I gave the enforcement team ten minutes to take their positions. The secondary estate of House Bruce was a simple build, rustic and practical. Its layout had only three access points to worry about. The sun wasn’t due for another couple of hours. I was the time and thought about the last time I was part of a raid. It was in the First Era, and I was still in my freshman days. House Raethian, an ancient name rendered to ash. Operations in the First Era had been more heavy- handed because they had to be. The Directory’s first incarnation had a reputation of authority to build. I still remember all the little ways that raid went wrong. Every turning point of error and every second-guess.

While en route to the country estate of House Bruce I reiterated that no one was to speak, sneeze, or stumble into something. Anyone in violation of this rule, intentional or accidental, would be jailed as a saboteur. In the weeks leading to this point, I screened the enforcers suggested to me, choosing only those who had no medical record of allergies, anxiety disorders, or sleeping sickness. Each one was then required to submit to a physical exam. That had been the first misstep in my last raid. One of the enforcers had coughed outside the window of the heir of House Raethian. The boy was startled awake and ran off to alert the rest of the family. As the lights blinked on the lead enforcer knee-jerked and started bellowing his commands, which let the family know that they were being raided, rather than robbed. The enforcement team, shot full of sudden adrenaline, rushed in right as the House was forming its defenses. I wasn’t going to have some sneeze be the catalyst to another massacre, particularly one I was the lead on.

I raised my arm to signal the final hold. My watcher nodded and sent the signal down the line. All of these enforcers were recruited and trained in the Highlands. The training they received emphasized discretion and personal restraint. They were taught the orderly discipline of the Invisible Fist, a fighting style as much as a philosophy. The time turned and I lowered my arm and watched the motion echo down the synchronized shadows. There would be no battering rams to sound an alarm. I’d sent the three best locksmiths to the access points and each was assigned their own near and far watchers.

Steady, I watched the time as the enforcers slipped in like ghosts. The clock turned once, and all were inside by then but for the perimeter watch. By the second turn, they would be in position at the bedroom doors. By the clock’s third turn the entry hall lights came on and the first watcher sounded his whistle. It was quick, but was it clean? I headed into the house.

The shackled members of House Bruce sat side by side on the foyer floor.

“Collect any documents you find. Wires, receipts, old diaries, all of it.” I told the watchers. They spread through the estate as I approached House Bruce.

Soren Bruce, the House’s patriarch, wore a look that said he would have strangled me if it weren’t for his restraints. “I knew all that talk of mutuality was bluster. Do you still do your beheadings in Circus Square? Or do you have some brave new way of handling executions?” He said. I shrugged it off, I’d been warned that Soren could be bombastic. That he would try to make me mis-step.

“I would consider the new punitive measures much nicer. We call it demeriting and it won’t cost any of you your lives. Well, not the existential aspect at least. As for all of this…” I gestured at the tall wood-paneled hall.

“You’ll end up regretting this. You don’t know what you’re doing,” the matriarch, Daphne, spat at me.

“Not as much as you will if you keep to that approach. Know this, I’m not unsympathetic to the pain of change, but I will leave you to the mercy of the Directory if you give me a good reason to wash my hands of this case.” The ball rolled to their court. The family eyed each other. Patriarch, matriarch, heir. The watchers were coming down the stairs carrying away crates of the family’s documented details. Soren Bruce stared at the parade. He sighed, looked at his wife, and shook his head at her desperate glances.

“What happens to us if we cooperate with you?” He said to me.

“That’s hard to tell just yet. A lot depends on how interesting all these documents end up being. But if you work with me and answer any questions I have honestly, I keep your case and direct the investigation. There are enough scribes in my office to give me the summary of your House’s dealings in a week or two. You will be kept informed of any changes to the case against you and if nothing too egregious arises I’ll recommend you be re-located to Auview or the Limes, where your son will still be able to visit you—“

“You’ll break our family apart,” Daphne sobbed.

“Your son is a grown man. If he follows through with his union contract, and soon, he will be allowed to inherit the House intact.” I looked to Christain to make sure he was understanding. “This country estate will be taken from you, there’s no avoiding that now. You, Christain, will keep your primary estate on probationary terms.”

The heir nodded and his mother sobbed. “You can’t join our son to House Silvia, if you knew the history, it’s not right…”

“Lady Bruce, you’ve no idea what I or the Directory knows about the history of your Houses, nor do you know the intricacies of the system used to develop the pairings for these union contracts. Finally, your own choice to try and evade this contract has nullified any say you might have ever had on the matter.”

The lead watcher returned to inform me that they’d finished packing and the trucks were waiting. “Separate them. The heir goes to my Auview office and the other two will go to the smaller holding facility on the Midland’s campus.”

MEMORANDUM

No. 51/ Series III

DIVERSION: The Primary Strategy

History has proven that the simplest method of maintaining control of the Commons is to keep them undisciplined and ignorant of the functions of bureaucratic systems, while also promoting a state of confusion, disorganization, and distraction using matters of no true importance.

METHODS

I. Mental disengagement and the disabling of critical reasoning can be achieved by providing a low-quality program of public education in mathematics, logic, systems design, and economics, as well as by discouraging technical creativity.

II. Engagement of emotions, an increase of self-indulgence as well as their indulgence in emotional and physical activities, via:

Unrelenting emotional confrontations and trauma by way of sex, violence, and war imagery disseminated through media. Giving people what they desire in excess, i.e. junk food for thought.

III. Revision of historical records and law to shift thinking to fabricated external priorities.

These methods preclude and prevent unwanted interest in social automation technology.

SUMMARY

MEDIA: Keep adult public attention diverted from social issues and engaged with matters of no real importance.

SCHOOLS: Educate youth in revised mathematics, revised economics, revised law, and revised history.

ENTERTAINMENT: Captivating, not informing.

WORK: Busy populations are tired populations.

[CONCLUDED]