A great plume of relief spread through Dave. He promised himself that he would be more careful from then on, wouldn't allow offhanded remarks to spoil his critical assignment.
"Hey!" snapped Billy then, raising his voice in surprising hostility. "By the way, what the hell are you still doing here, man? Why didn't you do what I told you?"
"What? Like what?" fumbled Dave, taken aback.
"I told you to run for it," clipped Billy. "When that bastard was reeling me in, I told you to get the hell outta' here, remember? Why in God's name did you stick around?"
"Well, uh..." Dave hesitated, wondered if he ought to lie about what had kept him there, if he ought to avoid mentioning Larry's threats to kill Billy. By omitting them, Dave thought that he could diminish the likelihood that Bill
