Chapter 60: Ownership 101

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this first session of our training programme."

It had fallen to me to kick off the first of the Slave Owners 101 as it had come to be called. We'd converted a wing of the Sales Centre to provide some lecture rooms and a couple of rooms for practical work as well of course as the cells to provide secure accommodation for our "training aids".

We'd brought together a group of five for this first session. Freddie had canvassed some of our existing customers and got them to recommend people. Two of our trainees were members of the family of existing owners, one had just bought their first slave, the two others were prospective owners, using the course as a way of seeing how slave owning would work out for them.

Rachel had worked on the programme with some of the guys from Rick's operations team. We'd put together some sessions that covered tools of the trade, security, discipline and training, slave welfare, and (not unnaturally) buying and selling.

The group were pretty attentive as I ran through the schedule. All of them looked enthusiastic when I said that we aimed to spend as little time as possible in the classroom; we wanted them to have as much practical experience as possible, I said, and there were rooms equipped so that each of them would have their own one-on-one slave handling sessions.

We introduced them to the five slaves that they would be working with, Beth, Ella, Carol, Alice and Sarah too. It was good to have the two older women and two youngsters as a mix, plus of course there was a real benefit in having Sarah who wasn't as compliant as the other four that had been through the programme. We aimed to move the slaves around between the students so that they'd all get a chance to work with each of them.

Having told them about what we planned to cover, I handed over to one of Rick's teams to kick off the session on security. He started off by writing the on one of the flip charts. "There Are Only Two Things You Have To Remember About Security." He turned back to the audience. "Does anyone want to take a guess?"

The audience managed to look both blank and interested. He turned back to the board and started writing again. "1. You have to be lucky all the time. 2. The slave only has to be lucky once."

The audience gave a laugh. He launched into his talk. "This is all about how you make sure that your slaves don't get lucky," he said, "and how you can make sure that you don't have to be quite as lucky as you might think."

I left them to it. Rachel was waiting when I got back to the apartment. She had just emerged form the shower. "You just missed the Doc," she said.

"What did she say? Is she happy with how your doing? I mean you seem fine to me now, but..."

"I'm fine," said Rachel, "completely OK. She say's I can go back onto the programme from tonight." I looked concerned. "It's fine, Sir, really. This second attack just made me more determined. I am not going to let anything stand in my way. I'm doing a good job aren't I? The buyer's conference went well, didn't it? The training course will be good too, just wait and see."

"But do you need to do more of the programme?"

"Don't be silly," she said chiding. "Of course. I have to finish the whole thing. You wouldn't want me to turn around and whack you again like I did the first time I had the chance, would you?" She giggled, recalling her escape attempt when she had first been brought to the centre.

I smiled ruefully in response, remembering the lump that the keyboard had raised on the back of my head, not to mention the embarrassment of being found hogtied with computer cables and a mouse jammed in my mouth as a gag. "Not at all. You'd better get off to the training room straight away then. I much prefer the current Rachel."

"Yes," she said gathering up her things. "So do I."

I watched her go. As I turned back I saw that Sukie had come into the room. I hadn't heard her. "She is going to be alright, isn't she?" Sukie said.

I could see she looked worried. I took her in my arms. "Sukie, I'm sure she's going to be fine." Sukie put her head against my shoulder, her long black hair spilling down behind my back. "The Doc's going to do a battery of allergy sensitivity tests so we'll know what to look out for in future. And she'll have a crash medical kit to keep with her. It wasn't anything you did. We were lucky it happened here where the Doc was on hand. Imagine if it had happened to Rachel somewhere that she was on her own."

Sukie sniffed back a tear. She lifted up her head and nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Can I do anything for you? Some tea? Or," she smiled, "some play?"

I looked down into her almond eyes. Her offer was tempting. I ran my hand down the soft smoothness of the hair that framed her face. "It will have to be tea for now," I said. "I have to do some more work for the training course, and I don't intend to deliver a session on advanced sexual debauchery with you as a training aid."

Sukie giggled. "We'll keep that for in here," she said. "I'll bring you some tea."

I spent about an hour working to put the final touches on my session on buying and selling slaves and then went down to see how the others were getting on.