As the SEC potentially builds into a super-superconference, becoming stronger than the NCAA and eventually declaring the schools’ football programs official minor league teams not subject to the false good intentions of NCAA rules and not subject to the laws of an illegal entity called the USA, thus able to control college football as a true monopoly, we drop you into today’s story currently in progress.

Lee looked at the address.

A typical middle-class home.

Two parents.

Two point five kids.

A dog.

A cat.

An SUV and an ATV.

Lee wondered which one he’d pick this time.

The local bank that he contacted gave him free rein for his little holiday diversion.

On most of his business trips, Lee found museums and out-of-the-way eateries, sports venues and mountain hikes to distract him, keep him sane.

But on other trips, when he wanted something more, he’d work his network for a bigger thrill.

Loan sharks or pawn shops that had outstanding accounts to settle.

Banks that wanted to scare homeowners out of foreclosing or declaring bankruptcy.

Sometimes, all Lee wanted to do was rough up a person.

Appear out of nowhere, dressed in casual business attire, pretend to be whatever person made the target most comfortable….

And then attack!

Very often, his targets would show up in the news the next day as a victim of suicide, a result of too much pressure at work, the family knowing there were financial problems rarely discussed out loud, etc.

And Lee walked away a happy man.

An anti-hero doing his job.

Helping banks to keep neighbourhoods from turning into foreclosure nightmares.

Helping “personal loan consultants” get the message across.

“Mind control,” some would call it.

In the old days, he would’ve been labeled a hit man.

Not anymore.

These days, Lee could attack with a brush against a shoulder, a handshake, a hypnotising stare, or any number of subtle moves that turned the target into a marionette.

Which one this time?

Lee looked at the preteen boy.

Picked on at school.

Overweight.

A perfect target.

Lee walked past the boy as he stepped off the school bus.

They nodded at one another.

The next day the boy killed the phys ed teacher with a jumprope.

The bank president, offering her condolences, set up an appointment with the parents a few days later to discuss their mortgage delinquency and look over a few options to keep them in their home – maintaining the potential value of the house on the open market in the process – and sign a secret document guaranteeing that they would inform the bank if they heard any of their neighbours talk about foreclosure or bankruptcy.

In return, the bank would help finance the boy’s legal fees.

In a few years, Lee would stop traveling, having “graduated” past personal contact methods for influencing the actions of others.

Eventually, the planet would get too small for him and he’d move on to a bigger playground.

In the meantime, Lee laughed at the easiness with which he manipulated the UK prime minister into falling for the trap of creating folk heroes by evicting teenage children and their families from subsidised housing units.

With these folk heroes in place and evil geniuses spread around, including the Norwegian mass murderer and previous ones like Pol Pot, floating in people’s memories, Lee’s miniempire called Earth was the 3D chess set he always wanted as a kid.

Lee reported to the group that reported to the group that controlled the Committee.  He asked permission to change the codeword for the local planet from Earth to Rosebud.

When asked why, he said it was his private joke.

After replacing thuggery with subtlety, what was next for Lee’s source of fun entertainment?