Atlas Shrugged

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 "Then don't take cognizance of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't come asking my reason."
"But, Mr. Rearden, we cannot let a refusal to obey the law pass unnoticed. What do you expect us to
do?"
"Whatever you wish."
"But this is totally unprecedented. Nobody has ever refused to sell an essential commodity to the
government. As a matter of fact, the law does not permit you to refuse to sell your Metal to any
consumer, let alone the government."
"Well, why don't you arrest me, then?"
"Mr. Rearden, this is an amicable discussion. Why speak of such things as arrests?"
"Isn't that your ultimate argument against me?"
"Why bring it up?"
"Isn't it implied in every sentence of this discussion?"
"Why name it?"
"Why not?" There was no answer. "Arc you trying to hide from me the fact that if it weren't for that
trump card of yours, I wouldn't have allowed you to enter this office?"
"But I'm not speaking of arrests."
"I am.11
"I don't understand you, Mr. Rearden."
"I am not helping you to pretend that this is any sort of amicable discussion. It isn't. Now do what you
please about it."
There was a strange look on the man's face: bewilderment, as if he had no conception of the issue
confronting him, and fear, as if he had always had full knowledge of it and had lived in dread of exposure.
Rearden felt a strange excitement; he felt as if he were about to grasp something he had never
understood, as if he were on the trail of some discovery still too distant to know, except that it had the
most immense importance he had ever glimpsed.
"Mr. Rearden" said the man, "the government needs your Metal.
You have to sell it to us, because surely you realize that the government's plans cannot be held up by the
matter of your consent."