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The area around the compound, I mean the campus here at IRK, is covered by a legally binding commitment between the Institute and its neighbors. This is a good thing and a bad thing depending on the problem at hand. For instance, if we’re trying to track down some of our indentured servants, I mean staff members, who have managed to get free of their shock collars, I mean left without signing out, and we need to run them down with the dogs, I mean  locate them, that runs a foul of the agreement. And that then, is a bad thing for us as it hampers our tracking ability, I mean it makes our locating them more difficult.

But on the other hand there is a small clause way down near the bottom of the agreement hidden in the legalese that states every day, every single day without fail the sun must shine somewhere on the property for an undetermined period of time. No matter if it’s snowing, or raining  or whatever the excuse is, the sun must shine. This is a good thing. This clause was put in early on by some forward thinking members of the organization who knew that if you didn’t see the sun at least  once a day you would very likely go nuts and wind up killing all or most of your neighbors. So far this little legal device has worked and there have been no fatalities to date. Knock on wood.

That is what you see happening here. It is very nearly sunset and the sun had not shone yet that day. It was a race against time to get it done before the clock ran out. No one knows what would happen if the clause wasn’t met, what the penalty would be or what the repercussions would be although we know they would be terrible indeed, because so far it has never happened. I got to tell you though there were some nail biters on this one. All of the spotters that were out driving the roads looking for some sign that the sun had shown heaved a collective sigh of relief and headed home for dinner secure with the knowledge that another day had passed and all  was well in the neighborhood.