The Syndicate

The Syndicate, bless it, has laid in child care playrooms in many schools and business establishments, large and small. We would alleviate the gender imbalance in the workplace, it was said. Now mother and father each be free to attend boardroom or lathe.

They build many products of all sorts, the Syndicate, and here they were giving back to the workers who had manifested dream in worthy product, plus a little less for the taxman come April.

There are strange blocks for the very young to heft and assemble. Larger than Tinkertoys or Legos and smaller than bricks.

The children are very curious. They handle the blocks. The parents drop the children off and are gone until the afternoon. The children walk and run and play outside and they build with the blocks back in the playroom.

The linchpins by which the blocks connect resemble the Syndicate logo. Isn't that cute? Cute, Syndicate! The Monitors, always smiling, one to every five children, are most helpful. Here, did you notice? Can you see?

Other monitors are not smiling, but no one sees them. They are monitoring, all the same. They watch the children over electronic video monitors; the cameras are so subtle you would hardly notice them in the playrooms.

The rooms of the hidden Monitors are up and away from the playrooms. Each one watches the children. One has shown a preference for chocolate. That one, when handling the couplings shaped like the Syndicate logo, notices a strong aroma of mocha. An onsite Monitor cautions the youngster not to place toys in his mouth.

There is a current running through the linchpins. It is quite pleasing, actually. But some of the blocks can deliver a noticeable shock. Not very pleasant, but insufficient to cause a yelp.

By a strange coincidence, toys in the shapes suggestive of the products or symbols of the few remaining rivals of the Syndicate are the conductors of the mild shock, whereas a pleasant tingle emits from the linchpins. This is not noticed.

In later years, there was immense and inexplicable brand loyalty everywhere the playrooms had been in operation, which was almost everywhere. Visitors from other realms found It really quite puzzling. After all, the products of the Syndicate were mostly mediocre and less. And almost nothing was spent in.research and development by the Syndicate.

It is all really quite puzzling.