"About twenty miles south. San Mateo."

"Far out. California. No kidding." He turned to Janet. "Hey, Janet, remember that other guy we had from L.A., Denny Something?"

Janet laughed. "The one who fell asleep after he taught a class on a submarine, and wound up at the South Pole?"

"Nah, that was Gordon Something. I mean the chemistry instructor, remember? Who got stuck in jail in Spain because the border guards thought his demonstration stuff was coke?"

They were both laughing now, well into their cups; old friends excluding Gideon and not paying much attention to Danzig, who sipped his wine and stared into the middle distance.

"Mmm," Janet said, spluttering slightly into the brimming glass at her lips, "what about the time-was it ‘74?- when they wouldn’t let Ralph Kaplan off a base during a big alert, so he swiped a general’s uniform and tried to get through the gate?"

"Yeah, with that beard yet!" Eric and Janet both spluttered this time, spraying Gideon with Reisling.

"Ooh," Janet said, "what about Pete Somebody, remember? That funny visiting fellow in Economics, I think it was, the one who didn’t show up for class half the time, and then finally disappeared altogether and-"

"Uh, Janet." Eric put his hand on her arm. He made, Gideon thought, a faint motion in his direction. Janet looked confused for a moment, then closed her mouth.

"Look," Gideon said, "what is it with this visiting fellow? What happened to him?"

After an uncomfortable silence, Danzig spoke carefully. "Really, perhaps we shouldn’t be frightening off our new fellow with horror stories from the remote past."

"Horror stories?" said Gideon.

"Figuratively speaking," said Danzig, composing a prim smile. "Just your typical war stories. You’ll be telling them yourself a few months from now."

Janet and Eric studied their glasses. Bruce added, "Nothing you need concern yourself with, Gideon." He made the statement word by separate word, slowly, as if it were loaded with significance. But then, thought Gideon, that’s the way he tells you the time.