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praying you wouldn't be able to follow me here. But you did. I guess I knew you would. You and Frank make quite a team. But this time you were too good for your own good."
    Iola was obviously in agony over their plight. Joe ached to take her into his arms to comfort her. It hurt him that he couldn't. And what he had to do next hurt him even more... "Look, I don't want to ask you a bunch of questions to prove who you are but I have to," he said. "I mean, I know you're you. No other girl has ever made me feel the way I feel now. That kind of thing can't be faked. But I owe it to Frank to do what I said I would. You know Frank. He doesn't go by gut feelings. He needs facts, and he won't go along with me to save you from Boshevsky unless he has some."
    "I understand," said Iola. "I wish now that I weren't me. Or that I had the nerve to say I wasn't or to tell you not to tell them anything even if they torture me. But I can't. I'm just too scared. You see, they made me watch Boshevsky work on somebody once. I know what he can do-and I can't face that happening to me."
    She paused, and then went on. "But I don't even know what they want to get out of you. Maybe if it's important enough, I'd be able to stand up to them. "
    "There's only one thing they could want to get out of Frank and me," said Joe, "and that's how to contact the Network.”
    "The Network?" repeated Iola, puzzled.
    "It's a government agency that fights criminals like these," said Joe. "Frank and I hooked up with them after a group that calls themselves the Assassins blew up the car and kidnapped you. We helped the Network stop the Assassins before they pulled off a political murder-Senator Walker's, as a matter of fact... The man you were campaigning for when the car exploded.
    "Anyway, the Network sort of let us halfway into their confidence. They gave us a way to contact one of their agents, a guy called the Gray Man, in emergencies. Frank's double tried to fool me into telling how we contact the Network, and I bet that my double tried to fool Frank the same way. They failed, so now they're trying this."
    "But why would they want to contact the Network?" wondered Iola, her brows furrowing.
    "Beats me, except that it has something to do with our doubles," said Joe. "They could do a lot of damage." "So your secret is important," said Iola.
    "It's important, but it isn't as important as you," said Joe, looking hard at the only girl he had ever truly, deeply loved. Then his mouth tightened. "If you are you."
    "How can I prove it?" asked Iola with a helpless look in her eyes, as if she could see Boshevsky coming closer.
    "Remember our first date?" said Joe suddenly. "Of course," replied Iola. "I remember how I told you I thought you were rude for showing up late, and stuck-up for thinking I'd still go out with you."
    "And remember how I apologized right then and there and won you over?" said Joe.
    "You did not!" said Iola indignantly. "I didn't go out with you, and it wasn't until the next day when you said how dumb you had been and how sorry you were that we started getting to be friends. But I don't see what - " Then she paused, and her puzzled face brightened. "I see now."
    "That's right," said Joe, and went on with his questions. He asked about the first time they had kissed, about their first quarrel, of dream dates they had had and ones that had been absolute disasters. He asked about movies they had seen together, their favorite snacks, plans they had made. He ransacked his memory, and Iola remembered everything as well as he did.
    After half an hour he said, "I'm convinced, you are you. The trouble is - " He paused, unable to finish his thought.
    Iola did it for him. "I know. The trouble is you don't know whether to be happy or sad about it, because now you have to choose between me and this Network of yours."
    Joe's jaw tightened. "There's no choice. You're the one I have to think about. The Network can take care of itself."
    He went to the door and gave it a