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"Now," Vik warned hioverne of them so they don’t face any diplouessing it "So if I mess up"

"We only e of your actions I didn’t even notice you were here In fact, I don’t knoho you are Who are you? I don’t know, Toave him a thumbs-up, then he sidled up to the executive He cleared his throat to draw her attention, then boomed, "Fine factories you have there, htly strange, jocular tone, like souidly and surveyed Vik over her chalass "Why, thank you I take it you know my name already And yours is?"

"Vikram Ashwan A pleasure toin that strange, lofty way All he needed was a aze on Tom

"Thomas Raines" He offered a hand

"Oh" Her lis about you"

Vik caught his eye and gave a subtle nod, re him of the phrases he’d learned

Toe"

Alana’s forehead wrinkled Vik rapped on theto draw her attention away fro about theto the horizon below them and the way Epicenter was one of the few companies that still used huree" and "Right you are"

And then Alana said sorabbed his attention, with a sudden, electric-sharp focus

"so cost-effective because we rely entirely on convict labor"

"Convicts, eh?" Vik said "Ah, putting ruffians to fine use"

"Yes, we actually get paid by various governments to keep them You see, you hire labor, and they have expectations, they agitate You use convicts, and you can pretty much dictate the terms of their work to them, not to mention the local workers revise their salary expectations quite a bit If we need a work order completed in thirty-six hours, convicts will co They know better than to coer looked so pretty to Toed off, clapped in prison "But," he said, "what happens when their sentences are up?"

Alana tittered, enjoying her rapt audience "Let’s just say, once we’ve trained theood return on that investment There are always reasons to extend a prison sentence It’s most cost-effective to maintain at least a ninety-percent occupancy rate, so we have to be creative" She sipped her cha up in his head, and he wasn’t even aware of Vik trying to catch his eye, frantically shaking his head "So they’re your slaves"

She lowered her glass "Slaves? They’re cri the world a favor, keeping thene in her hand, a hts were back on his dad, rage scorching hiotten himself a month in jail Epicenter could’ve rented hiotten his sentence extended and extended, and Toain

"You knohat I think would be doing the world a favor?" To under his skin "If you threw a big party in here, invited over everyone else who thinks there’s so, and just blew yourselves up together That isthe world a favor"