Chapter 2

When Mike returned to the gym, he made a call to his boss. After enduring five minutes of yelling and screaming and being called an ungrateful bastard, he was told he was fired and that he should clean his stuff out of the apartment by the end of the next day.

By noon the next day Mike had his clothes and personal effects in the back seat of his car and was heading out of the city. He soon found himself driving through the affluent suburbs north of the city. It took an additional half an hour for him to leave the developments behind. He almost missed his final turn, taking him off a country road and onto what turned out to be a long, tree–lined, driveway. After a thousand yards the trees thinned out and he entered a clearing. Ahead was a huge warehouse-like building; a large sign over the front door read The Amazon Combat Arena. To his left he could see a large house, which would fit in perfectly on a family farm in Iowa. Looking around the sides of the Arena, Mike could see at least a dozen small cottages.

Mike parked in front of the big building and went inside in search of Karla. Once inside he was overwhelmed. It was brightly lit and had room for three professional sized rings for boxing or wrestling, plus a full-sized octagon. There were also areas with circuit training machines, treadmills and stationary bikes, free weights, heavy- and speed-bags, and matted areas for floor exercising and stretching. To his left, against one wall, he spotted a series of doorways, which he assumed led to offices.

As he approached his assumption proved correct. It resembled a medical office, with a small sliding glass window next to the door. A pretty blond sat at a desk on the other side of the glass, which she slid open to greet him.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see Karla. My name is Mike Wilson.”

“Mike, Karla told us to expect you. Come on in.”

When Mike reached for the door handle he heard a buzzing and the clank of a lock snapping free. Entering the office he was again impressed over the crisp clean profession décor of the reception area.

“Have a seat, Mike, Karla will be out in a couple of minutes.”

Before Mike took a seat he scanned the rest of the office, besides the receptionist there were two other people visible. One was a small, nerdy looking guy, who was busy pounding away on a keyboard, only occasionally glancing at first one screen and then the other screen perched in front of him. The other person, a cute brunette, sat at her desk. There were two large monitors mounted on a frame on one corner of her desk. A remote keyboard sat in her lap as she leaned back in her oversized chair typing furiously.

After only a minute, Karla emerged and said, “Mike, it’s good to see you again. Come on in, I’ve got some papers for you to sign and then I’ll give you a tour of our facilities.”

He followed her as she entered her office. He had to chuckle as he read the back of her tee-shirt. It was a picture of a heavily muscled female boxer, standing over an equally strong looking male who had obviously been severely beaten by the female. The quote over the picture read, “A hard man is good to beat”.

She went around her desk and sat across from him. Pulling out two copies of an employment contract, she said, “Read it if you want but basically it formalizes the offer sheet we already discussed. You’ll be getting the winner’s royalty rate, 10%, on all videos you participate in; in those in which you act as referee, you get 1%. Your salary will be $10,000 a month, plus medical coverage, plus two weeks vacation, ten holidays, and room and board.”

For Mike it was a no brainer; taking the offered pen, he signed both copies. Karla, in turn, signed both copies, handed him one for his files, and kept one copy for herself.

“Welcome aboard, Mike. I think, for the most part, you’re going to enjoy working here. If you keep an open mind, train hard, and obey the rules you’ll make a lot of money and be around for a long time. Now come on lets walk around; I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew.”

In the outer office, they walked up to each of the employees.

“This is Ira, he’s our accountant. He’s in charge of payroll and royalties. Ira, this is Mike, he’s our new Boxing Instructor.

“Pleased to meet you Mike. When you get done with your tour, please come see me; I have a bunch of employment forms for you to fill out.”

“Over here is Cathy; she’s our computer guru. She’s in charge of cyber-security and her rules are to be followed without question. Our computers are our life blood, and the most vulnerable part of our business.”

The small brunette looked up from her keyboard. “Hi Mike, I’m looking forward to working with you.”

Mike was impressed with the firmness of her grip. He thought to himself, ‘she maybe petite, but she certainly appears to be athletically built’.

“And this is Linda. She’s our receptionist and my personal administrative assistant. Linda keeps me grounded and on my toes at all times.”

Getting up from her chair, Linda extended her hand in greeting. “It’s good to finally meet you Mike. Karla has been telling us all about you; it’s good to have a face to go along with the stories.”

Mike was a little overwhelmed by the sheer size of the woman; she was at least six feet tall, but it was her arms and shoulders that impressed him the most, both of which were much bigger than his own.

Karla took him by the arm and steered him out the door and into the gym.

“Linda is one of our best wrestlers; her videos are best-sellers in that category.”

“She’s one of your wrestlers?”

“Sure, all of our employees, office personnel included, are also fighters. All except Ira that is; I’ve been trying to get him into the ring but so far he’s refused. Every time I confront him with it, he gives me the same response: ‘You need me both physically and mentally at my best. You wouldn’t want me paying a vender more than he’s entitled to, or an employee more than they’re due. If I get into the ring with one of your Amazons there’s no limit as to how badly I could get hurt; maybe permanently mentally impaired.’”

“I know he’s right; but I’d still like to get my arms around him and just squeeze.”

“Wait ... not box him.”

“Heavens no! I could kill him if I boxed him. Lately I’ve been doing a lot more wrestling than boxing, it makes for better videos.”

By now, they were in the gym and Karla began the tour. “Over here we have several training rings. They are also used for taping purposes. We basically tape all fights, thereby adding to our inventory. By having more than one ring we can tape a fight and still have ring time available for training matches.”