Decap-and-trade.

The atmosphere in the open plan Office was one of intense concentration, only the faint sound of scribbling and the occasionally muttered invocation of aid in calculation breaking the silence. Many logisticians thus visibly jumped when a shout broke the silence:

"Styluses up! Immediate cessation!"

Zuqup, sub-sub-comptroller-fifth-order, was furious at this. Rising from his desk, he began shouting while reaching for his management machete:

"What's the meaning of this interruption!? Remittance notices are due tomorro-"

But he was brought up short when he saw who it was that had ordered the work stoppage. To his credit he recovered quickly, and smoothly went on--

"Honoured Mahamusa Gal, eightfold blessings upon your visit! Pray tell, why would you have us stop?"

Mahamusa curtly nodded to Zuqup, but sternly addressed the entire office:

"I hereby serve notice that the decap-and-trade programme is shut down, effective immediately."

There were groans throughout the office, some shouts of protest. Zuqup gave voice to all their sentiments, asking Mahamusa:

"But why? DAT was proceeding just like the simulations! Surely this must be a mistake!?"

At this Mahamusa's expression softened and she sighed:

"Look, I'm with you - if it was up to me, we'd be expanding the programme, not shutting it down. But these orders come from Kāṣiru's triumvirate itself; DAT's gotta go."

A voice from the back of the office began offering to plead the case directly to their superiors, but Mahamusa cut in:

"No one disputes the efficacy, it's...a matter of politics. Last night there were riots in multiple districts -- initial reports even showing evidence of collaboration between wardum and Mighty in organising them."

Mahamusa paused to let that sink in.

"Seems yesterday morning some pious bastard in KarAšallu district nailed a treatise to the temple door accusing Enḫezal of pacifism"

There were gasps, and Zuqup exclaimed "Enḫezal will have their skull!"

But Mahamusa countered:

"Mashers say it was Enḫezal's skin aforementioned treatise was written on. It was not a short treatise."

"Ah, well."

"Quite. In any case, the treatise called out decap-and-trade by name, saying it allowed Enḫezal and other former-aristo's to hide their squeamish aversion to violence through the remittance system."

"But Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows!" Zuqup pleadingly responded, "And in any case, exactly as the Ekallatum-Device predicted, data shows people were increasing their personal murder-per-moment ratios in response to the incentive decap-and-trade set up! We're not just ensuring quota is met, we're actually spreading Khorne's righteous violence more evenly throughout society."

There were tears in Zuqup's eyes as he said this, moved by the scheme's beauty. But Mahamusa's patience had expired; she had other branches of the Kāṣiru Office to visit today to deliver the same shutdown message.

"Oh grow up, would you, Zuqup? It's a technocratic solution to a coordination problem - nothing to get sentimental over. If we can't make use of this I'm sure we'll find some replacement."

Not one of the logisticians in the room that day would survive the violence to come.