Laura dried her hands by placing them on the hips beneath her skirt. "I'm taking my mother home with me."

"Sure thing." Myers glanced at the brain still resting it its saline solution in a corner of the room. "Should take about an hour to disconnect all the electrodes--"

"No." Laura stomped her foot with that syllable. "I'm taking this whole--" Laura flailed her right hand in the air as she looked for the right word, "set-up with me."

"Are you crazy?"

Laura looked down at the image of her grandmother disappearing from sight as she embraced the unseen observer. "Does it look crazy?"

"Sit down." Myers took her by the wrists, and eased her down into her father's chair before setting himself against the edge of the table. Then he gripped that table's edge hard with both hands. "I can't let you walk out of here with this equipment, 'specially when it's still hooked up to your mother's brain."

"Why not?"

"First, because all of this is Institute property."

"My mother's brain is--"

"Not the brain itself, but the equipment. Like I said, I can--"

"Does the Institute know that my father used his wife's brain?" Laura let the silence fall. "Didn't think so. You can say this particular set broke and let me take her out of here in a box."

"I still can't let you do that."