Chapter 10: Customer Feedback

Freddie sat down at his laptop and clipped the web cam to the top of the screen. He preferred dealing with clients face to face but he just couldn't face the trip to Kushtia and the Kalinin had been happy for them to meet electronically. Kushtia might be a primitive society, Freddie thought, but they were happy enough to use technology where it suited them. He had asked Harry to sit in, just in case there were any problems that they needed to go fix.

The video conferencing window flicked open. Freddie found himself staring at the slightly out-of-focus, bearded, face of the Kushtian president.

"Kalinin," Freddie said. "You're looking well."

"Well, thank you Freddie.

"I wanted to make sure you were happy with your purchases."

"Indeed Freddie, indeed. These are a very good solution to my problem. They are having the desired effect; keeping my son amused. And they have had a good effect on his wives as well. You know how it is, a little more competition..."

"I thought you were concerned about harem politics, Kalinin," Freddie said.

"Of course, of course. But I don't mind if the politics remain inside the seragla." A pair of pudgy fingers reached towards the Kalinin's web cam. He swivelled it so that it was pointing out across the room. "Perhaps you remember Victoria?"

Freddie grunted. It was best to be polite but he couldn't be expected to keep track of all these women, he felt. He vaguely remembered her, one of Larry's early contributions to the business, he thought. On the far side of the room, the Kalinin's son was sprawled on a couch, enjoying the favours of a woman whose head was buried in his lap. Between the couch and the camera, a girl dressed in a shimmering black silk version of Kushtian traditional costume had a girl trussed cruelly and wriggling at her feet. Freddie at least recalled that the helpless girl was one of the ones that had just been shipped.

"She can be such a bully," the amusement in the Kalinin's voice was evident. "Poor Madeleine! I am not sure what she has done to cause offence but she will soon learn that there is a hierarchy here in the seragla that must be respected."

The Kalinin's son reached forward to stroke the hair of the girl that was busily fellating him. As she lifted her head in response, Freddie saw it was one of the others that he'd just shipped. Harry peered over his shoulder, "That's Krysta," he said. "That's good. Connie will be pleased. She said that Krysta was finding that sort of thing difficult."

Freddie smiled. It was surprising how soon their charges overcame their reluctance to do things that they thought difficult.

Behind the Kalinin, over by the wall, Freddie could see another figure, a woman naked except for her veil, her arms shackled to a ring set in the wall high above her head. She was struggling with the futile desperation that Freddie so often saw in their more resilient guests. As she shook her head in frustration her veil swung clear of her face for a moment and Freddie saw her mouth filled not with the traditional Kushtian moaungf but a bright red ball gag. Sad, Freddie thought, to see the old ways going. Celia, almost as if she sensed she was being observed, growled behind her gag and scowled at the camera.