There was a knock at my door. It was General Auric Takitall.

“Surprise,” he said. “Bet you didn’t expect to see me.”

“That’s true.”

“Mind if I sit?”

“Please. Is my guard still out there?”

“Yup.” He looked back at the door. “Frankly, she scares me a bit. Who am I kidding? She scares me a lot.”

“I’m afraid she’s going to kill me,” I said.

“And then adjust her makeup.”

“Or have sex with me.”

He tilted his head. “Semantics.”

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Scoping things out. Getting the lay of the land. Seeing if you’re a butter-side-up or a butter-side-down sort of a guy.”

“Why does Sill want nothing?”

“You see, that’s the problem. No one wants nothing. Sill, like the rest of us, wants something. And that’s why he needs you. You believe in nothing, want nothing, want nothing from nothing. You don’t turn nothing into something.”

“So it’s my fault nothing happened to Quincy, Massachusetts.”

“Let’s face it. There was pretty much nothing there to start with, but yes.”

I sat on the bed.

“Don’t worry, Professor. You, more than anyone, realize that nothing happened.”

“What is the something that Sill wants?”

“He wants nothing to happen to this country.”

“You’re a general in this country’s army. What are you getting out of this?”

“Forty-seven million dollars and a villa in Tuscany.”

“Odd figure.”

“I asked for fifty, he offered forty-five, you know how it goes.”

“It’s just money, then, for you.”

“What money buys,” he said.

“And what’s that?”

“Mostly more money.”

“So, I take it you don’t care about this country, the people in it?”

“Fuck no. Besides, if this works, nothing will happen to anybody. Everybody. I learned that from reading your papers. If you add nothing to something, what happens? Nothing. If you multiply something by nothing, what happens? Nothing. Any function with nothing will result in nothing happening. And of course nothing is not zero. Or as you’ve pointed out, zero is not nothing.”

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“You can see that we need you. I just want you to know that.”

“I don’t care about money.”

Takitall laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“No, really,” I said.

“Have it your way. But you see I do. And I’m ruthless. I have no qualms about threatening to kill your friend if you refuse to help. More importantly, I have no qualms about actually killing her. Anybody can threaten to kill someone.”

“Just how much is a lie worth?”

“Five hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.”

I stared at him.

“Well, you asked.” He stood, looked at the horses. “Beautiful animals, don’t you think? And know this—if I don’t kill to get what I want, you can be assured that Sill will. Are we good here?” He put a hand on my shoulder, gave it a tap. “I’ve enjoyed our little talk, but I’ve got to run.”

I said nothing as he walked to the door.

“Professor.”

“Yes?”

“We’re not bad men.”