“Are you okay?” I asked.

“What was that all about?” Sam asked.

“Did they hurt you?”

“No.”

“Have you been sitting here all this time?”

“I couldn’t leave your dog.”

“Thank you.”

Sam asked me his initial question again.

“Top-secret government agents having a casual chat with me.”

“Why?”

“That is a very good question for which I do not have a very good answer, either for you or for myself. Trigo is comfortable with you.”

“He’s great. He took a shit in my lap.”

“Well, he can’t walk.”

Sam nodded.

“It’s late,” I said.

“That’s it? Tear gas, men with guns, kidnapping and you tell me it’s late? Should I keep this to myself? I’m scared. I thought they were going to kill you. Is this what a degree in math gets you?”

“I don’t know. It’s never happened before. I’m sorry they scared you.”

“Should I continue to be scared?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know, Sam. I am pleased to report that apparently they’re not interested in you.”

“Yet.”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s a reasonable point.” I took Trigo into my arms. “But it is late and you should go home.”

“Can you drive me?”

“I don’t think you’d like that. Can you drive?”

“Yes.”

“Take my car and bring it back tomorrow.”

I watched Sam drive away, rather expertly by my standards, and then went into my house to send an email to John Sill. That was my only way of reaching him. I assumed my email was being monitored and so I was decidedly cryptic:

Dear John,

Would like to suggest that Frege was puzzled. A large bird resembling an eagle has landed on my roof. I recommend that you read Bayes’ rule. The weather in Monaco is fabulous this time of year.

Unsigned

In a matter of seconds Sill responded:

Dear Unsigned,

Understood. Go about your day. Put on a good face.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

John

A second email followed.

Isn’t this fun?

There was a song attached (a woman singing a cappella):

They said he wanted money

But this was hardly true.

They saw him in a kayak,

But he escaped in a canoe.

Round, round he goes

The sun, the moon, the park, and back

To where he started, to what he knows

To what he has, to what he lacks.

Down to the river, he said he courted power

The kind reserved for God.

Not enough to be impressed,

He wanted them all awed.

Round, round he goes

The sun, the moon, the park, and back

To where he started, to all he knows

To what he has, to what he lacks.

They said he was a danger

A villain and a foe

But all the plans they feared

Were the ones they’d never know.

Round, round he goes

The sun, the moon, the park, and back

To where he started, to all he knows

To what he has, to what he lacks.

I wrote back.

Dear John,

That was a terrible song that I didn’t understand.