Chapter 4

On the street Franco said, “You don’t waste much time making decisions, do you?”

“I don’t have the time right now. I know what I want and just need some help to get it. I will need some builders that can remodel the buildings I buy. I need glass blowers and crate makers. If you know of any, send them my way.” Turning to Razin he asked, “What do you need for weapons?”

“A sword and a knife and something to carry them in.”

Franco pointed them to an armorer. As they entered, they looked around at some swords. They weren’t the best in the world but weren’t bad either. Razin and Sama had one in hand and they were checking the balance. They nodded that they felt good. Tom went to the shopkeeper. I need twenty-five swords. Do you have that many?”

“I think so. I may be one or two shorts but can have them in a day or two.”

“I am going to buy two and let them test the strength against each other. If they hold up, I’ll need the other 23. I may take a day or two to pick them all up.”

“600d each.”

“I will pay 600d each for the first two but if I buy 23 more, they will be at 500d each. 10,500d do we have a deal?”

The armor nodded his approval as Tom tossed him a gold coin for the first two. The men stepped out back into the garden area and sparred. They didn’t try to hurt each other but to test the swords. At the end, Tom bought 23 more with scabbards.

When they walked back into the house, Durr was wearing a red cloak. The men said that he looked good. As they chatted, Mary came out with a leather belt and on it was a 12-inch Bowie knife. She handed it to Durr. He fastened the belt, appreciating the thick but soft leather and the easy to use buckle. Sama handed him a sword to put on the belt and he looked good and ready to fight.

“I could use a shield or armor for protection, but since we aren’t going to war. We should be alright.” Pulling the knife from his sheath, he hefted it in his hand and looked at the craftsmanship. It was a top knife in quality and price but still a mass-produced product from Bass Pro Shops.

Tom watched him and the other men as they were nodding their heads in acceptance of the new uniform. He said, “There may be times that you aren’t in uniform but when we go out and want to show our presence this is the basis for your uniform. Razin is next to be outfitted. He will be leaving on his mission in two days. He should have a few changes of clothes.

Tom went into his room and came back twenty minutes later. He held a small cloth bag and told Durr to bring all the guards and other slaves to the living room. When they were all assembled including Mary he said, “These last few days have been very busy and may not make sense to you or to me, but we are trying to do what is right for our long-term happiness. You are all slaves and are technically owned by me, but Mary is my wife and whatever she says, you should act as if it is coming directly from my lips.”

He let the words sink in and then continued. “Mary and I are far from ordinary, we love the exotic and extreme, you’ve tasted our wine and that is just the beginning of things you may see or hear when you are with us. I could have you killed for no reason, but our privacy is very important to us. People have seen me with gold and may want to steal it and may be willing to kill us to get it. We don’t talk about it. You don’t talk about it. I would prefer you don’t talk about it with each other so that it isn’t accidentally overheard and you don’t get comfortable talking about it.

“To be open and honest with you, Mary and I are both very sexual people and you may see nudity or sex in this house or other places you are with us. Again, this is something you won’t talk about. It could be used to hurt us or someone else. Rule one is you don’t talk about what goes on in this family. Rule two is, never break rule one.

“As I said you are our slaves, but we don’t see you that way. We see you as part of our family. We will let you be slaves for a while but when you have worked enough to equal what we had to pay for you we will set you free but hope to keep you on as hired workers.” He had to pause as there were murmurs around the room.

“We are trying to bring the families of the guards here so they will want to stay with us and keep working for us. If there are family members in China that you would want to return to, or you would like for us to bring here, please let us know ladies. Maria, you can just tell us what you need to make you happy.” Tom heard in his mind, ‘To be in bed with you and Mary.’

He nodded and smiled at her making her blush. Reaching in the bag he said, “As I said, you are our slaves and as such you will be marked as our slaves. Some people use brandings or piercings to permanently mark their slaves’ others use fewer permanent marks such as a collar. I have collars for all of you to wear. You will all wear the red clothes that will be made for you. You will be part of this family and hold your heads high.”

A couple of the men rubbed their necks in the thought of a collar. Tom pulled out a thick gold necklace and handed it to Durr. The room got loud as people watched. All the men and the women were handed necklaces and Mary made sure they could figure out the clasp as she went from person to person and put them on.

Tom continued, “I think that a year should be enough time to pay back what you cost us. It will depend on the effort you put forth. You will not take off your collar unless you are free. Or unless you are somewhere and need money to get home or save yourself. It shows that we own you but also that you are cared for by us. You can run away and sell that to start a new life but then you will always be looking over your shoulders. Work hard for the first year. See if you like working here and then you can do as you please.”

The men started clapping and the girls followed their lead. Durr said, “I speak for my men when we think that is more than any of us could ever expect or ask for. We look forward to working for you. We appreciate the trust you have put in us giving us gold and weapons. We hope to never break that trust.” They cheered some more.

“Enough of that. Get Razin fitted for his clothes so he can leave on his trip.”

The men went back to their quarters. Franco was still there and stood amazed at what he had seen. “You would give your slaves freedom? You gave them gold that is more ornate than the high society ladies might wear and worth more than they would make in a couple years as a freeman.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Tom said, “Treat others as you would like to be treated. If I fell on hard times, I would like the chance to make a better life for myself even if I had to work to earn it. I will take care of them and hope they take care of me. I took care of you finding me this house. I will do the same with the documents on the boat, the farm villa, and the building by the river. Making the community I live in better and stronger makes my life easier and better. A rising tide raises all boats.”

“I have a lot to do to get ready for the trip. I will be by later to check on things.”

The Chinese girls were gone to work on Razin and other outfits. The only others left in the room with Tom were Mary and Maria. Mary walked over and gave him a hug. “I love you Tom. You make life exciting.” She looked at Maria and said, “I told you that he was a kind and generous man?”

“I still don’t know how you hear me, but it is so nice to be able to talk to someone. Can Tom hear me as well?”

Tom said, “Maria, I don’t read minds and have never heard anyone else so clearly in my mind but I only hear you when you are projecting your thoughts as if you were talking to me or replying to something I said. I don’t know your favorite color or food. I can’t search your soul. It is new to me and I think the same for Mary.”

“Tom is right. We can hear what you would say to us if you could speak but you may think things because you don’t think we can hear them. Like that crack about letting us use your body for sexual pleasures.”

“I wouldn’t have said that out loud. And I didn’t know you would hear me but I’m kind of glad you did. Now I won’t have to be so obvious in front of the other servants. I don’t want to leave and know I’m your slave, but I would love to look at my collar. May I take it off to look at it?”

Mary walked over and undid the clasp and put it in her hands. “You may look at it, but I will put it back on you because I own you and your body belongs to me.”

A shiver went through Maria as the words echoed in her mind. She thought, “Thank you Mary. I am enjoying my new masters already.”

Maria drifted into her room to look at the gold collar. Mary took Tom’s hand and led him to their bedroom. When the door was closed, she said, “That was a nice gesture. What do you think of our adventure so far?”

“All the slaves could run off tomorrow with their gold collars and we would be just fine. It will bring out their true nature and character. Just like when I put your collar on and tug your leash it brings out your inner slut.”

She growled at him and said, “I’m having fun so far but there is so much more to explore.”

“We could be here for years and still have more to explore. It will be fun to see how far things can go with plenty of working capital. By the way, what are the Chinese girls’ names? I should spend some time and say hello.”

“The mom is Chen; the taller girl is Ju and the shorter is Li. They are happy here so far. The needles we had, and the thread are so much finer than anything they’ve used before. Wait until we get out some of the expensive stuff you bought. That was a great idea. Do you have other things?”

“A few but can’t wait to get out the china and crystal instead of the clay plates and goblets. When we set up our stores it will be like walking down Rodeo Drive instead of Walmart.”

“It will be fun. It will be nice when we have a balance of living in the here and now and not living out of a suitcase or replicator.”

“Have you done any more experimenting since we’ve been here?”

“Not really but I have some ideas I want to try. I will let you know when I have the answers. What are your plans the rest of the day?”

“I want to meet with Durr to discuss security and talk to Franco or someone about finding some construction workers to build some things or us. I know that we aren’t in any great hurry, but we might as well get things going.”

After giving him a kiss, Mary went to check on the new clothes for the men.

The guards were in the courtyard with their new knives, doing some drills. Tom watched the crude and ineffective way that they held and used their weapons. “I hope we never have someone that really wants to hurt us, we will be in trouble.”

They all looked up at him. Durr said, “What do you mean? This is the way we were taught to fight.”

“Durr, I’m not trying to be rude, but I could beat any of you in a fight. Who is the best one of you men in hand to hand combat?”

Most of the men looked at one of the big guys. When he looked at Tom, Tom used his hand to coax him to him. What is your name?”

“David.”

“David, I will not kill you and you shouldn’t kill me, but I don’t want you to hold back. It is your job to take me down. I will let you try for about a minute and then I am going to kick your ass.”

David was unsure what to do and looked to Durr. Durr said, “I think he just told you what to do. He hasn’t lied to us yet. You should take him down.”

He turned and took a swing at Tom. Ducking to miss getting hit he thought back to when the last time he sparred and thought he should do it more often. Every punch, tackle and kick were dodged or pushed away for a little over a minute. When David made his next lunge, his feet left the ground and Tom slammed him hard to the grassy landing spot. Tom was on top of him with his fist at his throat before David could even think about responding.

Tom stood and held his hand to help David up. “It looks like some training needs to be done. Every night before dinner we will train. My family is too important to not be ready if needed. I have some other things to do right now. I want you to get some wood and carve out some knives that look and feel like the ones you were given. That way we can practice without killing anyone by accident. Whoever makes the best one can make one for me.”

Durr was shaking his head, “Why did you buy all of us if you can fight like that?”

“I have a wife; I have a home and I need someone to watch my back. We will train. I am a little off since I haven’t fought like that in a few years. We will all get better, that is always the goal. We can always get better and if David was the best, well, the rest of you already knew you had some work to do. When it is life or death, being second best still leaves you dead.”

The guards went over to a pile of wood to find something to carve. Tom went inside and Maria was walking towards him. “Sir there are some men here to see you.”

Looking past her, he saw two men standing in the foyer. “How may I help you?”

“I am Bello and we were told you were looking for someone to make glass bottles and wooden crates. This is Alfonzo, he can blow glass.”

“Thanks for coming. I should have a large amount of work for both of you. I don’t mean to be rude, but it doesn’t look like you have brought any samples with you. Are you two the best craftsmen in the city? I will have work for you either way, but I am looking for the best.”

Bello said, “What will you be needing? I am very good.”

Tom had just put a guard in his place and felt like he was going to do it again. He went in his room and made a rocks glass, a wine glass and then a bottle of Adictivo tequila. He came out carrying all three. The eyes on Bello lit up but his face fell knowing he couldn’t copy any of them.

“Sir, I am not that good, but I don’t know of anyone that is. There is one better than me in the city when it comes to quality. I don’t think that he could make those.”

“No worries, like I said, I will still have work for you. I show you these to let you know what I hope for. I will let you take these, and I want you to show them to the other glass blower. I want you to try to make a glass like each of the ones I have given you. If you want to try the bottle you can but I am really looking for something unique but uniform.” He pulled the top off the bottle and poured some in the glass. “See this glass stopper how it fits the top, I would like that for whatever you make. Now taste the liquor so you can see why it is deserving of a fine bottle.”

Bello took a sip then handed it to Al. “That is very smooth. The best I have ever tasted.”

“Does it deserve something that shows how valuable it is or something common?”

“I understand what you are saying. I will go and show everything to Palo he and I will both try to make something special.”

Al said, “What kind of crates do you want?”

“Al I will tell you the same thing. I will need sturdy crates for shipping that don’t have to be pretty, but I will have products that will need boxes that will be as pretty and as valuable as the merchandise inside the box. They will keep both.”

“What will be in the box?”

“Jewelry, the glasses you just saw. Many things that will take your breath away, but the box will let them know that they are ready to see greatness.”

“I can make crates, but I know the man that can make the boxes you seek. I will have him make some samples and stop by with them.”

“I don’t need them right now but will soon enough. Do a good job and stop by next week. If there are others in your guilds, you can give them your extra work, but you will be responsible for the quality. If it isn’t good, I will ask you why it isn’t. Is that fair?”

Bello said, “You haven’t asked about price.”

“I don’t know how good the work is. I will pay for the value of the work. If it is poor work, I will reject it. If it is good work, I will pay for it. If it is great work, I will pay well for it.”

As Tom was letting the men out, Franco walked up. “Tom, you are a busy man and keeping me busy. I have the paperwork for the boat so we can finish that transfer. Did you still want to look at the villa out of town or did you want to wait until I get back?”

“It may be a couple months before you get back. Do you have someone else that can work with me to do business while you are away? I am also going to need some builders and workers to do some work.”

“My brother is also an advocate. I will stop by and talk to him tonight to see if he has some time to take care of things while I’m gone.”

“Thanks Franco, you have done well for me so far.”

“I will also talk to some builders. There are some very good ones here and you can see the quality in the coliseum and other amazing buildings. I know a good architect as well. I also wanted to talk to you about money for the trip.”