“How do you know that?”

“This is a servant’s bedroom. I read a book about this house a long time ago.” I looked around the room for something to cut the duct tape that secured us.

“Do you remember everything you read?”

“I don’t think so, but stuff comes back. You wouldn’t happen to have a knife?”

“The vice president?”

“Turns out the government is full of bad guys,” I said. “Who would have thought that?”

“You’re bleeding,” she said, again. “They shot the priest.”

“Yes.”

“Killed him. I’d never seen a dead person before.”

Neither had I, but I didn’t think commiseration was what was needed at the moment. What was needed was a knife.

Eigen scooted on her back to the near wall and unplugged a radio that sat on the nightstand. She used the prongs of the plug to tear at the tape.

“Very smart,” I said.

“Where is Trigo?” she asked as she worked on the tape.

“I don’t know. I also don’t know where all the people of Quincy are.”

“This is horrible,” she said.

It took awhile, but she managed to free her hands. Then we were both untied and standing.

“What do we do?” she asked.

“I suppose we should try to stop them from doing nothing to another town, or country even.”

“I have to tell you that all this talk about nothing is confusing me,” she said.

“Yes, I know.” I walked to the door and put my ear to it, placed my hand on the cut-glass knob, and gave a little twist. The door was unlocked. Eigen came and stood close behind me. Peeking through a crack, I could see that the pantry to which the room opened was lit and empty.

“Where are we going?” Eigen asked.

“Suffice it to say we’re not staying,” I said.

Across the room we found the vertical sliding door of a dumbwaiter beside the stairs. The conveyor was open and we could hear voices.

“That’s Sill,” I whispered.

“Men, this is a new day. All you have to do is not be here in three days when I again harness nothing and release it. When DC is nothing, the US will be nothing and there will be nothing left to do.”

“And that fat buffoon will be the nothing that he is,” said Shilling. “I’ve hated kissing his orange ass for these past years. Stable genius? Stable asshole.”

All the men laughed.

“The president has no idea?” asked Bajaj.

“He has no idea about anything,” Shilling said. “I’m afraid of him because he literally knows nothing.”

“But he believes he knows everything,” Sill said. “And of course that’s why he’s nothing but a fuckup.”

“Doesn’t it bother you, Mr. Sill, that so many Black people will be affected?” Farnsworth asked.

“Sacrifices must be made,” Sill said. “If there’s one thing all this money has made me, it’s White.”

All the men laughed.

“White,” Shilling said. “Yuk yuk yuk.”

2

“Why do they laugh like that?” Eigen asked. “Yuk yuk yuk. They sound like a strange bird choir.”