While Amos works, Gideon reads, jotting notes into the file with a stylus. It's a familiar routine, at this point: they don't spend every day, or even most days, like this, but there have been enough that the sound of drills and ratchets has become an oddly pleasant overture to study by.

He's absorbed in picking apart an argument by way of marginalia when Amos next speaks. Brow rising, he glances up. "Have I lied to you?"

Undoubtedly, yes. Many times. In this conversation, too, he'll own--but he wants Amos' answer.