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... or to write stories?"
Sethos gave what could have been construed as a laugh. "Doctor, Golden Rule
is a business enterprise undertaken for profit. I manage it for my partners to
that end. No one has to live here, no one has to do business here. What I charge
people to live here, or to do business here, is controlled solely by maximizing
profit to the partnership, as guided by my best judgment to that end. If you
don't like it, you can take your business elsewhere."
I was just about to shift the basis for discussion (I can see when I'm
outgunned) when Gwen spoke up. "Mr. Sethos?"
"Eh? Yes, Mistress Novak? Mrs. Ames."
"Did you get your start pimping for your sisters?"
Sethos turned a delicate shade of eggplant. He finally got control of
himself well enough to say, "Mrs. Ames, are you being intentionally insulting?"
"That's obvious, isn't it? I don't know that you have sisters; it just
seems like the sort of enterprise that would appeal to you. You have injured us
for no reason whatever. We come to you, asking for redress of grievance; you
answer us with evasions, outright lies, irrelevant issues... and a fresh
extortion. You justify this new outrage with a plonking sermon on free
enterprise. Just what price did you usually charge for your sisters? And how
much did you keep as your commission? Half? Or more than half?"
"Madam, I must ask you to leave my office
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