Chapter 8

The girls chatted around the conference table, unwinding from the busy day and rewinding over the rest of the screwdrivers. Unwind/rewind included discussions about the dancers, the studio and Patty’s journey from visitor status to her experiences in the basement to her emancipation to moving to my house full-time, then Leah and Jenny’s unexpected summer vacation here and the documents giving me authority over them until, and even after, the parents returned. Amy and Ellie talked about their abandonment and fortunate absorption into a new home and the adaptation of and adjustment to the weird new behavioral decisions.

All things considered it a strange trip, but a tremendously exciting and pleasant trip.

Listening with one ear, I worked on the three new jobs, slotting time for visits to the bank in Yonkers and the natural foods store Secaucus. The boutique chain was based in Manhattan and was an easy visit.

The bank would get a system upgrade like Brooklyn Community Bank. I sent an email to their IT people asking for a physical inventory of the existing equipment and secure access to their core programming, copied to the CEO and COO.

The boutique needed a more muscular server and a strong network to go with the accounting/inventory controls. As far as I was concerned, a pushover.

Those two could be done in two weeks, installation, testing and going live if the IT people were worth a damn. Longer if I had to break bad habits.

The job in Secaucus would require spies and many meetings and ‘don’t be dense’ confrontations. The girls would be my spies, evaluating customer service, and employee knowledge. I would have to be able to compare their opinion of themselves to public perception.

And I could always fire them. It happens. Failing that, I write penalties in the form of extra charges into my contract to match the performance benchmarks I have to meet.

I finished my initial plans and bills of materials as the printer began to chatter. The first background check was done.

Althea Johnson was going to fail. I interrupted their conversation. “Girls, Althea Johnson just came up. She appears to post, Tweet and blabber about everything she does, even her sex life. Every minute of her life is out in public. She has Twitter tits selfie syndrome, too. That will not do. Althea is out.”

Ellie answered, “5’8”, C+, good dancer, has been topless but not willingly, just to get a good part. Not the greatest, but decent friend. Too bad.”

Patty added, “Pretty, I knew she was chatty, but not that she couldn’t keep quiet about anything. I guess she’s one of those people for whom life is not real until you put it on the Internet. She was my second alternate. Bye, bye.”

“You all get your phones and hurry back. I want to talk about some new jobs you can help with.”

And I wondered why they were careful to talk about tit sizes if not to sell me on the idea of more pretty naked girls in the house. I love my life.

That didn’t take long. “The deal with the new jobs is that I will need extra hands and eyes for the installations and people watching. At the bank in Yonkers, you will oversee transactions at tellers, ATMs and the manager’s desk and see how fast they catch on to the routines. I’ll be watching to see how quickly the system updates accounts using their hardware with my server and software”

“Like the one in Brooklyn?” Amy asked.

“Exactly. Shouldn’t be more complicated than getting the network wired correctly. It will be a plug-and-play deal.”

“We have a boutique spinning off the men’s division into a separate chain, both divisions centrally controlled. We have to create and install servers to handle each division like one business, and then feed the data to a central office. Like what I do for the housewares stores, twice, and then treat each division like another branch just like I would link two single stores.”

Leah summed it up. “Each chain to a main center. Then each main center to a master, which will treat the mains as branches.”

“Like two spoked wheels linked at the hub to a steering wheel.” I get it!” Ellie giggled.

“Can we shop?” Patty asked, “I need some real time clothes.”

“That’s the only way to test a system.” I said. “And there is the natural food store in Secaucus. At first, you will be test shoppers, undercover. I want to know how the store operates instead of how they think it operates. The owner employees are probably with each other and some of the more spacy crystal gazers among them might be giving bad advice.”

“That can’t be good.” Jenny chuckled.

“And they are so knee-jerk socially aware, they are too afraid to price the inventory at a reasonable price, which is all rainbows and unicorns until the store closes. They have to learn not to ride every fad and admit that everything claiming to be all natural, isn’t. A pretty label does not health generate. I mean, Fritos contain just corn, water and salt. How natural can you get?” I could make myself mad. “When they go bankrupt, Zephyr will get the blame. I’ll refuse the job first. That is why I need spies.”

“We can be techies, testers and spies, full service employees.” Amy laughed, “Office assistant, light housekeeping and sextoys. That about sum it up?”

“Works for me, sister.”

The printer chattered. “Another one pops up. Let’s check her out.”

“Diane Dawson, good family, wealthy trust fund parents, avidly supported charities, widely traveled, no black marks. Family web page, tweets look innocent, very little personal information. Boring Facebook, seems to have it just to keep up with friends, few personal comments, family and friend’s photos, and few of those. No pictures of her.”

“Diane lives to dance, 15, never known her to date, is 5’3” maybe an A+ cup and her tits look bigger because she is a waif. Dances naked, topless on broken glass or in a gorilla suit, she doesn’t care as long as she can move to the rhythm.” Ellie swore, “And so cute you want to take her home. Ice blue eyes and blonde curly hair.”

Leah laughed. “Dresses like a painfully shy girl trying to avoid notice but is funny as all get out when you get her alone. Says being on stage frees her soul.”

The bot printed another page. “The snooper noticed an anomaly. There are credit card charges at a small residence hotel on Riverside Drive the same time her parents are clearly overseas. They are away a lot according to the papers and event attendee lists at charity events. They have no problem leaving her ‘home alone’ seven months out of the year.”

“That girl needs company! I vote her in.” Ellie declared passionately. “She will accept the invitation and then she should tell her folks she has found a new place to live. And to send the same stuff the Martins sent.”

“We know how she feels, ignored. She needs friends and a place to dance or she will dry up.” Patty swore.

The others agreed loudly. Diane was a keeper.

Printer noise again.

“The twins, Clear history of a hesitant cyberlife, three younger siblings, Midwestern, middle class, parents in Iowa, working two jobs so the girls can stay at a small convent downtown. Pretty clean life altogether. Straight A grades. Academy partial scholarship earned.”

“The twins are cool. 5’5”, round B cups, will get naked on stage if they believe it adds to the part. Both are really slender, makes their tits look huge. They dance seriously, but for fun. I like to play with both. They are a package. Two girls, one brain.” Patty knew them well. “Living in the convent is murder on those closet 16 year old Pagans.”

“I know them, too. The nuns make them dress like Diane. They will come here and keep it secret to get out of the convent. A change of address would help their parents out a lot. They mostly hang out together and can’t afford much entertainment. They probably could spend more but won’t burden the parents.”

“OK.” I said “They’re in. Now we have to talk. How many are going to want to stay here? There will be no address changes until I can be around them for a while. I live here, too. They have to fit in. And they have to make a contribution to the house. Everyone has a role here. No slackers. And think about what the fifth floor will become. Do you want to subdivide into small rooms or do you want a big open dorm space, because that’s where you are headed.”

“Those three will surely fall in with us. One will get naked in a heartbeat; two will do it if it feels right. You, Mark, always make it feel necessary even if we don’t know it. I’m the crash test dummy for that.” Patty giggled, “Look at me now.”

“So we have to yes or no the rest, and see what happens down the road and go from there.” Jenny said, “One rejected, three in and four to go.”

Without repeating details, the last girls passed the personal background check with flying colors. One had an iffy family situation. Two were emancipated but living on the edge.

I gleaned the particulars from the judges:

Eve Sampson – 15, 5’8”. Nice C+ cup size, no problem being naked, slender. Maxine Adair – 15, 5’7”. Proud C+ tits, Topless anytime, not naked yet. Samantha Gordon - 14, 4’11”. Sweet B cups, Topless or not, doesn’t care, let her dance. Barbara Blackwell, 16, 5’7”. A+ at best, Never topless, but tempted.

Eve came from a broken home. Her mother ran off and her dad was suspected of drug dealing. She needed to be here, her free spirit was getting crushed. Dance was the only escape mechanism she could afford. I planned to send her home with the guardianship papers, a notary and get her dad to sign them when he was too stoned to know what he was doing. He would never know she was gone. If he did, he wouldn’t care, even a little. I would need Phil Nichols’ participation to pull it off.

Max and Sam were small trust fund emancipated orphans. They could live anywhere and currently lived in a small apartment on West 81st Street. Their stipend would go a lot further if they lived here.

Barbara had an Ozzie and Harriet life in a condo in Turtle Bay. Both parents taught at Columbia and dropped her off at school every morning. Her Facebook page already had her switching to ballet. The girls liked her, but she was Ellie and Jenny’s second alternate.

They decided to invite everyone except Barbara to practice here. If the personalities meshed, Sam and Max might be asked to move in. Eve was going to be kidnapped ASAP.

Ellie was very good friends with all three and claimed they were untouched by boys. I doubted if girls who were happily topless or naked would be the least bit hesitant go get a little daring on a date. Then I heard the reasons. I was a believer soon, and fortunately before I embarrassed myself with a rude comment.

Eve, because she was afraid to travel in her neighborhood, Max and Sam, because they were basically alone and had no safety net if anything bad happened. Even movies were rare. Their trusts paid for school, but they had to pay rent and utilities and everything else with the stipend. Eve was on full scholarship at the Academy and worked after school at a deli in midtown.

The men in most of the girls’ lives had always been threatening or scary. They had no experience with boys they could trust. The dance was their only safe outlet for their new sexuality.

All three dressed in second hand clothes they managed to make look trendy. All of them were desperate for a better situation.

I summed it up for the five teens. “We have Eve and Diane who have no problem baring it all on stage, Jean and Jane, twins who will get naked if it feels right and Max and Sam who will be topless for no real reason, and Sam doesn’t care one way or the other, anywhere any time.”

Amy checked the math. “Yes, that agrees with my notes.”

“And we agree they will be better off if they lived here permanently. Two simply have to decide to be here, one we have to save, one we have to get away from her parents’ neglect and two to help their over stretched parents.” I listed the candidates. “That’s four powers-of-attorney and guardianship assignments, at least one permanent.”

“Again he remembers off the top of his head. What next, Sir.”

“Patty, you need to go to the gift shops or libraries at NYU, Columbia, Julliard and Lincoln Center. Get DVDs of Ailey, Cunningham, Graham, the ADF, Twila Tharpe, Bob Fosse, every contemporary choreographer and trendsetter you can think of that made a difference. You are not going to copy, even though that can sharpen your craft. You want to get into their heads, learn the language they invented to say what they needed to say. Greek belly dancers, Asian precise hand symbolism, Hula pantomimes, Bolshoi elegance, ADF creativity, whatever you do, you have to invent it. You girls will teach yourselves to teach yourselves.”

“I’m getting excited about what we can accomplish here. We can dance like no one’s looking.” Patty wished out loud

Jenny said, “And our two skillsets can cross pollinate. Mark can help with his katas.”

“Buy appropriate music, the kind you use in class. Go through my collection and the online download sites. Get serious art music and tunes that are simply fun, like what I played in the basement. New music you girls can interpret yourselves. Can you hear what Aaron Copeland, Thelonius Monk, Coltrane, Quincy Jones and Chet Atkins are saying? Can you repeat it in movement?”

“We are going to record our practices and rehearsals so we can critique ourselves. Golfers study to correct their swings. It’s the same with divers, batters and skiers.” Patty seemed worried. “Think a camera will weird the new girls out?”

“Private rehearsal hall means just that. Let them know we are in the heart of information security. It won’t ever be on a machine with internet capability.” I said. “If there is no door, there is no lock to pick.”

“With that assurance, a recording shouldn’t be any more of a concern than it would before the ‘incidents’.” Leah figured. “How else do they know what an audience sees?”

“Amy, drop an email on the Roadies, we need three quality digital video cams with tripods. Make sure we have video recorder capable of taking three feeds. I can mix and edit on a laptop. If it is a teaching tool, you need multiple views.”

“Sir, you seem to be getting real enthusiastic about this space.”

“Actually, Amy, I am. By this time tomorrow, we will have a dance studio as good as any in the city. If the seven dancers bond as a team, they might form the core of a new troupe. Maybe this space will push them in the right direction.”

“That’s not all is it, Sir? You always have something percolating in the background.”

“I think I want to use this space to catch up my martial arts skills. It’s 50’ long, and 60’ wide, minus the area where the multimedia equipment will be situated. There’s plenty of room for everyone to work.”

“The ‘cross pollination’ comment Jenny made is true?”

“The day Patty got here, the seed was sown. All of them are about controlled motion, and the six new girls are the same.” I shrugged and smiled. “It’s time for you to start a serious training regimen, too. We will do our martial arts exercises together.”

Ellie, who has been listening, “The gymnasts, dancers and martial artists who can mix and match skills and style will be awesome! Your kata sequences, set to music, have to be beautiful. The concentration and control will keep Jenny’s huge tits above the balance beam and off the mat.”

“I heard that!” Jenny almost pulled off a frown; “The Boss did hit the exact place in 3D space every time, even when his body moved.”

“It is about precision. You put the staff or foot where it needs to be. If that spot is three inches past the opponent’s head, that is their responsibility. The exercises really are strike, counterstrike, defend, strike, strike again, and more. You train every muscle to react instantly when the moves are required in a different order. Jenny, if you know where you will land and your legs know how to get there, then let yourself do what it needs to do.”

“Ellie is right, indelicate, but right. Focus will help a lot. Believe me, dancers know all about being blessed by the Boob Fairy. How many D-cup ballerinas do you know? Seriously, how cool would it look to have Mark doing a kata in slow motion with a group of dancers swirling around and under him, interpreting an epic struggle from just about any national mythos?”

“Mark in tights! There’s the opening night poster.” Leah swooned like a silent movie ham.

“Excuse me. Mark will not be wearing tights. You might get me in thigh-length Speedos, but that’s it. There is the bulge control issue here.”

“I suspect the uncontrolled bulges are not intended for the ladies, as a rule.” Patty giggled. “They may tease the women in the audience, but 90% of them are for other male dancers, figure skaters or gymnasts. It’s neither good, nor bad. And most of all, not my business.”

“I agree, I don’t ride sidesaddle, but have no problem with people who do.” I laughed. “I’ll stick to Speedos.”

“So this means you agree to dance with the troupe?” Ellie asked. “Didn’t see that coming.”

I took her hand, pulled up and bent her over the table on front of the others. I checked. Ellie, primed for hours, was still dripping wet. “Bet you didn’t see this coming, either.” Notched, I drilled slowly to the end. “Really, dear, did you think I would run in fear of a group of naked or near naked teenaged virgins? Please.”

I could never pass up a straight line.

Ellie received the fucking interrupted earlier, and we all saw her coming. She was quite a spectacle the second time, too. I gripped her slender hips and found my center deep in hers, filling that sweet steaming pussy to the brim.

Ellie lay on the table giggling like a happy schoolgirl. “Encore! Encore!” shouted Leah.

I did poor Groucho Marx leer at Amy and turned to Leah. “That was the encore. I know some people, a late show might be possible. I’ll get back to you.”

Jenny handed me a hand towel. “Not exactly what I meant by ‘cross pollination’, but close enough for friends.”

Four phones signaled an incoming text. The school was to be closed through Wednesday for unstated reasons. The girls were overjoyed. Another free day in the middle of the week was good news, indeed. Canceling academic classes freed Leah and Jenny, canceled practices freed all four. But, school being closed is its own reason to rejoice.

My office phone rang. Amy started to get up. “Stay, help Ellie clean up. This late, any call is trouble.” Caller ID said it was the school.

“Allyn Computer Systems, Mark Allyn speaking.” I signed the girls to be quiet and went to speakerphone.

“I am Dr. Elizabeth Williamson. We met at the meeting earlier today. Thank you for answering, Mr. Allyn. We have a bit of a situation here that could be very embarrassing to the young ladies recorded by that person in the Performing Arts Department.”

“She is in custody along with her accomplices, is she not, Dr. Williamson?”

“Rightly so. However, during the search of her office we found evidence of, as our acting, part-time IT manager calls it, a vengeful poison pill. She tells us a code has to be entered every day or a script will run releasing every questionable recording to web sites overseas. I fear for the young ladies’ future.” She continued in a sad voice. “The Investigator employed by Mr. Nichols, David Rivers suggested we contact you to avert this disaster. Ms Garcia concurred. Apparently, midnight is the deadline. We’re in the server room, awaiting your wizardry.”

“I’m logging on to your school’s homepage now. Please give me the highest level access to your administrative section.”

“Use mine, ‘rising dew’, two words, lower case.”

“Where did your IT person find the folder and file?”

“Vanna says it is cross linked to every systems file, with a barebones OS and email client built in. She could look but not touch. Can you tell me why she is laughing so at a moment like this? It is most inappropriate.”

I located the beast and opened a remote code viewer. Whoever embedded this built a billboard to make certain the victim knew when they would die. Arrogant turds!

“Vanna Garcia and I have worked together before. Under normal circumstances, you are in excellent hands with her at the keyboard. This is beyond any expectation of normal. Will you get her on speaker phone?” Dr. Williamson brought Vanna in.

“Hi Vanna. This is a monster. Go now and disconnect the entire system from the net. Kill the WiFi. If we trip the wrong switch, the script will run as soon as the connection is restored. Now! Chop it with an axe if you have to. We need to disable the phone lines, every one except 212-555-7863. It’s the fifth one from the top in the middle column. This bastard if nasty!”

“You know this how?”

“You wanted a wizard, you get what you asked for. Now, move it! All I want to see is assholes and elbows.”

I could hear Vanna laughing.

Addressing the Chairperson, “Dr. Williamson, we may have to take the nuclear option. Be warned. I’m going to release the doomsday device. Apologies for the harsh language, but this script will dump your internal emails, financials, personnel files and student information all over the Internet.”

“Harsh language excused. Call me Liz, Mark. I feel some harsh language coming on also. We have insurance and backups. Please burn the rat bastards in hell, damn their black hearts. Ms Garcia said you could make them pay. Please, by all you hold dear, make them pay dearly”

“Mark, I yanked the high speed trunk out of the wall and cut every connection in the junction box except this one. What next, Ninja Man?”

“I’m building a firewall around the entire OS. The first line of code will go in last so the program will not see the intrusion before it is isolated. Here goes!”

“Mark, this device is sounding like a dying elephant. What did you do?” Liz shouted. “Should we run for cover?”

“You’re safe. It triggered and is making all the little sounds and warning noises at once. I slipped a new contact in the queue. The only connections it can make are to it and me and I have a firewall up. Vanna will vouch for my protection. Now it is caught in an infinite feedback loop, sending and resending the files.”

“You rock, Mark. Just like at the bank, kick ass and take names! Hey, the printers are going nuts!” Vanna whistled. “The email and IP addresses of the recipients. Names being taken.”

“Ladies, now it will really scream.” I sent it one of my extra special bots. “Watch the monitor. Surgeon at work. What do you see?”

Vanna answered. “Scrolling lines of code, some are being highlighted and overwritten by the whole alphabet at each character position. Now, the string disappears. The malware is being obliterated to the point of being unrecoverable. Cool.”

The program code continued to march up the screen.

“My little present is shooting fish in a barrel. It just cleaned the device drivers. As soon as the screen shows a unicorn, disable the UPS, do an orderly shut down and pull the main breakers for the building. Wait 10 minutes, then restore power and reboot the system. Call all your techno-nerd friends to fix the phones. Figure a fair labor cost for your crew. I’ll work out payment later. You’ll need extra hands.”

“A unicorn? No ‘Bite Me’ this time?”

“Hush, Vanna. When you reboot, the system will send me a defanged version of the original virus and anything it didn’t destroy. It will be a huge file. The killer bot will finish the last lost strings, scour the network and set firewalls. It will shut down and reboot, scan for stragglers. When it auto-restarts again, connect the trunk and the phone lines. I’m sending you a schematic from the phone company as a guide. Check your inbox.”

“So we don’t have to worry about the computers on the network?” Vanna gasped, “A diagram from the telco?”