"Guys, get your butts up here.", I called to my servants. Sarah arrived first, and I told her what I've been planning to do for the last couple of days.

"So you're going to go there with no one else in the whole place, sounds like fun, but those things are high... I don't get it, you have the jet for that shit.", Sarah said, mildly surprised at my plan.

"Yeah, but the jet's just predictable. Also there's all that other crap to worry about while I'm using it, you know, the fuel, the risk of being seen, all that crap. I only go up there like twice every three months in it, and it's basically the same, I turn, I know where the acceleration goes, I go pretty damn fast. It just doesn't seem.. well, real. Like a giant video game is more like it, only if I don't land it right, game over. Besides, this is for another reason. I have to know what these places would be like. Remember, millions of normals are exposed to this all the time, and it's their idea of fun.." I gave my servants the exact same explanation I gave to myself, as they sat next to me on the couch to see exactly where it was we were going.

"I get it, Howard. But what about someone seeing you?", Sarah said offhand. Apparently she didn't realize I planned this already.

"Sarah, at a distance I'm not all that discernable from anyone else, except for the albinism, which I'm not gonna disguise- too annoying. I can cloak the hair with a good sweater though, and no one will see the fingers. Also their security guards were made ill by a.. heh heh.. 'flu' going around and they had to have some replacements."

"So you've planned all this out in advance... I suppose all the clothes will be normal-looking, you've selected a place where the weather will be fairly cold, and you've got the transportation down too.", Sarah said, examining the location.

"Yup."

"I was not expecting you to think of the cold part. You're, well.. well, after the second test I shouldn't be too surprised."

"An Illuminatus. I don't forget the real world." Billy and Paul started chuckling. Bah. Let them mock.

We left in ten minutes, the jet blasting to the Illuminated airport nearest to the destination. We sat in bored silence and I idly wondered what the place would really be like. It takes hundreds of normal designers to make a place like that, and it's designed for lots of entertainment for lots and lots of normals, which makes having the entire place to myself an excellent-sounding prospect. The flight took about two hours, and as we got out to meet the approaching white limousine, Billy and Paul looked around, perplexed. Perhaps that's because we're in the middle of a large military base with absolutely no one around except a few guard Enforcers.

"And no normal is watching us at all.", Billy finally said.

"And no normal can.", I replied, grinning.

"You guys are.."

"More ingrained into the system than you thought.", I informed him, as the limo's two back doors opened to reveal a comfortable interior. "Unfortunately, this is about it. A lot of things that would symbolize power.. but just not enough direct. You know better than to worry about that."

Sarah looked around the interior of the limo and nodded. "This is one of the newer models. It's got the face-changers in it. We're not going to look like ourselves through these windows." Paul's face betrayed his disbelief. Usually, Illuminated windows are tinted, with a polarized mirror- the sun or other lights always glare off the window so that normals can't see inside, but the glare is gone for the occupants. This is a new trick, one that I haven't heard of, but new tricks that I haven't heard of are part of the business.

The better part of an hour passed before we arrived, the gate automatically opening with a creak of metal. There was a lot of pavement, with markings everywhere for normals to park their cars- thousands of them, from the looks of it. But there were no normals, of course, and this would be a great place to play an extra-large game of roller hockey, the giant lightposts serving as obstacles. The limo parked next to several booths- must be for tickets to enter, I figured- and we got out and walked past them, between the guard Enforcers who had opened the gates, in the direction of the larger roller coasters.

I had ordered every self-sustaining automated system in the amusement park to be on, and I heard its strange, unique sounds and smelled a very weird foodlike smell even before we stepped through the garish front door. What greeted my eyes was even more obscenely demented than what greeted my ears. There is absolutely no way to describe it without individually mentioning every item. A large, rotating object with plastic horses and sleighs was to the right, lights flashing. On top of it was an enormous mutant-clown face glowing with an internal lamp. To the left was something extremely fucked up- it must have been a six-year-old normal's idea of the set of an old Western. Unfortunately, there'd be no gunslingers popping out of the woodwork to execute unsuspecting sheeple (how's that for entertainment, kids?). Directly in front of us was a twelve foot tall, monstrously ugly fountain with blue water spewing from its top. Some distance from us were the entrances to the large, brightly-painted coasters. There was far too much other stuff which I didn't even bother to look at. Everything made noise, and the smell of whatever-the-hell was strong. Yes.. hell is the proper word for this. I have an arcade in which to overstimulate my brain in an effort to reset it. This place didn't try to reset my brain- it tried to fry in an inferno of far, far too many strange stimuli, none of which made sense. I blinked my eyes a few times and shook my head slowly back and forth, trying to develop the defenses that normals must have on their senses to possibly visit places like this.

Another solution, one involving lots of destruction, took its turn upon my thoughts. "Uuugh.. if I had the time and the secrecy I'd redecorate this whole place..", I said. I had the feeling my servants agreed with me and would joyfully offer specific ideas. I would have loved a rocket launcher right then. A really big, ugly one with the most powerful explosives known to bioengineered man. I was carrying the Micro, naturally- I was very, very tempted to use it- but secrecy must be preserved. Even at the cost of sanity.

"Well.. I'm glad I came here just for that, anyway. It's an art gallery of the disturbed. And the closer you look at it, the more disturbing it becomes. I've never seen this much insanity in any one place.", I said, trying to make some sense of my surroundings. 'Never seen this much insanity' is an understatement. It's not even close. The dose of pure madness I got from walking through that bright red door was much larger than all the smaller doses I've received previously, combined. And I control the Illuminati.

"This place is hell.", Sarah said, sighing and matching my thoughts. "Guys, I've been trained to react to every strange light, every strange movement, every strange smell- what the hell is that, anyway?"

"Artificial food.", Billy answered simply. Ah. Must be more 'artificial' than 'food', though.

"..and every strange noise. You think about that.. and you look around you." She can react to them all, of course- she's Sarah, she could shoot every light and sound device in range- but it's an incredibly taxing and unrewarding thing to do.

"Yeah.. none of you jump at little shit because there's never any little shit to jump at.. but in a place like this..", Paul said.

"For you.. it might be annoying.", I told him. "But for an engineered- no, more like anyone with quick reaction time and a better sense of \'e6sthetics.. this is just plain lunus."

"When secrecy ends, so does this place..", Sarah said, again matching my thoughts.

"That's exactly what I was thinking.", Billy replied before I did.

"Yes, and we could use the metal to build a far superior one in its place. Come on.", I replied, jogging to the large coasters and they followed behind, eager to get out of the middle of the insanity and into a less-stimulating branch of it. A series of waist-high railings blocked our path from us to the coaster, as televisions hanging from the thin ceiling played cartoons. I didn't know what the hell to make of it- was it some weird game before the ride? My brain responded with a visualization of a very long line of normals, the railing determining their path. Ah, that's what they're for, and I've found that my brain is still working right after all. But it was a game for me, and I hand-vaulted from railing to railing, only touching the ground when absolutely necessary, moving as fast as possible. Billy and Sarah joined in, with Paul just crouch-running under them.

I took a look at the coaster from its start point. Large, yes. Lots of weird turns that no sane hominid would make in any kind of aircraft, yes. Safe, almost certainly- bailing out at eighty miles per hour, although lots of fun to look at, is no fun to actually try yourself.

Paul arrived then and pointed out something I should have noticed. "So who's going to operate this thing?", he asked. Who else?

"Enforcer, here quickly.", I said, and one became available and present in fifteen seconds. "Do you know how to operate this equipment?", I asked it.

"No."

"Learn." I was expecting it to perform a complicated system of trial-and-error tests on the button-laden equipment- instead it used its logic and pulled out a paper-bound manual from a shelf in the operator's booth. It took it twenty seconds to flip through it and understand the machinery- when it told me it was finished, Billy got into the front seat and he moved over to the right to make room for me. Sarah and then Paul got in the seat behind us. "Send us around this coaster's course once.", I commanded the Enforcer, and I felt the powerful, ponderous acceleration of the machinery. The coaster, I noticed, doesn't have its own engine. The tracks power it, and the third rail's electricity was apparently enough to match a subway car. As it started up, a padded bar clacked into place for us to hold on to, and I idly tested how much slow force it takes to push it back. It must take a strong normal.. no, wait..

IT HAS NO GIVE AT ALL!!

THIS IS A FUCKING TRAP!

"BILLY, HELP ME!!", I shouted, as he was only looking at me, not knowing what to do- he helped push it on my command, and the steel screamed and gave way under our combined strength, the bar much more tilted from my side as I had obviously put far more adrenalin into my push than Billy had.

I was about to shout to the Enforcer- assuming the Enforcer would even obey me now- when I heard Billy shout into my ear, "Don't!"

If he knows something I don't, now's a really, really good time to tell me! "Explain!", I commanded him immediately.

"They always go there! They're always there for everybody! They're a safety feature, you sheltered moron!", he said, very quickly. What... the... hell? Paul was laughing at me and I realized my mistake. With every safety device I've seen, a swift jerk is assumed to be the result of a crash or hard braking and the safety device will not give. A slow pull or push always will. These, apparently, don't work like that.

"Shit..", I said, as I realized another safety issue. Negative G-forces and rapid deceleration would throw me from the seat if I didn't provide enough counter-force. That's what the restraint bar was supposed to be for.

"You're not going to chicken out just for that, are ya?", Sarah asked, grinning, as Paul continued laughing in a low voice. Crap. Should I or not?

"Not sure calling it would be wise." Doing the ride without the bar in its proper place could mean a trip through the air- I'm not sure just how much strength I'd need to keep my body in the seat- and calling the Enforcer to stop it may mean a dangerous climb down with possible secrecy violations. I wish I knew more about how this damn thing worked, and I really wish that a certain someone would tell me these things before shit like that happens. "You should have warned me about this..", I told Billy, looking him in the eye.

He looked at me with some exasperation. "Fuck if I know your logic..", he replied, as we reached the top of the slope.

I looked down. "Oh, shit.", we all said, as I pushed hard against the bar to keep from falling too far forward- but I didn't need to, as the car began a very, very rapid decline, faster than gravity, my hair being pushed back by the wind. I don't know if this is what the normals get or if the Enforcer is operating it at maximum speed. The coaster fell straight down before it continued on its journey. I didn't have to hang on as desperately for dear life as I'd worried, but if this place is overdue for safety inspections we're all dead. Hopefully, the one human agent I used to commission this place didn't leave any large sections of track missing. But hey, what's a hundred kilometers an hour impact onto solid concrete between friends? I didn't look anywhere but straight ahead. A speeding track is less terrifying than watching the horizon move upwards. Then the corkscrew loops came, and it pushed my body down and to the left, pressing my left gun against my side, and Billy pushed to avoid being pressed into me.

"Billy, when this is over, I'm going to command you as to what telling me things really means..", I told him, annoyed but not serious. I saw what was coming up next. A nice, big, nose-downward loop that would just love to yank us out of our seats with plenty of negative G's.

"When this is over, you can command my carcass, you assmeister!", Billy shouted. Sarah and Paul laughed uproariously. My forehead filled with blood as I held myself to the seat with my knees under the chair and my hands on the bar.

The rest of the ride was far more tame than the first parts, although there was a bit more loopiness near the end, which came as a relief, the car stopping exactly where it had started from. Sarah and Paul's bar moved upwards with a clack- the one in front with us simply made a pathetic click.

"Billy.. Illuminated safety devices do not work like that.", I told him, as I stepped out and tried to ease my muscle aches.

"Howard, Illuminated safety devices are designed with the rider's sense of authority in mind- they serve people who are used to a certain degree of mastery over their environment. This park's rides were designed with the opposite of that mentality." The term 'sheeple' needs to be modified a bit. That 'le' doesn't belong there.

"Ugh."

There were two more large coasters in the park and we did them both- they weren't as large nor as fast as the first. I mentally cooked up plans for a park built for engineereds, one where moving scythes would need to be shot in order for the rider to survive. Normals would be annihilated, but that would be one hell of a lot of fun for us.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the coasters were the only fun thing in the park. There was a water area, but there was no way in Hell I'd get wet in this kind of weather. Having my body heat bled like a Nigerian oil pipeline is not my idea of fun. We wandered around fairly aimlessly and I pondered just saying fuckit and going home.

"Why haven't you guys gotten on that one?", Paul said, pointing to a ride that said Gravitron, something that looked like a closed-off merry-go-round to me. I looked at him quizzically, and Billy looked at the ride, thinking. "Don't you remember, Billy? When you stood up?"

"Oh, that's like that one! But that one was up in the air. Yeah, I remember.", he replied.

"Yeah, and the park guy was going 'Lay down! Lie the fuck down!' and everyone else was trying to stand up too?", Paul said, excited by the memory and eagerly walking towards the entrance of the ride. We followed him, interested.

"That's right! And if I remember right they almost kicked me out of the park. If they only knew, right?", Billy replied, laughing a bit.

"Okay. What the hell are you two talking about?", I asked them.

"G-forces, Howard. We're talking about G-forces.", Paul replied. Well, I guessed that much..

As Paul opened the door to a large, circular room with lights and speakers in the ceiling and what appeared to be mostly-vertical beds along the walls, I immediately realized how it applies gravity: it spins. Ah. Billy, being fantastically stronger than everyone else there, would be able to stand up in an environment where others would have trouble even sitting properly, even with his denser body. Of course, it would be extra fun to run against the spin, neutralizing the gravity.

I immediately called over an Enforcer and ordered it to figure out how fast it was designed to go. Fortunately, the manual was again right there and it was able to figure it out immediately. "Twelve meters per second recommended, fourteen meters per second maximum.", it said.

"How many Earth gravities is that?"

"Users should experience approximately three at recommended and four maximum."

"Oh, of course. The room's ten meters wide.", I said, leaning on one of the vertical beds.

"Huh?", Paul said, baffled, as he leaned on a bed.

"He knows his physics, Paul.", Billy said. "What's the equation?", he asked me, as he chose an angled bed exactly opposite mine.

"V^2/R.", I answered. "Enforcer, keep these safe." I casually tossed it all my weapons; so did Billy. Even a few extra pounds is extremely undesirable. "Turn this thing on maximum speed." As if I'd accept anything less. The machine started up- some of the lights and the speakers didn't turn on. Good, the Enforcer wasn't commanded to turn those on and didn't. I'm going to try this and I don't want to be annoyed. I decided to let it spin up first- would be too easy otherwise- and I watched a metal plate go over the exit (safety, I reminded myself- if there wasn't one, normals who got stupid would fly out the door) as we started moving counter-clockwise. I stopped leaning on the vertical bed and started laying on it, as sideways became down and I saw the Enforcer calmly sitting in the operator's seat on the wall. It wasn't feeling shit for force; velocity decreases linearly with distance from the center. The angled beds were on rollers, and moved backwards towards what would normally be the ceiling, and as I felt my own mass pin me to what was now the floor I grinned and realized how much power I'd need to pick up three of myself and stand.

"Is this what it's like to be normal?", Sarah asked, as it reached maximum spin and she sat up with effort. I moved my body so that I was leaning against a number of beds, with my head counter-clockwise of my legs.

"Worse in many ways, probably better in others, it doesn't.. correspond.", Paul replied. "But for you it's probably closer to it."

I sat up and got to a squatting position, mild pain in my legs and back. I tried to stand up, start running.. it was difficult, I opened up power.. and I stood up and started walking laboriously, my power screaming with what looked like a simple thing. I moved upwards along the beds and tried to move faster and faster, knowing that the more relative speed I accumulated, the less gravity would affect me. Billy was watching me and decided to follow my every move. Good choice. I usually know what I'm doing.

But I was getting dizzy, lightheaded, blind.. of course! All the fucking blood's rushing out of my head! I had to do it now or collapse. I forced my legs to move faster, faster, push against the real floor, start moving.. and the spin gradually went away as I actually started running on the real floor and the usual amount of blood returned to my brain. Billy continued to match what I did.

"That's not four G's where you guys are, is it?", Paul asked.

"We're not moving, so it's just Earth.", I answered. My running was about four meters per second, as I orbited the operator's section fairly leisurely.

"Heh, we beat this one. I wonder if we could do it at five?", Billy considered, smiling.

"We'd have to fuck with the machine, but do you really want to try?", I replied. I sure as hell didn't want to, but I wondered what would happen if he did. He'd probably pass out if he got up.

"No, actually. That wasn't nice to my head. Or the rest of me, for that matter."

"Enforcer, slow it to a stop and return our weapons.", I told it, and the spin gradually slowed. I probably could have just told it to turn it off- I doubt the thing would stop immediately (and likely kill or injure every normal inside) under any circumstances.

"Aww, but I liked feeling helplessly crucified with glue!", Paul said with more than enough sarcasm.

"You did? I'll have to keep that in mind.", I replied. Just maybe, if I get really bored..

The Enforcer handed back our guns and I considered what to do next. Hmm.. ah, an arcade. The full-sized arcade machines in the basement are, surprisingly enough, not updated. It'll be interesting to see whether the normals' games have gotten better or (more likely, given the usual behavior of normals) worse.

Worse, I decided, as I only had to briefly glance at many of the screens to tell that they were crap before finding something worthwhile. I'll start playing.. wait, it's asking for 'credits'.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Billy. "Damnit.. I bring everything useful and forget that these need money.", I muttered.

"Heh heh.. well, you could just..", he replied, leaving the last part an unspoken act of violence. Bah. It's not breaking it open that's the issue. Of course I can break it open. But I don't know where the internal wiring is and I'm likely to chop the whole thing to bits. But if I went for where the tokens are..

"That's exactly what I'm going to do." I was going to rip the locking mechanism out with a fist-blade, but I realized that I'd jam it shut and didn't do damage. Then I just punched through the door, but, surprisingly, the metal was too strong for me to cut through after I punched; puncturing is much easier than cutting. Fuck it, I decided. I pulled a gun.

"Howie, let a professional handle this.", Sarah said, picking up a paperclip. I'll just have to see this for myself. She bent the paperclip and used half of it as a tension bar and the other half as the lockpick, easily popping the lock. I knew she was good. I didn't know she was that good.

The game, unfortunately, was not worth the effort. "Worthless. To think real money was spent making it.", I said, disgusted. Too many unpreventable hits and far too much lameness. Normals might say they hate lameness, but they're not going to slay who they consider lamers.

And, as if on cue, I spotted four normal teenage lamers as I walked out of the arcade. So did an Enforcer, which simply said, "Get out of here. The park is closed." No shit. Apparently my human agent didn't order enough Enforcers to patrol all parts of the park at all times. But I don't fault him- who's dumb enough to break into an amusement park where people are apparently testing it?

"Dude.. if the park is closed then who are they?", one of the younger ones said, flaunting his stupidity the way his female peers do their breasts. The Enforcer didn't answer him. I decided to number him 1, his younger friend 2, and the two older boys 3 and 4.

"Enforcers, ignore them.", I ordered. I came here for entertainment, after all.

"Enforcers?!", 1 exploded. "Who the hell are you, the manager's faggot kids or something?" Fucking hell, normals are idiotic. Can't you see the way it talks, you fuck? Can't you tell that the thing near you is either a very professional-acting human or isn't human at all? Can't you tell that I'm so far above you on the evolutionary scale that my piss will be at terminal velocity before it reaches your thick head?

Apparently one of them was trying to climb the evolutionary gap. "Ryan, I think they're something a bit different than that. Let's just get out of here.", 3 said, edgy, paranoid, and ready to break and run.

"I wanna know what the hell's going on. Dude, who are you?", Ryan (hmm, nah, I think I'll just keep thinking of him as 1) said, his lack of fear due to stupidity and not real bravery.

"And what's with the fingers?", 2 joined in. You really want to know?! Fine! I'll show you!

I rushed them and grabbed 1 and 2's throats, lifting them up into the air easily. "Hey, let them go!", 4 shouted, but then his voice was choked off as he realized that I was indeed holding two of his friends up in the air by the throat. But I did let them go, tossing them to the ground and hitting 4 in the cheek with the back of my hand, making a sound like a ball player hitting a home run. 4 clutched his broken cheek in screaming agony. It's a good thing we're near the center of the park- I don't want secrecy damaged because of this assclown.

1 screamed- an incredibly annoying scream- and shouted, "Dude, what the hell are you?!", scrambling to his feet. Can't you figure it out? I could have just killed him, but I realized that there's a normal here who needs to be taught a lesson.

"Paul, get over here, I'm going to teach you how to kill today.", I said, and I heard his approach. 3, I noticed, was still standing there with his feet rooted to the ground, paralyzed with fear, watching with wide eyes. Ryan had no such fear and tried to punch me. I was half-tempted to let him hit and feel the density of my bones that way, but in annoyance I just grabbed his slow-moving hand and squeezed it. Everything from his wrist to his fingertips simply went squish, and he went from hero wannabe to screaming child, whimpering for his mommy, in half a second. 2 was on his hands and knees, trying to get up, and I gave him a sharp kick to the stomach, causing him to orally expel blood.

1 decided that his best chance of survival- as if he had any chance of survival!- was to get on his knees and inarticulately beg for my mercy. I actually do have mercy, but it's in such short supply that I can't be bothered wasting it on idiots like this one.

"Paul, punt his face like a football player.", I commanded him, stepping out of his way. It was actually a very nice hit for someone like him, the steel toe snapping 1's nose and sending him on his back, knocking his head against the concrete with a coconut-like sound. 3 took the moment to lose his paralysis, but retained all of his fear and he screamed as loud as he possibly could and ran as fast as I've seen any normal run.

"Enforcers, bring him back to me.", I said, pointing at him. His running speed did not even come close to the Enforcers' and he was brought back, an Enforcer on each arm, screaming like crazy. In a way it reminded me of the struggle from the suicide command Damien had on Paul.

"That one might have some use... he did figure out you were something more than you seem.", Billy said.

"Hmm.. I wonder... could we have uses for this one?", I said, looking at him.

"I don't think so, Howard.", Sarah replied, and of course she was right.

"Pity.", I said, shrugging and slamming his nose deep into his brain, flattening his face with a snap of bone. The Enforcers, realizing that they couldn't further carry out their 'bring him' command as he was no longer there, dropped his corpse with a thump. Paul gasped and I took the opportunity to teach him.

"Paul, this is what you must learn. Their lives are worthless, and were forfeited the moment they came in here and saw my face. Had they obeyed the signs, they would have stayed out. Unfortunately, way too many normals get in way too far above their heads." He should know. "Now, you see the whimpering one on the ground there?", I said, gesturing to 2.

"Yes.."

"Kill him, without weapons.", I ordered him. A daunting task, but he can do it. And he tried hard, kicking hard and repeatedly with the steel toe, and I heard the telltale snap of skull. However, it wasn't a big enough break, and 2 continued moaning. Paul completely flipped out, grabbed 2's skull, and just bashed it into the concrete again and again until he was sure the victim was dead. "Good. Now let's see..." Who's next, and who to save for last? I'll let Sarah decide.

"Now, Sarah, show Paul how you do it." Sarah grabbed 4's head with both hands- he started to say something beginning with P- and she snapped his neck in a single move and dropped the body much as the Enforcers had dropped 3. I realized how angry I was about thirty seconds ago, and how much the fresh scent of blood and the agonized screaming of 1 relaxed me. I considered chowing down and decided against it. If these guys eat the same kind of junk that I smelled coming into the park, I don't want to consume the same chemicals after their partial decomposition. Their blood's probably loaded with drugs anyway.

"Dammit Howard, you know I'm not that strong!", Paul shouted.

"Oh, I know. That's not as important as you think. It just means it takes you longer. Now kill this one- with a weapon." Paul ended 1's screams with a single, silenced shot in the center of the forehead. 1's lips pursed before he realized he was dead.

"Howard- did you have to do that?!", Paul shouted as loud as permissible. I was about to reprimand him for being an idiot but I realized that he meant the brutality and not the killing per se.

"Did it matter? Paul, you're forgetting the simple fact that anyone who sees me is either dead, an Illuminatus, or a servant. And those four were not Illuminati-grade material nor were they fit to be servants, and I could not let them live as anything else." I took special care not to list the brutality as even relevant.

"I know they were supposed to be dead anyway.. but.. dammit, you just killed them like... like baby chickens or something!", he said, pushing the issue.

I sighed. "Paul... you still have those old morals, don't you."

"Y- yes, I- I guess I do! Even though you said I'd see this.." Ugh. Okay.. I'm not in the mood for this and he should have already figured it out, but I told myself I'd teach him a lesson and I'm going to follow through on that.

"Paul, this isn't very hard to grasp, back when you were in normal society, your conscious actions aided the death and suffering of human beings. I think you already knew that, you just didn't want to face it. Every time you bought something, every time you rode in a car or ate a banana, you set in motion or helped continue a chain of events that helped kill or torture someone, maybe someone close, maybe someone on the other side of the planet. This is no different. Decisions I make can kill tens of thousands, you know that. So for your own sanity's sake, lose the local morality." He'll have to, if he's going to be present when the real party begins and I declare the End of Secrecy.

"Yeah.. you're right. I didn't know either of you had that kind of killer instinct though, even when you told me about those peasants in the first test. You", he said, pointing at Sarah, "I did."

"To kill or not to kill, that's not the question.", she said, smirking a bit.

Unfortunately, the question is what to do with the bodies after I've killed them. Fuck it. Not my problem. I called up the public-control Illuminatus responsible for this geographic area and ordered him to take care of it- they died in a tragic amusement park accident after trying to operate a ride. The Enforcers I'm using here would also obey him (or he could call up the agent I used and get him to make them obey), so I told him to just use those and reminded him to make sure the Enforcers cycled properly.

The limo had sat there the entire time, the Enforcer patiently waiting for our return. "Not nearly as good as you hoped, Howard?", Sarah asked as it drove away, the gates creaking open once more.

"Not nearly as good, but many times as weird. Absolutely freakish.", I answered.

"All a matter of perspective..", Paul said.

"No, Paul.", Billy told him. "Normals would find it freakish, if only they looked for the freakishness. But it's a cover for manipulation. They call those things tourist traps.", he said, his tone remarkably like mine. And I put a new meaning to the term "tourist trap"...

"If money meant anything to us anymore, I'd put that down on the list of ways to get idiots to give it to us. A tiny part of it can be siphoned from the controlling corporation.. but that's no reason not to level the place.", I said. "Let's see.. how many American dollars were spent on construction.." I checked with the mini-screen in the limo. 5.6 billion American dollars..

Sarah spoke casually, with an air of having seen it all too many times. "I've seen normal balance sheets before, Howard. Woefully inefficient' doesn't cover it. Don't bother looking at the details of the spent money, they can move dollar amounts around to hide graft, mistakes, and other crap- the real information is nowhere. Even if it was, that still doesn't show how much was over-spent in places- unless you look up every item. One of my kills did that." That's insane.. it's their business, their livelihood. Even as normals, you'd think that they'd not burn up their own money. I've seen the manufacturing costs of various things. Everywhere in the world, something is wasted, but.. like that?

"All right.. for the resident engineereds who don't know how normal business goes, let me explain.. my dad was middle management. When you guys are building something, what costs?", Paul said, taking his turn to instruct instead of learn. Good! Let's see if he has any real knowledge or if he's just talking out his ass.

"Parts and labor.", Sarah immediately replied. "Designs, planning, and a few setup procedures that can deal with secrecy.. but those aren't really considered costs except for research projects."

"And the labor's cheap, the designs are made by the best, and the planning is done with full knowledge of everything that's going on. The parts are also cheap, and I don't care how well you make them. You get them from yourselves, and the parts are made in the same efficient way. No competition. No capitalism. None of the stuff I'm going to list." He took a deep breath, obviously thinking of everything he would say.

"Lawyers. Stupid managers. Human Resources Departments. Lazy workers. I'm sure you guys do your own testing.. there's another word for that.. oh, yeah, Q.A. Quality Assurance. Waste there. You guys are the government- taxes, compliance with federal regulations, that crap. Excess workers. Deadline problems. Everyone demanding more money for their part of the project." I groaned. It turns out that I'm very well-versed in this topic after all. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

"That last one- yes, logic would dictate that normals do the infighting shuffle as well.", I said.

"Some of these problems might be blamed on the Illuminati- the government shit- but it doesn't matter. Normals make crap, Howard. Normals. Make. CRAP. You have no idea how superior you really are. If you did, you wouldn't have come out here." My surprise at hearing him tell me that was compounded by the fact that he might actually be right.

"Paul.. I'm not going to again." Once is quite enough for that sort of freakishness.

"Damn it, next time you do something like this, you mind asking us for suggestions first?", Paul asked.

"Next time, maybe. This time, I had the whole thing in mind, it just sucked more than I'd hoped."