Mayer leaned forward and tapped his assistant emphatically on the knee. "Look here, yourself, Jerry Kennedy. At this stage we don't want things getting out of our hands. A culture is in the hands of those who control the wealth; the means of production, distribution, communication. Theirs is the real power. I've made a point of spacing our men about the whole planet. Each specializes, though not exclusively. Gunther is our mining man, Dean heads petroleum, MacDonald shipping, Buchwald textiles, Rykov steel, and so forth. As fast as this planet can assimilate we push new inventions, new techniques, often whole new sciences, into use. Meanwhile, you and I sit back and dominate it all through that strongest of power mediums, finance."
Jerry Kennedy nodded. "I wouldn't worry about old man Russ taking over Dean's domination of oil, though. Mike's got the support of all the _Pedagogue's_ resources behind him. Besides, we've got to let these Genoese get into the act. The more the economy expands, the more capable men we need. As it is, I think we're already spread a little too thin."
Amschel Mayer had dropped the subject. He was reading the radiogram again and scowling his anger. "Well, this cooks MacDonald and Buchwald. I'll break them."
His assistant raised his eyebrows. "How do you mean?"
"I'm not going to put up with my subordinates going against my interests."
"In this case, what can you do about it? Business is business."
"You hold quite a bit of their paper, don't you?"
"You know that. Most of our team's finances funnel through my hands."
"We'll close them out. They've become too obsessed with their wealth. They've forgotten why the _Pedagogue_ was sent here. I'll break them, Jerry. They'll come crawling. Perhaps I'll send them back to the _Pedagogue_. Make them stay aboard as crew."
Kennedy shrugged. "Well, Peter MacDonald's going to hate that. He's developed into quite a high liver--gourmet food, women, one of the swankiest estates on the eastern continent."
"Ha!" Mayer snorted. "Let him go back to ship's rations and crew's quarters."
A servant entered the lushly furnished room and announced, "Honorable Gunther calling on the Honorables Mayer and Kennedy."
Martin Gunther hurried into the room, for once his calm ruffled. "On the western continent," he blurted. "Dean and Rosetti. The Temple got them, they've been burned as witches."