control

They came, one by one, emerging from unseen offices and workspaces, making their way quietly along the back streets and alleyways of the American enclave known variously as Oz or Wonderland or Washington DC. They were the gray, boring, unimposing men and women who inhabit the capital city of the most powerful empire on earth, barely noticed and effectively forgotten. They were known only by their titles: PenPusher, PaperShuffler, Agencycrat and LowLevel CivilServant. But they were also the friction-reducing life-prolonging anti-wear multi-viscosity grease that makes the millstone of government grind. They were, in short, the most powerful people on the planet.