The masked head nodded. "You have seen him now. What do you think?"
"He's hiding something," Adams said. "And not all of him is human."
"You're going to have him killed?"
"No," said Adams. "No, I don't think I will. He knows something that we need to know. And we won't get it out of him by killing."
"What he knows," said the masked voice, "is better dead with the man who knows it."
"Perhaps," said Adams, "we could come to an understanding if you would tell me what this is all about."
"I can't tell you, Adams. I wish I could. I can't tell you the future."
"And until you do," snapped Adams, "I won't let you change the past."
And he was thinking: The man is scared. Scared and almost desperate. He could kill Sutton any time he wished, but he is afraid to do it. Sutton has to be killed by a man of his own time…literally has to be, for time may not tolerate the extension of violence from one bracket to the next.
"By the way," said the future man.