The president waited for Gideon to speak, but Gideon did not.

“Brought up in the buildin’ trade. His pa was a contractor. Become a contractor hisself, an’ was smart enough to see the big money went to them that had friends in high places. You want to bellyache about it? I have, more’n once. Don’t do any good.”

“There is no good,” Gideon murmured. His voice was level, expressionless.

The president raised an eyebrow. “I know you made a reputation writin’ that shit. You really believe it?”

“My belief or disbelief will not change the truth,” Gideon murmured.

The president grinned. “ ‘What’s truth?’ said jestin’ Pilate.”

“That there is no good.”

“Well, sir . . . what about evil?”

“It does not exist.”

“Well now, I’d call that hombre whose picture you’re lookin’ at evil. If there’s a evil man in the world, he’s the one.”

Gideon, who was not in fact looking at any of the pictures, said, “There are none.”

The president smiled again. “I wish I could believe it. It’d be comfortin’. Only I s’pose I’d have to give up good, too.”

“No. May I explain? You can’t have a great deal of time.”

“For this? I’ll take as much time as I think will do any good, an’ let the bastards go hang. Explain.”

“Briefly, then. Today, most people think evil the mere absence of good. Darkness—which many confuse with evil—is the mere absence of visible light, after all, just as silence is the absence of audible sound. If these people were correct, there would be no evil, only a lack of good. They are wrong, and when they discover they are wrong, they leap to the opposite error.”

“Mine,” the president said.

“Yes. Would you say that evil is synonymous with cruelty? With greed?”

The president nodded. “I sure would.”