He is starting to be sarcastic, thought Raymond. He’s afraid of me. He knows that a new lobby group—formed by some powerful opponent shareholders—could push him right off his throne. They’d already done that with Pettyhorn a few years ago, when he reached his new record of eighteen thousand sales. The wings of luck picked him up, and the previous record-holder had to leave. Although that wasn’t enough to be a record-holder: you needed to have influential sponsors. Raymond’s name was not strong enough at the moment . . . but it might be in a few years.
“Oh, no, I’m not that dangerous. I owe my success mostly to lucky contracts,” said Raymond, trying to feign modesty again. This might be the best weapon against Pettyhorn.
“Come on, Tapanazzi, you know something valuable,” waved the directo
