Chapter 94

I had to laugh when I opened the morning paper, the headline screamed out 'CHANTILLE & BURTON TO PERFORM TOGETHER!!!'

Yes, three exclamation marks, on the Times front page.

I read the article. Gerald, Thrash, had announced the date and venue of the performance of the new version of Friends. He'd also told his press conference that Sara Burton and Chantille were performing with The Screaming Monkeys. Considering the reported animosity between the two girls this had caused quite a stir.

The venue was to be Wembley stadium, and there were 100,000 tickets going on sale from the band's internet site from next Wednesday morning, 9 o'clock sharp. There was a limit of four tickets per applicant. I expected the whole concert to be sold out before midday.

"Girl!" I yelled.

"Yes Master," replied one of the new girls from my side.

"Ask Karolina if she can spare me a few minutes. Ask mind, I'll be checking." I smiled at her as she ran quickly away.

She too looked good. I wonder what she did when Tadeusz was her master.

Moments later Karolina came running out. I stood and held out my arms to her. She settled into my arms, pressing herself against me comfortably. We hugged and held each other for a while, not long enough, but it would have to do for the moment.

"Karolina, my precious, Gerald and his band have announced that they're selling the tickets for their Friends concert through their website. Can you ask if they need any help protecting it, or making sure that it'll stand up to all of the traffic, you know the sorts of things that they'll need better than I do."

Karolina looked up at me with a smile. "Is be do'd two ages ago Master. Master T'rash ask near three week ago. Ela 'n' me did build him new servers and site 'n' all shit he need."

We hugged for a few minutes more, the girl who'd been attending me watched us with more than a little jealousy in her eyes.

"Karolina, my precious, do Em and the others in England have secure communications to us here?" I asked.

"Is havings phones 'n' access to network through my VPN. Is all secure, Master."

"Oh, good. Thank you, my precious."

"I thank me Master too. Is for being goodest Master for to this girl."

I smacked her naked bum. It felt good.

Karolina looked down at the girl kneeling by my chair. "Is me Master leaving hand mark?" she asked.

The girl nodded with a smile.

"Oh goodies," said Karolina as she settled deeper into my arms.

I watched as Karolina went back to her office, she seemed to be showing her marked bum to all of my girls she met. And, somehow, she seemed to meet quite a few. She seemed to be quite proud of that hand print. Free women are bad enough, slaves though, I'll never understand them.

Jill came out bearing that horrible device, the fucking daily diary.

"Master, you have appointments to see Mr. And Ms. Buischvilla this morning. Mr. Buischvilla at 10 o'clock, Ms Buischvilla at half past eleven. This afternoon Mr. Williams is due to give his quarterly financial report."

I growled at the diary, but only once this time.

"Master!" exclaimed Jill, "Your diary helps me organise your day so that you have more time to spend by the pool, or with your slaves," she added a little breathlessly.

I noticed that her nipples hardened when she said that. I brushed one with my fingertips, watching as it crinkled and hardened even more.

Jill smiled, "You have 45 minutes before your first..."

I silenced her, placing my lips on hers. We used all of those 45 minutes.

I managed to get to my office just as the clock chimed 10.

"Hi, Boss," said Eric. He was smiling, looking very pleased with himself.

"So," I asked, "What's happening with Midland Brick?"

"We crushed them." Eric replied laughing, "Though with the quality of their products that wasn't too hard."

"So who's in charge now?"

"You are." Eric pulled out a cardboard artwork tube from his bag. "Here's their new logo."

It was very similar to the old Midland Brick logo, but the City & County logo was preeminent.

"I've fired the whole board of directors and the marzipan layer*. The senior managers and heads of departments have had their salaries cut and know that they have had their final warnings. Each has been given a formal letter stating this. One slip up and they're out without a severance package. A number of the C&C Planning and Building's senior managers have taken the director's places. I'm also in the process of buying back all of the shares."

I stopped him there and thought for a moment. "Buy back all of the large holdings, but small, individual, holdings can be left. Most of those are people's pension pots, I don't mind helping them. See if you can get over 95% of the shares though."

Eric made a note on his pad, "OK, Boss."

Now Eric looked a little ... odd, defiant even.

"Err, Boss," he started nervously.

I relaxed and smiled at him.

"I've started a few more building schemes," he said.

"Oh?" I said mentally noting the way he'd said 'a few more.' "How many?"

"Twelve hundred," he replied.

I laughed out loud. "What did Mandy say about that?" I asked.

"I said that we should and that I didn't think you'd mind," replied Mandy from the door.

"Mandy!" I stood and hurried to her, we hugged. She looked good. Slimmer than the photos showed her during her initial interview, she was now trim and toned. Her hair shone with life and her eyes sparkled. "Mandy, it's so good to see you. How are you?"

"Better than I've ever been, thanks to you." She kissed me, making sure that she knew that she was available should I so desire.

"Come and tell me all about these schemes of yours."

Eric and Mandy spent the next 20 minutes briefing me on the expansion of our regeneration and building schemes. Not only had they expanded the new build schemes by 1217, all between 1000 and 2500 dwellings, but they'd won another 118 council, or social, housing estate renovations too.

Then Eric pulled out the last surprise.

Taking another cardboard tube from his bag he opened out another logo, 'City & County Export.'

"I had Mr. Morton create another company for you. I think that Nigel Williams has the paper work for you to sign today." Eric stopped for a second. "Nigel is making a real name for himself in the financial markets you know. He's being asked to advise on a number of national initiatives. He's also been asked to join a number of QUANGOs.****He really is proving to be a financial wizard."

I smiled at this news. Nigel had blossomed since being given responsibility. Bee's help had also pushed him higher that either he or his wife had ever dreamed.

"Well, when we took over Midland Brick, we found that we had a huge amount of excess capacity. So I sent one of my sales people over to the Peoples Republic of China."

What about the transport costs?" I asked, transport costs could ruin us.

Eris smiled, "They're almost negligible. China sends massive container ships to the UK every week. They're filled with all sorts of goods. However, they go back empty. We load their containers with our bricks, blocks and roof tiles. The containers get taken back to the PRC anyway, we pay about one pound fifty pence per forty tonne container. And the PRC want as much as we can supply. We could double our output and they'd still want more."

"Be careful, I've heard that some companies went bust because the PRC either stopped buying completely or dropped the buying price below cost."

Eric smiled again, "Each shipment is a new contract and we only produce what we've already sold."

"Go for it then," I said with a smile.

"Will do Boss, see you in the pool soon."

With that, Eric and Mandy left.

I had a little time before Joan arrived. I looked forward to her updates.

Joan had another surprise for me. She brought Karen with her. That though, wasn't the surprise.

"Boss, first things first, Karen has been offered the posts of visiting Professor of Design at both Kings, London and the Sorbonne, Paris. I want her to take these posts. The experience will help her round out her designs, and she will help a number of future designers. June's Lingerie Designs will become a household name; Karen herself will be world renowned for her innovative work."

I looked at Karen, I could see that she wanted to do this but was worried about what I would think about her being away from our family so much.

I held out my hands to her and she came willingly into my lap.

"Karen, my darling, I know that you want this but you're afraid that you'll upset me." She nodded, her face hidden against my chest.

"My precious girl would you like your freedom?" I asked.

"NO!" she cried, looking into my eyes for the first time. "Master, I love being one of your girls. I belong here, you, my Master, and my sister slaves have enabled me to achieve the success I've had." Her voice dropped into an almost little girl's tone. "I would be lost, lonely and frightened without you around me, at home for me." She looked so small and frightened that I hugged her again.

"I would like you to take these posts. Start teaching the freewomen students what you know and your thoughts on design. I'm sure that you'll find it exciting. Remember though; make your classes small enough so that there are three or four applicants for each place. Interview every applicant yourself and only pick those who you feel will benefit from your skills. Ignore their money, no one should be able to buy a place, and those who don't put in the work, even if they're talented, kick them off your course."

Karen had taken in every word I'd said, "I will do that, Master. I'll make you all proud of me, I promise."

"I'm already proud of you my girl, now, if you don't have anything else to report, go and spend some time with the other girls, I'm sure that they'd all like to see you and you'll have a huge amount of gossip to catch up on."

She kissed me then ran lightly away.

Joan turned back from watching Karen leave. "She's already got her factory set up ready for her absence. I tell you Boss, she's turned that place around. It's already producing a hundred times its former output, and that's with only 60% of the looms. The workers there worship the ground she walks on."

I was pleased about that. I knew that Karen could make the factory produce good quality clothes, but I was a little unsure of how she'd treat her fellow slaves, those slaves who were subject to her authority.

"She seems to have done well winning their respect." I said.

Joan laughed, "She has a sign on the wall opposite her desk, it says 'What would my Master do?' She refers to that all the time. You can hear her say it, almost like a chant, whenever there is a decision involving the works to be made. They love her and all of them want to see you again. They want to see the Master who gave them such a wonderful overseer."

"I'll get up there again soon." I promised.

"I'll let them know. The whole place is practically spotless now. When they know you're coming, they'll polish it inside and out." She laughed.

"Now, how about the slave factors?" I asked.

Joan smiled, "I never thought that I'd become the biggest slave trader in Western Europe, but I now am. From the East Polish border, to Portugal's coast, from the Channel to Italy's northern border, we own all of the quality slave trade. There are still a number of Russian groups, and the Mafia hold almost all of the Italian trade. But everywhere else, if you want a quality slave, you come to Mistress Joan's place.

"Did anyone find a solution to the ID problems?"

Joan smiled, "Yes Boss, it was actually quite easy. All of the slaves have been tattooed with an 'invisible' ink. It shows up well under UV light. All of your girls here have been done too," she concluded with a laugh.

I looked down at the girl by my side.

"Have you been tattooed?" I asked her.

"Yes Master, Umber required all of your house slaves to be marked." She turned her left upper arm to me. I couldn't see anything.

Then Joan shone a black light torch on her skin and her markings showed clearly; a round pictogram, with a barcode beneath it. The pictogram looked like a snowflake.

I turned to Joan, "A snowflake?"

She seemed to be having difficulty suppressing a laugh. "Yes, Snowy."

I glared at her.

Then she did laugh.

While we were both laughing the door opened and Sandy came in. "Boss, I think you should have a look at the village monitors." She seemed quite concerned.

A few seconds later I was panning a camera over the customers at the pavement tables. There calmly sipping his espresso, was the German, Oscar ... I thought for a few moments, yes, Oscar Liemann.

"Does he have any luggage?" I asked Sandy.

"Only that tube on the table. Apparently it's empty. He took the end caps off when he sat down. A number of the locals have managed to get close looks at it. He hasn't objected to any interest in either it or him at all," she answered.

"OK, I'm going down there."

"I don't like that Boss," Sandy objected.

"I'll take Menolly and one of Paula's girls with me. You can get there first and setup an over-watch. We'll sit opposite him so you've got a large free shooting angle on him."

Sandy nodded slowly. "I'll need about ten minutes once we get there." She said. "Nina's here, she's getting some things from the Coven. She could go with you."

"That's great. I know how Nina works. OK, we'll walk the last quarter mile to the café, that'll give you some more time and let him see us coming. See if he does anything then."

"OK Boss, I can live with that." Sandy raced out of my office to get her sniper rifle and the other things she'd need.

I turned back to Joan, "Sorry, Joan, But I must go and see what he wants."

Joan though was already gathering up her papers, "I'll see you when you're free then." She surprised me by giving me a kiss. On my lips. "I'll just have to go and rape that brother of mine then."

"Have fun," I called to her retreating back.

"You better believe it!" she replied without turning. Obviously intent on her new morning's entertainment.

Oscar sat calmly at an outside table He looked relaxed and, as we approached, sipped at his espresso.

"Good afternoon, Oscar," I said, "Sorry we took so long to get here."

He nodded. "Getting your over-watch in place?"

It was my turn to nod. I actually liked this man. He was smart.

Menolly and Nina sat either side of me. We all faced Oscar.

When our drinks arrived Oscar smiled pleasantly at the waiter and we waited silently until he left.

"What can I do for you, Oscar?" I asked.

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"As you know I was here a few months ago, ostensibly to assassinate you, Baron. At the time it seemed as though we'd made a terrible mistake and shot at the wife of the Chinese Premier." He smiled. "I was interrogated for a week, and then I managed to escape." Now he laughed. "You knew that I am," he paused for a moment, and then his face clouded a little with regret, "I was, Spetsnaz. I am proud of my time in the service. It was not our fault that our political leaders were corrupt." He shook his head. "Since the collapse, I and many of my former colleagues have worked as mercenaries. This job was only one of many I have undertaken. However, it was the only one that failed so completely."

He started to raise his hand for another coffee.

"That might not be a good idea, Oscar," I said stopping him. He looked inquisitively at me, then his eyes brightened in understanding.

"Your over-watch might get a little ... anxious?" he asked.

I nodded in reply.

Menolly called for more drinks. This time a carafe of espresso and another of latte was placed on our table.

"Malcolm said that we should run, we didn't take any notice of him. He was always going on about how Frosty would do this, or Frosty would not do that. We, our team, were quite fed up with hearing about Frosty. And now I see that he was right, and Frosty," he nodded towards me, "took out the whole team."

"What on earth made you start cooking a hot meal?" I asked.

Oscar shook his head. "Mamood, he was always thinking about his stomach. And he was convinced that he was the best in the world. No one would ever get him. He was a fool, and we all paid for his foolishness."

"You didn't come here to talk about that operation, did you?"

Oscar shook his head.

"When I escaped," again he laughed ruefully, "When you let me go," he corrected. "I returned home to Berlin. I spread the word about how that Englishman had fooled us into trying to kill the Chinese Premier. How he would not pay the fees due. None of my old colleagues will work for him now. Not one." He emphasised. "Well, I went to England with a friend, he needed hospital treatment. The best surgeon was in Cumbria. While he was being treated I took some time to continue my painting." He paused, "I am quite a good painter in both water colours and oils. I have some of my paintings here," he indicated the cardboard tube beside him. "When I showed my friend my paintings he laughed out loud. He told me that her twin sister was working at the hospital, a doctor no less." He nodded towards the tube. "May I get the paintings out?" He asked.