Page 29 - Unlikely Stories 5

The Law of the Wheel

interest to squelch their rebellion by confiscating those toys and
forbidding their further use and construction. No, much easier to
replace their leader when he dies a natural death—and that will not
be long. But long enough for us to assure that his successor will be
our puppet.”
He paused for a sip of tea while the ministers caught up with him
in their notes. The one in charge of affairs in the region identified by
the king as troublesome took longer than the others to finish writing.
“At the other side of Zongo another district comprises a port and
commercial institutions originally established by foreign invaders, the
purveyors of the pharmaceutical scourge. That blight is gone, but the
addictive tendencies of the inhabitants have transferred to gambling.
The religion there is worship of Lady Luck, manifest in pure games
of chance—most notably roulette, the wheel of fortune. Their faith
in this new opiate of the masses has links to ancient acts of divination
and beliefs in numerology and astrology; no hard data showing the
house always wins in the end can shake that conviction. Now, rather
than participate in the greater prosperity bestowed by commitment to
the great Law of the Wheel, they reject it in favor of maintaining a
separate system of governance permitting perpetuation of the trivial
and degrading small gambling wheels. Their centrifugalism is best not
challenged head on. Let them keep their casinos—but they are now
under our control. We shall slowly alter those wheels of misfortune
to favor the house even more, reaping that revenue while avoiding
increases in taxation and ratcheting up the economic pain of
counterproductive gambling. Sooner or later those people will be
forced to abandon their practices and become addicted to the
opportunities for honest profit our system offers.”
Again the king waited for his advisers to make their own record of
his words. Those not directly accountable for the target districts
knew they would have to share resources with those who were. One
of them, however, signaled the need to ask a question.
The king granted permission to speak: “Yes, what is it?”
“Your Highness, the wisdom embodied in your diagnosis of the
problem and the treatment for its cure is truly wonderful. My
portfolio is for a different province, the northwest. A separatist
28