"That’s just it, doctor-designate." Wells was not as drunk as he looked. "There are hundreds of us who long to see the Rings for what they are. You’re not without your admirers, you know. We have third-hand Ring fashions, fourth-hand Ring art, passed around secretly. It’s pathetic! We have so much to offer each other...But the Investors have squeezed everything they can from the status quo. Already they’ve begun abetting warmongers: cut down Ring-Cartel interflights, encouraged bidding wars...You know, the mere fact that I’ve come here is enough to brand me for life, possibly even as an agent for Ring Security: a bacillus, I think you call them? I’ll never set foot in a Cartel again without eyes watching me—"