Chapter 9

“Thank you, Marco,” Ramsey said, “that I do. I am pleased to report that in the three years since Marco presented the family not only with triplets but with a methodology for significantly increasing our birthrate, our numbers have increased by several thousand—split almost equally between male and female births, and pretty much evenly divided between family members here in Aragoni and in various family enclaves around the world. Over two thousand family members have had multiple births, and at least half that many are looking forward to multiple births within the next few months. There is, of course, a downside to this good news—which is that with such a rapid increase in our numbers, the quarterly dividend that all family members and their spouses or significant others receive will be somewhat reduced—at least for a while.”