Katherine glared again at the small hole in the window Alisin had made, much too small for Katherine to follow her inside. Not that Kath could have followed without totally blowing her cover, anyway. But Plan B wasn’t doing much better.

   "Rikk, is that you?" She clenched her hand around the cell phone, as if she could squeeze the right sound quality out of the phone by force. Rikk’s voice sounded different than it had when she’d left them, just an hour ago...

   "Eh... in a manner of speaking, Katherine. Perhaps you should call me Rumikk."

   "Can you be a little MORE confusing, please?"

   "Gome... uh... sorry. Let me put Tim on."

   The girl who still called himself or herself "Rikk" handed the phone to Tim.

   "Okay, Rikk, Rume," said Tim. "This is prob’ly gonna give Kath a headache, so while I’m talkin’, I want you both ta calm Willy down as best ya can."

   "Yes!" The girl nodded vigorously, then walked quickly over to Will. Or what was left of him.

   Will’s body was sitting in a corner, pounding at his own skull. "GET OUT OF ME! GET OUT! GET OUT! Your thoughts and tastes crawl like MAGGOTS! Your mind is as repulsive as yer fat, hairy, smelly, sexy bod-- OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!"

   As gently as possible, the girl restrained his hands. There wasn't too much of Will's usual force in them.

   Tim went on. "This ain’t a mind-switchin’ device, like the nutty professor thought it was. It’s kind of like a mind-transplant."

   "What’s the difference?"

   "I HATE MYSELF! I WANT TO DIE!"

   "Well, I wuz puzzlin’ over it for a long time, ‘cause it kept lookin’ like two different machines in one box ta me. An’ sure enough, it was! One’a th’machines takes kind of a ‘photograph’ of somebody’s mind... an’ the other machine xeroxes that ‘photograph’ onto another mind."

   "So when Rikk and Rumy ‘switched minds’..."

   "THE HAMSTERS! DEAR BOB IN HEAVEN, MAKE ME STOP THINKING ABOUT THE HAMSTERS!"

   "They didn’ really switch. They both got ‘photographed’... an’ then, one second later, they got ‘xeroxed’ onta each other. The prof-man seemed ta think he was movin’ minds around, an’ I guess he din’t want ta risk two minds in one bod…"

   "So I shouldn’t be thinking of the person who’s hiding upstairs as ‘Rumy.’ She still THINKS she’s Rumy... she’s got some memories and feelings that Rikk clearly isn’t aware of…"

   "Th’thing you really gotta remember is, these transplants ain’t permanent. Some’a them take longer ta fade than others..."

   "Feelings, in fact, that Rikk is MORE unaware of than any other human on the PLANET... there are aboriginal CHILDREN who'd recognize them sooner... no, I mean HE’S got the feelings... dammit, I just had this..."

   "We accidentally turned Willy inta me fer a little while there, but his brain started rejectin’ me within about thirty minutes. See, this thing don’t actually change your neural pathways, so..."

   "I’LL KILL YOU!" Will rose, stabbing a finger at Tim. "YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BREATHE!"

   Rumy/Rikk put her body between him and Tim, holding up her hands and looking into his eyes, a very "Rikk" thing to do, but something Rumy might have thought of.

   "STEP ASIDE, RIKK! YOU DON’T... KNOW. YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE THINGS... THINGS..."

   "Stand down, Will," said Rumy, calmly, assuming a battle stance. "We both know that if you force me to fight you, you will not win."

   "And the memories, Tim?" Katherine asked. "Do the memories fade too?"

   "Hmmm. Hey, Willy?" Tim asked.

   "HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN! MY! NAME! IS! WILL!"

   "Right. What’s my favorite TV show?"

   "YOU ZARKING--"

   "Kath wants ta know. She sez it’s important, okay? Ya can kill me in a minute."

   "I-- I--" Will blinked. Some of the tension left him. "I can’t remember."

   "Yeah, looks like th’ memories fade too. Ya gettin’ this, Kath?"

   "I can’t remember... anything!" Will said, the joy welling up through the astonishment. "I remember saying something about hamsters... but I don’t know why! The last hour or so... is a total blur! I... I’M FREE!"

   "Can ya keep it down over there? We’re tryin’ ta have a conversation."