Chapter 17 - Disaster

Some three years after she took over as Madame, a new big-spending customer, Tonio, started using the House of Joy. He was a dream client; a big spender who always wanted the best of food and drink and didn't care what it cost. He always had three or four Submissive or Straight Sex girls for himself and if he brought a 'friend' with him the 'friend' would also have a couple of the Lesbian Section.

According to the girls it was an easy evening. Tonio would first fuck one of them hard and fast up the arse and come in a matter of two or three minutes. Then with that "out of the way" as he put it, the party would start. Now and again a girl would be expected to suck his cock, or to put on an exhibition with one of the others, or with his 'friend', but that was all. No rough stuff, no violence, only a big tip if you made him come again during the evening. When he started yawning and feeling sleepy, he would go home.

Tonio arrived rather later than usual, just as the Director of Policebots left and Martha thought that they stared at each other oddly.

"He come here often?" asked Tonio.

"I couldn't say," replied Martha diplomatically, "I hardly notice unimportant customers."

"And what you say when he ask if I come often?" he asked harshly

"The same. 'I couldn't say. I hardly notice unimportant customers'. You see, for Madame, there is only one important customer in the House of Joy and that is the one she is speaking to at the time."

"Good. He late today?"

Martha cursed silently as she heard herself say, "No about normal," before she could stop herself.

The evening went exactly as normal when Tonio was there, but she wondered if she should ask the Director about him. In the event it was not necessary to worry, because the next afternoon, when they were still shut, the Director arrived and asked whether Tonio came often to the House of Joy.

"I didn't notice who was leaving when you arrived last night," replied Martha wishing the floor would open up and swallow her, "I hardly see unimportant customers."

"Get Li Kim here, now!" demanded the Director.

When Li Kim arrived the Director waved her over to him and held one of her hands.

"Does that man come here often?" he asked Martha again.

"I really don't know," she said.

At that the director put one foot up on a chair and casually broke Li Kim's forearm over his knee.

Her screams brought all of the girls rushing out to see what was happening, and as they ushered the now weeping Li Kim away for treatment, the director calmly asked Martha a third time, "Does that man come here often?"

"You can break one of my arms next," was the reply he received, "I know no clients, I have no clients, I do not know you."

For a moment Martha though he was going to take her up on the offer, but he stormed out of the House of Joy and she never saw him again. Two days later he was killed when his aircar engine failed at several thousand feet and none of the safety parachutes opened. It was Tonio who told her about the accident as he came in to the House of Joy one evening, which was odd, because the accident didn't happen until the day after he told her about it.

Naturally, there was panic about who would take over as the chief beneficiary of the House of Joy's funds. The new Director would not be appointed for a while and there was actually a move to staff the police force entirely with incorruptible robots, and that would mean the House of Joy closing.

Tonio offered to take over all those worries in return for a mere seventy-five percent of the profits. He and his friends would, he claimed, be able to ensure that the policebots thought the House of Joy was a small piece of park land in the most unlikely spot in town. Martha procrastinated and procrastinated until Tonio lost his temper one day and threatened to close the place down.

"No, Tonio. No," said Martha quietly, "I don't think your protection would be much use to me. You would eventually 'protect' me out of all I own. Seventy-five percent as a starter looks like a total take-over inside a year to me. I'll take my chance on a corruptible human Police Director being hired."