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By David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

The major companies had bought, absorbed, or closed down the competition. Guarantees were worthless, spare parts unobtainable, and complaints enthusiastically ignored. Joe Public could do nothing, until along came a Trojan Horse. It offered a way out of being ripped off, and who could resist that? There is always a price to pay if you accept something for nothing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David. B. Reynolds-Moreton
• Release date: Aug 24, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452377896

David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

Retired Research & Development Engineer. Interests:- Physics, Electronics, Chemistry, Renewable Energy Systems. Also:- writing Sci-Fi and building an adult realtime 3D adventure computor game.

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Fully Guaranteed

by

David B. Reynolds-Moreton

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PUBLISHED BY:

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Copyright © 2010 by D.B.Reynolds-Moreton

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Table of contents

Chapter1. The Invitation

Chapter2. A Close Shave

Chapter3. A New Product

Chapter4. A Different Light

Chapter5. The Flood

Chapter6. Power For All

Chapter7. End Game

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Synopsis

At long last the major companies had bought out, absorbed, or put out of business just about all the competition.

So now there were only a few giant companies producing just about everything man needed, but with a proviso, they set the price and the quality.

Guarantees were all but worthless as they only lasted for six months, spare parts were unobtainable, and if anything went wrong within the guarantee period complaints were enthusiastically ignored.

Such were their size and power, that they could dictate to governments, and so in time, they virtually became Government because of vested interest.

There was little Joe Public could do about it, except moan profusely and often as possible, until along came a Trojan Horse.

But no one realised it was a Trojan until it was too late, as it offered a way out of being ripped off at every possible opportunity, and who could resist that?

There is always a price to pay if you accept something for nothing, except no one realised just what the price was, even when it had been paid!

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The Story

Chapter 1

The invitation

Reluctantly, the sun heaved itself over the horizon, sending a shaft of pale but warm light through the somewhat grimy window of Jason Sipowich’s bedroom, and lighting up his sleep wrinkled face as it lay on a thin and even more wrinkled ancient grey tinged pillow.

He had been drifting in and out of a fitful sleep for the past two hours and was glad that the new day had now officially begun, although it would probably be just as uneventful and boring as the previous few hundred, he mused miserably.

He was not to know that this day was going to be very different indeed, irrevocably affecting his future and that of all humanity to a considerable degree.

Disentangling himself from the entwining embrace of his grubby duvet, he staggered into the bathroom and had a perfunctory cold wash, cursing the heater for failing yet again.

Two bleary eyes surrounded by several days of stubble balefully glared back at him from the soap splattered mirror.

Picking up the shaving cream tube he gave it a squeeze, a highly perfumed rancid fart was followed by a few millimetres of a dirty cream coloured slimy substance, reluctantly plopping out onto his waiting palm and then dripping into the bowl.

‘Another bloody tube half full of air, there ought to be a law against it.’ he mumbled to himself as he tried to make the minuscule blob of cream spread over the thickest part of his beard. The razor rasped across his face, dragging out more hairs than it cut and that made him jump, thereby sustaining a cut which refused to stop bleeding no matter how hard he rubbed it with the alum stick.

‘I can remember the days when blades lasted four or five shaves.’ he mused to himself as he combed his wet brown hair back, and then the comb broke.

Jason completed his ablutions as best he could, returned to the bedroom and dragged on the crumpled tee shirt and jeans of yesterday, or was it the day before? He didn’t care any more. On the way down stairs his foot caught in the threadbare carpet and he finished the journey in a flurry of gyrating legs and arms, finally banging into the front door and bruising his shoulder.

When he had run out of expletives, he grabbed the newspaper which protruded half out of the letter box, tearing the front page as it caught on the rusty flap-closing spring.

The kitchen had seen better days, but that was a long time ago. He had tried painting the flaking walls, but the paint just peeled off again after a few weeks, but where a few vagrant drips had landed on the tiled floor, it was still in pristine condition, despite several attempts to remove it.

Loading the coffee percolator, he hit the on switch more firmly than was strictly necessary, and was relieved to see the little red light cheerfully blink into being.

The toaster had been playing up of late, and only worked if it was given a firm thump on the table first, even then it was pure chance whether the bread was burnt or just slightly warmed. With one eye on the dysfunctional toaster and ready to grab the bread at the first sign of rising smoke, he sat down at the table and relaxed a little as the percolator happily gurgled away. And then it stopped, halfway through its duty cycle. The red light still shone brightly, so he knew it wasn’t a fuse. This indicated something internal had failed and as spares were unobtainable these days, it meant buying another new percolator.

He poured out the lukewarm half strength coffee just as a plume of smoke snaked its way up to the ceiling, and cursing volubly, grabbed his breakfast as it burst into flame.

The only way to stop the persistent ear piercing screech of the fire alarm was to rip the battery out, which he duly did. Unfortunately the alarm circuit board followed, neatly breaking into three pieces as it hit the floor. With a snarl he hurled the remains of the alarm into the corner and picked up his pack of guarantee cards. The elastic snapped and landed in his coffee cup, splashing an inordinately large amount of the pale brown liquid onto his blackened toast.

Ignoring the latest mishap, he thumbed through the pile looking for the one belonging to the defunct percolator, and found that it had expired just three days ago.

‘The lousy bastards are getting really good at getting their goods to fail just outside the guarantee period,’ he mumbled aloud, ‘the next thing will be a three months guarantee instead of six.' he concluded morosely.

While consuming his miserable breakfast, Jason scanned the local paper to see if it included the advertisement he had sent in