Chapter 3

Doug was very unhappy with the way his quest for utopia was working out. Oh, there was no problem with the way things were as far as the people were concerned. In the last hundred or so years, Doug's World had grown into Doug's Empire. The entire world was now run by the benevolent bureaucracy that Doug had instigated. What worried Doug was that he was afraid that his empire would turn into a Mandarin China, where all progress was stifled because nobody wanted to rock the boat.

The vast majority of the people were quite happy, with only a few soreheads unhappy because they were not running things. The situation now appeared that the empire could not be overturned by civil unrest, simply because the vast majority of the populace would not permit it. Sure, there were occasional local disturbances where another warlord reared his ugly head, but mostly, there was a universal peace permeating the thinking of every citizen.

The economy was growing by the proverbial leaps and bounds. The bureaucracy had to keep a careful eye on the tendency toward inflation, simply because people assumed that things could only get better, so they were not reluctant to go into debt to buy whatever they wanted.

The latest boom was in personal transportation. Two, three, and four-wheel vehicles were everywhere. Doug had foreseen this coming, so he had pushed for the development of a hydrogen-based fuel distribution system. This did not completely eliminate pollution, because oxides of nitrogen were produced in the combustion chamber, and they could not be prevented. This resulted in the formation of nitric acid in the exhaust and it had to be scrubbed from there before the gases could be released.

Most people were sloppy about recharging the scrubbing system, so the engines were factory equipped with a gadget which would not let the engine run if the scrubbing system was not working adequately. People were still having their engines quit on them under the most embarrassing circumstances, but it usually happened only once to each person. For one thing, there was a heavy fine associated with being caught with the problem, and the perpetrator was always caught!

For a while, there was a group that got rich by selling a bypass to keep the engines running even though the scrubber had quit working. Doug ordered the bureaucracy to ignore them and the problem was quickly self-limiting, as the nitric acid destroyed the engine within a few weeks. The expense of replacing the engine was much greater than the inconvenience of maintaining the exhaust scrubber, so that group was soon out of business.

Doug had always pushed for R&D (research and development), especially in medicine and chemistry. The last thousand years had seen the science of healing and prevention climb from nowhere to rivaling, even surpassing, what was available in Doug's 21^st century. About the only way a person could not be helped was if he was already dead; otherwise, he could expect a speedy and complete recovery.

The bureaucracy had seen that free medical care was available to all, but abusers were branded with a tattoo to that effect on their forehead, so people were careful about idly dropping in to the local hospital emergency room unless they really needed care.

Big Prick, as he was known to his associates, both for his actual size and for his attitude, was tired of being a small time grifter. The people loved to gamble, and there were no restrictions on the pastime, so there were monster and tiny gambling establishments throughout Doug's Empire. Big Prick ran one of the tiny operations and he longed to be a big operator, but his greed and ineptitude in human relations had kept him from realizing his ambition.

As soon as one of Big Prick's employees started to show some administrative or other skill, Big Prick fired him out of fear of losing control of his operation. Therefore, Big Prick's gambling establishment was mired in mediocrity. Even the cheating was half-assed and the customers soon found out that they would be better treated at other establishments. Big Prick was forced to keep a large staff, both in number and physical size, on the premises just to break up disturbances caused by unhappy customers.

Big Prick visited the fortune teller he kept on retainer to try to gain some insight into increasing his business. The fortune teller was no fool, so she refrained from telling Big Prick the real reason for his lack of success. Instead, she suggested that he change his business model. Instead of remaining in the gambling business, except as a cover for his other business interest, she suggested that Big Prick start a protection racket. He already had a staff of "bouncers" that would fit right in with a protection scheme, and, though she didn't say so, Big Prick certainly had the personality to go with running a protection racket.

The fortune teller told Big Prick to use his bouncers to disrupt some more successful gambling halls, and then promise to prevent such disruptions for a fee. This was no gamble, but a sure thing as far as Big Prick could see, so he immediately accepted her advice.

Broad Shoulders kept a close eye on the gambling establishments on his beat. Broad Shoulders really enjoyed being a cop in an area thick with gambling houses, there was always something going on. He never had a chance to become bored, since, if nothing else, he spent a lot of time breaking up fights. His name told it all, he had yet to find a brawler who was as strong as he was, so he rarely had to exert his maximum strength.

On this particular day, a citizen ran up to him, "Officer Broad Shoulders, there is a big fight going on in the Lucky Flip. A couple of monster bullies are beating up anybody they can reach and breaking the machines."

"Thanks, I'll look into it right now." The business in question was two blocks away and around the corner, so it took Broad Shoulders a few minutes to get there. By the time he reached the place, several injured people were lying on the sidewalk, and there was the sound of chaos coming through the door.

Broad Shoulders stuck his head through the door and saw mayhem personified. Too many customers to count were lying about, some with broken bones. Most of the gambling machines were smashed, and two of the largest men Broad Shoulders had ever seen were swinging hammers against the few remaining intact machines.

He used his tactical radio to call for backup and EMTs, expressing dismay at the destruction. Broad Shoulders knew that he was over matched by the two men swinging the hammers, but he felt that he had to do something. He stepped through the door and blew his whistle. One of the giants turned to face him while the other continued to smash machines.

Broad Shoulders saw this as a small advantage—he might have a chance against one of the men, whereas he had no chance if they acted together. Beat cops had guns, but they were discouraged from using them by having mountains of paperwork to fill out for every bullet fired. Therefore, Broad Shoulders readied his baton and moved toward the giant who was facing him. He knew that it was a monumental waste of time, but he did warn the hulk facing him that the giant was under arrest and should surrender quietly.

The brute just laughed and swung his sledge hammer at Broad Shoulders, who dodged the swing and poked the fool in the solar plexus with his baton. No matter how big a person might be, a solid blow to the solar plexus will distract him, if nothing less. In this case, the giant only WHOOFED out some air and tried to take another swing at Broad Shoulders with the hammer. The fool would have had a better chance of winning the battle if he had dropped the hammer and just used his arms and hands. The inertia of the large hammer made it hard to control and Broad Shoulders found it easy to dodge, again.

This time, Broad Shoulders stoped fooling around and struck his assailant in the side of the knee with a solid whack from his baton. There was the satisfying sound of bone breaking as the giant fell to the floor, nursing a nearly destroyed knee. Broad shoulders rapped the giant on the other knee to be sure that the man stayed out of the fight before he turned to the other giant still wielding his hammer.