“Millions. And this next year, if things hold together long enough, it might be closer to a billion. Can you imagine that kind of money?”

He could. He could calculate it in sap, and it made his head spin. But he lied. “No sir, I can’t.”

“It’s more money than you could spend in a lifetime of trying. However, at the moment, the city is spending it almost as fast as we can earn it. You came here from the Vaults, yes? Well, you must’ve seen the place. It’s a wreck, from top to bottom. The hoses that keep our air breathable”—he waved a hand to indicate even what was in the room, right at that moment—“are in desperate need of maintenance and repair. Likewise, the ceilings are caving in at the spots where water collects and the land is damp, and foundations are settling all throughout the walled-off blocks.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying Seattle is falling apart, and I am rebuilding it from the basements up. I can’t do it all at once, and I can’t do it cheaply—not like Minnericht did, when he carved out his hasty little empire a decade ago. But here’s what really frightens everyone: The threat of structural collapse isn’t my most pressing problem.”

Yaozu’s face had settled into some very serious lines. Behind that mask of professional concern, Rector imagined he could see a nervous sparkle of something else. Not fear, exactly. Something lesser, but sharp.

“Then … then what is? Your most pressing problem?” Rector asked.

Yaozu leaned forward, wriggling yellow lights from the fireplace glinting off his spectacles. “Other people. People like you, Rector—though not you, personally. I’m prepared to believe that you’re a young man at loose ends, hunting for a place to belong. I might be wrong, but right now, we’re all operating under good faith, are we not?”

“Yes sir, we absolutely are.”

“Excellent. Now, when I say ‘other people,’ I mean sellers, dealers, vendors, chemists, and pharmacists who want a piece of the sap money. They know Minnericht is dead, and if there’s one thing I must grant the man, it’s that his reputation was more solid than his city. Since he’s gone, word has gotten around. At best, people sense a vacancy at the top of the power chain, and they wish to fill it. At worst, they wish to come plunder what’s left of his empire, and leave the city to rot.”

“And you don’t want either of them things to happen.”