Chapter 28: Account Planning

I was in the staff bar chatting with Rick. "Just wanted to give you a bit of feed-back," I said. "The Kalinin called last night. He's as pleased as punch with the girls you set up for his councillor's project. Said they were working out really well with their new owners. He'd been a bit worried whether women of that age could be made sufficiently obedient to appeal to a Kushtian — they wouldn't want to have to bother with too much training and punishment. But it seems your 'orientation' has been first rate. No problems at all. In fact a couple of them have proved a bit too willing for their new masters. Two of the councillors have had to take holidays to regain their strength."

Rick chuckled, "Kushtians obviously need their cushions." I didn't bother with a laugh.

We were still chatting when the news started on the big TV screen that hung on the wall behind the bar. An implausibly attractive newsreader was shuffling her papers and smiling out of the screen. The sheen on her lip gloss sparkled as she turned towards the viewer. "A surprise development this afternoon in the Central Asian Republic of Kushtia where recently the first ever democratic elections were held. The new governing council has announced that the Kalinin of Kushtia, is to be sworn in as democratic life president of the new republic. The Kalinin was the last hereditary ruler of Kushtia and had been in exile in the UK for the last two years. Since the coup that brought about the introduction of democracy there has been doubt about how the role of Head of State would be filled. The First Minister of Kushtia explained the decision, which comes after months of uncertainty about the role, by saying the Kalinin offered continuity with many of the traditions of Kushtia that were so important to retain while the country embraces the modern world of democracy and free market economies."

Rick snorted. "Continuity! That's a new word for it. Still it's good for us I guess."

"Sure," I said, "it's had the desired outcome." Brian drifted into the bar. "Hey, Brian, you'll be pleased about this. The Kalinin's been elected president by the council. I reckon it's all down to the girls we got for the councillors."

"Your project, not mine," said Brian, irritated. "Won't do me any good. I don't suppose he's going to be jetting over here for auctions, is he?"

"Well, no, I guess not but it's got to be good for all of us, hasn't it? I mean that brought in the Questors job and now he wants me to go out to Kushtia to talk about some more opportunities. Come on, mate, you can't just look at it from the point of view of who's at the auctions."

"I bloody well can. I'm not paid on anything that doesn't go through the Sales Centre. And don't call me 'mate'!" He grabbed his beer and stalked out.

Rick watched him go. "He's pretty peeved about this, you know. He had a pretty easy time of it until you turned up. Least ways, that's how he sees it. Anyway have you heard how the Kalinin is getting on with his freebie? What was her name? Oh yeah, Alessa. Can't remember a piece we've had to keep gagged for so much of the time. What a mouth!"

"She seems to be getting on fine. Alessa has many faults and her mouth is probably the biggest of them but the Kushtian's have their own way of solving that sort of problem. Apparently they've pierced her tongue and every time she speaks out of turn they link her tongue stud with a chain to the back of the mule that they have treading round in circles to pump water for irrigating some of the fields on the Kalinin's farm. She gets to follow the mule around for a while and tread in the odd mule pat now and then. That seems to be having some effect."

"Ouch," said Rick. "I'll say one thing for your customers Larry they certainly have their own ways with women. I saw some traffic about the girls we got for Hannani. He's got them working in his hi-tech maze already. He emailed me a link to their video feed if you want to see it."

"That's quick work, I didn't think you'd have finished with orientation yet."

"We weren't doing it. He took them un-prepped. I guess he wanted to do the orientation on site."

"What's he got them doing?"

"Nothing much yet. Just settling them in. They've got like a bedroom with doors leading off into different parts of the maze. The idea is that he turn up the heat cold or noise in the bedroom and drive them out into which ever part of the maze he wants. There are lots of doors. If the controller is quick he can separate girls by opening and closing them as they go though. First time that happened they got really twitchy. Should make good entertainment for Halinin's pals."

"Interesting," I said. "I need to keep an eye on that stuff. Looks like we could pick up some hints."

"Yeah, you're right." Rick went on. "Still we manage to do quite well too. We've finished with that writer of yours. She's ready any time you want. Guaranteed not to whack you with a keyboard or anything else."

I grimaced. "Yeah, well, I'm trying to forget about that. Can I see her? I was planning to talk to the woman that Glennis gave us. She might as well get started on that at the same time?"

"Sure," Rick said, "come on through to her cell." I followed him through.

I'd not really been exposed to the results of Rick's orientation programmes before so I was interested to see what he'd been able to do. I did actually need her to be working properly.

As Rick opened the door to her cell, Rachel got to her feet. She was looking much better than when I'd seen her last. She'd lost the sunken look from her eyes and she'd even put on a couple of pounds. They'd put her back in the black short skirt and low cut top, low heeled shoes and dark tights or stockings, I couldn't really tell. She had on her collar and identity tags of course. "Good morning, Rachel," said Rick. "How are you today?"