Quist threatens to print my price line by line. Print it, Madame President — it will be the only honest accounting your Velvet Ledger has ever run. Yes, the Knife was paid. The Knife is always paid. That is what separates a businessman from a politician: I name my price in coin, you take yours in taxes and call it virtue. Two ticks from now this republic elects a new hand on the treasury, and whoever wins will know one thing — luxury is the only trade in YAMListan paying a burgher wage, and I hold 22% of it. Govern accordingly. The Velvet Knife cuts whoever forgets it.