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kick to signal the guards who were waiting outside. They opened the door and led Joe and Iola back to join the others. "What did you decide?" the speaker asked. "You win," Joe said, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn't want to have to see the pained look on Frank's face. "What do you want me to tell you, as if I didn't know?" "Not very much, merely your procedure for contacting the Gray Man at the Network," the speaker said.
    "Don't - " Frank started to say, only to receive a jarring slap of Boshevsky's ham like hand across his mouth.
    Instinctively Joe started to move to his brother's aid. The guards at his side grabbed his arms instantly.
    "Don't lose your head, Joe," the speaker cautioned. "Remember what will happen to Iola if you do anything foolish."
    "Right, right," said Joe, and forced himself to relax his tensed muscles. "And now, the information," said the voice.
    Joe spoke quickly, as if he wanted to get it all out before he had second thoughts. "We contact the Network through a special modem, which at the moment is hooked up to Frank's computer in his bedroom back home. The access code is Z slash-two-three-four-one-one-slash-M -O-slash six-six-three. The response identification code is T-I -slash-four - three-three-slash-seven-seven. Our identification code is H-A-slash-two-two two-slash-eight-six."
    "I am happy you have been so sensible," the voice said. "Since you are so sensible, I need hardly inform you that if you prove to be lying, Iola will pay the consequences."
    "I know," said Joe, gritting his teeth. "Good," said the speaker. "And now that you have kept your part of the bargain, I will keep mine. I promised you that you would feel no pain after you told us what we want to know, and you won't."
    Joe felt the guards' hands tighten on his arms as Dr. von Heissen opened a black medical bag.
    He removed a hypodermic needle and a vial filled with amber liquid. Then he filled the needle and turned to Frank, who looked defiantly at him, determined not to show any fear.
    Swiftly, expertly, the doctor gave Frank an injection. Frank's eyes widened for an instant, then closed as his head dropped and his body slumped.
    "Frank," said Joe, barely able to choke out his brother's name.
    So this is how we meet our end, Joe thought as the doctor reloaded the hypodermic and moved toward him.
    "Gute Nacht," said the doctor as he stuck the needle in Joe's arm and pressed down the plunger.
    That means "Good night" was Joe's last thought before he plunged into blackness darker than any night.

Chapter 7
    THIS HAS TO be a dream, Joe thought.
    It was like a dream, a dream that kept repeating itself.
    Once again he was being shaken awake. Once again he was in the windowless cell. Once again he saw Frank's face above him.
    But this time Frank was dressed as Joe was, in gray sweatpants and shirt.
    And Frank's face wore the same slightly dazed expression that Joe's did. "It is you, isn't it?" Joe asked. "Sure is," replied Frank.
    “ ... And we're not dead?" said Joe.
    "If we are, this isn't my idea of heaven, and I hope we didn't foul up enough to go the other way."
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    By now Joe was fully awake, his mind functioning.
    "I wonder why they didn't kill us on the spot," he said. "I can't think of any more use they might have for us.”
    "They must have wanted to keep us alive but safely under control long enough to make sure that what you told them was true," said Frank.
    He looked hard at Joe, and Joe had to avert his eyes as the awful events flooded back to him.
    "Look, I'm sorry, but I had to do it," said Joe.
    Frank tried to keep his expression rigid with disapproval, but he couldn't. His face softened. "I know you had to," he said. “I know how much Iola meant to you."
    "You don't have to use the past tense," said Joe. "She's alive, remember."
    "I'm still not totally convinced of - " said Frank, but when he saw Joe getting ready to argue, he dropped the subject. There were too many much more pressing matters to iron