wrote in the life you would’ve lived if Mr Krieger hadn’t meddled in it"

"You were twenty-nine years old when I saw you for the first ti party in Westwood," Stefan said "You were in a wheelchair because your legs were twisted, useless Your left arm was partly paralyzed, as well"

"Crippled?" Chris said "Moe of her chair now, for though what her guardian said seemed too fantastic to be believed, she sensed that it was true On a deep level even htness to the is useless and wasted; perhaps what she apprehended was the faint echo of destiny thwarted

"You’d been that way since birth," Stefan said

"Why?"

"I only learned thatmuch research The doctor who had delivered you in Denver,

Colorado, in 1955-Markas his name-had been an alcoholic Yours was a difficult birth anyway-"

"Myme"

"Yes, in that reality she died too But in that reality Markwell botched the delivery, and you received a spinal injury that crippled you for life "