Chapter 36

It had been Six years since the disaster at H&S, and another election year was fast approaching.

Vicky, Abby and Cathy still made weekends at Finely’s as regulars.

Vicky more often than the other “Graduates” from Carol’s programs of Exception and extension.

She seemed to have a closer bond with Candy, and an ability to overlook her friend’s murderous job.

Well over 12,000 women were exempted, or extended by reasons of Social, or family needs within the Chicago community, even with the narrow guidelines of the Federal and Illinois legal systems around the Selection process. There were additional exceptions and extensions filed in the communities where Findley had reciprocity for slaughter operations. Carol griped a little at the need to become a member of so many different Bar associations, which David cheerfully paid both entrance and exam fees for. Carol boasted after passing her exams in the 12th state that “I’m going to open the most interesting law firm in the nation”. Her “graduation” from Findley after almost 4 years (due to getting too old) was an absolute celebration by all of the staff.

Out of respect for the holiday season, the Illinois Population Control Board all had their lottery selections announced on November 1st for the remainder of the year. This allowed people to plan their activities with some sense of security. All lists and names were published and delivered no later than November tenth. And if your name was not selected by then, you were safe until the end of the first week of the following January. For the families who were passed over, this was great. And the survivor complex added to the shopping frenzy of the season.

For the selected ones, things were a lot different. From November fifteenth to New Years, all of the selectees were entitled to pick their own date. But all had to be finished by December 31. This meant scheduling too many people for too few resources.

For clients wanting “Special Event” terminations there was a wait list. David figured that both of the Shock Sybian’s would be booked throughout the season, and the Guillotine was going to be chopping heavily through New Year’s. Many people were talking about getting “going away Christmas” presents, and the Holiday season hours of operation would have to be extended.

The production terminations now had scheduling modules as part of the web page. Women were encouraged to log into the production web page identified on their notification notice and make their selections for intake and termination. Both did not have to be on the same day, and in fact, clients were encouraged to come by on a interview day as early as possible to review the forms and get advise on end of life issues.

A couple of the women had designed a splash page for the Findlay web page with a picture of an Ostrich running along, then suddenly stopping and putting her head in the sand. Below a banner came up saying, “Get your scheduling done early. Don’t wait and think it will go away.” Client comments were evenly split on it being cute vs. being vulgar.

At this point in time, David had operations in full swing at both Findlay and at H&S. Margaret was working as a consultant at M&H. That meant that the three major operating production houses in the Chicago area were all following the operations model that Margaret and David had developed. The standard instate production figures for the three plants were averaging well over two thousand a week for a three-day production week. The out of state production figures added another thousand each week. Many of these came from the surrounding states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Missouri.

This had created a headache for the H&S location. They had to make provisions for a direct door out of H&S to the loading dock. Trucks were being brought in at night and removed the following morning while stock was chilled and boxed in the evening. Standing orders became the norm with Swift, International Meats, and others picking up in bulk every morning.

There was a court challenge of anti-trust when the M&H location was listed on the H&S and Findley web pages as an alternate. That was resolved when it was pointed out that the M&H was a link that Findley charged a referral for each client who went there. What was immaterial was that the charge was $ .01 for the referral. Jack and Bill Miller usually settled this over coffee once a week.

Most of the original Goats at Findlay and H&S were doing well. Kim had moved into H&S permanently, and was doing the job of process operations manager. Marty Burke was overall operations manager at H&S (his old job) and mainly was concerned with transport, storage, and meat distribution across the state. “I don’t do nothing inside of this building in front of the tables.” He was proud to say. “I stay out of the way and keep Kim happy.”

Elaine was the consular on duty at H&S and Amy Drake was the new lawyer in residence.

Carmine Cassidy was the new Vampire at H&S, taking over the job that Cathy would have had. Working with the newer machines there was a quantum increase in speed of determination of fetal sex. With the new technology, people could imprint genetic patterns of fetus at six weeks with a high reliability. Which was causing a lot of raised eyebrows when the sex of the male fetus was increased in percentages from sixty to eighty percent. All of which Carol added to her information on the brief she was working on.

Candy had become formally listed as operations manager at Findlay. She acted as general manager with Nancy doing the front office management. Like most people who were successful while young, she had grown into the job of management of a slaughter house with a lot of aplomb. Deep down inside, she was still the same young woman that came and asked how she could help.

Hafie had been doing foster parent stuff until all of the underage children from the former Imam’s group were properly placed. Then the question of her legal status arose again. Fortunately, her outlook was more flexible and she became one of the permanent interview staff at H&S.

There had been some failures in goat recruitment. David found that he had a five to ten goat turnover each month since the expansions. And that was despite a lot of careful screening by several members of the squad.

Elaine had become very good at spotting the early onset of depression and working to either get the goat through it, or help them to ease into the flow. Those going into the flow were always participants in Special Events held at Findlay. The Sybian was the big winner, with the hot tub being a close second.

Many of the women who decided to move on were like David’s original three. They were looking to use the extension of time to tidy up family issues. Usually their talents were not as varied or as extensive as the others, and when the depression set in after three or four weeks, they decided to move on.

The big thing was to make sure that women were convinced that they were either not finished, or that they could leave when they thought they were. Carol was a case in point. So far, every time she started to get depressed, David or someone found a new issue in the law to keep her engaged. And she laughed when it happened and was able to pursue the new challenge with a smile.

Loosing Helen had left a major gap for everyone. Carla Sanchez took over cooking breakfast, and the others rotated in helping. But the gap was there like a large missing space. Finding a replacement for her was David’s first challenge and he knew it.

Having Michelle open up her salon shop on the third floor at H&S was a very good morale move. Michelle was not too good at guiding, although she was good at interviews. But with a steady group of forty women to work on in the evenings, plus the odd daytime woman in search of looking good on her way to the gallows or chopper, Michelle was able to pull her weight. In David’s mind, she was extremely valuable as many of the women he had were from the upper economic brackets and were used to salon treatment every four to six weeks. And women, by their nature, played with their hair a lot.

Adding the rooftop garden to both locations was good, even if it was too small to grow much besides flowers. It gave people a chance to walk around and see the signs of the city.

The Special Events were well known with clients coming from any state that allowed reciprocity. New York was the first, followed by Denver, Colorado, Miami and all of Florida, and Atlanta Georgia. All four of the states allowed travel to Findley after notification, and accepted reciprocal notification of termination. An Illinois death certificate was accepted as a general practice.

Carol had worked very carefully on out of state contracts. She did not want to ever have Findley run afoul of any interstate commerce. Very careful management of contracts identified the process as “Medical Treatment” which was specifically excluded from the interstate commerce clause of the constitution by both regulatory and case law. In order to make sure of that, all out of state terminations were scheduled and run as Special Events, even if they were done through standard production.

The “Saddle Shop” had become a raging success. The units were booked at half hour intervals five and a half days a week. After David had installed a second saddle in the Shop, in addition to the one in the Hen House, Candy and Vicky were arguing for a third at Findley, if space could be made available. It was close to the Chopper in alternative sales, and far more than the gallows by a wide margin. The last bath spa tub was still the most expensive, although it was now being used as a party machine for up to four who wanted to go close together. When that happened, it was an affordable experience.

David had engineered a new addition to the Saddle Shop units. It was a “Kill Me” switch. A special insulating key was installed on the right-hand side of the saddle near the kneepad. A loop was passed from there to the right-hand side of the handgrips on the saddle. A woman would pull the ring out from the lanyard passed around her wrist as she mounted up. When the plastic ring left the keeper, a ten second delay cut in before passing the killing current into the dildo buried inside the client and out through her hands that were holding onto the saddle hand rails.

This kinky device was at the request of Marilyn, one of the goats that decided to pass on. She was tinkering and toying with the idea that a woman should be able to pull the kill switch at a time of her own choosing, not just let it in the hands of the operator. It took some engineering to put it in, but when Marilyn pulled her key after being on the Sybian for twenty minutes, the shock passed internally to her left hand through her heart and took her out with no problem.

After that, it became one of the interview intake questions for all of the prospects. “Do you want pick when to end the trip yourself, or have the operator choose for you?”

All of this activity was completed in anticipation of the holiday season that promised to be a significant difference from the previous years.

Labor Negotiations for the Holidays

It was on a very crowded Friday night in mid-October at Findlay’s. All forty of the goats were in attendance for a formal meeting (as well as a few “graduates”). With the growth of the population, David was forced to have the meetings in the Reception room, with the hallway door blocked open to allow people to come and go for dinner and nibbles.

“Ok, ladies. Today is October sixteenth and I would like to get from the group some idea of how we plan hours of operations through the holidays.” David said over the hubbub of conversation. “I am open to suggestions from the floor.”

“Nice of you to ask us, boss” Caroline said from the back of the room.

“For you guys it is necessary. I can pay the union guys overtime and they will jump at it.” David said.

“You are sweet” Carol said. “How many hours we looking at?”

“All of the lists for the remainder of the year had been released today, and it looks as if we have over twelve thousand clients in the list.” David said. “That works out to almost twenty two hundred a week for standard, not counting interstates”

“That isn’t out of line with what we are doing now.” Candy said.

“That presumes that we will have a steady state of schedule and reporting.” David said.

“You thinking we have an overload after Christmas?” Shannon asked.

“I can guarantee we will. With these rules, everyone is going to want to extend from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I would not be surprised to see us doing extended hours every day after Christmas and even New Year’s.” Carol said.

“Well, I don’t want to give up our Sundays. And I don’t want to give up Friday nights. But I was thinking of three four-hour sessions Monday thru Thursday, and then two four-hour sessions on Saturday. Eight to noon, one to five, and six to ten.” David said.

“Standard or special events?” Candy asked.

“For Findley, both. I want to shift as much of the standard to H&S as we can.” David replied

“That is going to create a problem.” Shannon, the new market manager, said.

“How so?” David asked.

“Marketing 101. Peak demand for product is going to be through the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. But the feast makings won’t be available until after both of those holidays. After Christmas, we will be doing maximum processing, but for foodstuff that won’t be fresh or wanted after New Years. Almost everyone that is coming here after Christmas will be in cans or stews. And how will we store pending cut up?” Shannon explained.

“She has a point,” Charlotte said. “It is one thing to have people forgo New Years. But skipping Christmas or Thanksgiving?”

“Besides, if we have to dice and store roughly seven weeks of produce in one week, we are going to be dealing a real problem.” Candy said. “Hell, we fill up every day now, and have to exchange trailers with the markets.”

“I expect that we will get the ego centric who don’t want to be pet food early in the cycle, but most will want one last holiday.” Elaine pointed out. “That means at the very least a drop off of business before Thanksgiving, and a real “Black Friday” for us.”

“I think we are going to be doing a lot of late night Friday service. Maybe even open early that day to get the shopping crowd.” Shannon said.

“Well, I am open to suggestions on how we get them into here before the holidays so we have something to sell during. And also how we manage to not have a glut after New Years.” David said to the group.

“How about a reverse Calendar?” Carla asked. “We know that we have to guide them so we advertise that time periods between Christmas and New Years are peak times. And that we will charge for traffic beginning after Thanksgiving?”

“Carla, you are evil. I like it.” Shannon said. “Tell them it costs more the longer you live. And after new years, you pay for it by being sent to the city. David we could threaten to not take any previous year assignments after midnight on new years. That leaves them out in the cold.”

“And we can plan a New Year’s extravaganza party. Book it by the hour.” Casey said.

“Casey, your tasteless jokes are getting worse. But that one is not too bad.” David said.

“We are going to need that kind of creative thinking to get through ten thousand women in five weeks. Of which I expect we will have to do between six and eight thousand. And that is only the local in state group. Out of state will be a lot more then we are seeing now.”

“So, ladies, I am going to close this meeting, with the request that each and every one of you come up with your ideas on how we can manage through this season.” David said. “For the record, we are closed for terminations at all three locations tomorrow. We are open for registrations only. I think we all have had a emotional week, and I think a quiet weekend is in order.”

The problem was, that this would be a different season. For everyone.

Revolting Developments

Every landslide starts with the single little stone that starts down the hill. In this case, a single woman picked by the lottery in South Carolina because she was a Wiccan broke the veneer of impartiality in the Carolina lottery system. A federal grant for a investigation filed the day of selection had just enough time to keep her alive while the justice department investigated. The findings indicated a wide spread bias which was prejudiced against religious minorities and the impoverished. The resulting lawsuit kicked off a systematic review of the selection process in South Carolina.

What had started as a simple equal treatment under the law case was latched onto by the District Court of Appeals. But before they could initiate a ruling, the US Supreme Court added the issue of the legitimacy of unequal treatment to its docket for review immediately after the holiday.

This threw a major turd into the holiday punchbowl. What had never been reviewed was the fact that a treaty established the lottery, and that American sovereign law complied with it by way of a treaty. And that treaty’s could be broken if found unconstitutional.

The fact that the new president had campaigned to investigate the loss of sovereignty due to treaties of unsavory nature had become an election hot button.

“I think that there is a tidal wave on the way, and I think we should start to find ways to decrease production as much as possible” Carol said during the Sunday morning brunch. “I am not sure what is going to happen, but I am sure glad we got all of our protective filings in place for our team. And any more we can fish out.”

“Carol, if your brief on the sexual shift in fetal sex adds ammunition to this, we are all going to celebrate. “ David said.

“David, what do we do if they modify things? Or even suspend operations while they court “ Carol asked.

“We go with the flow. And we develop contingency plans for everyone regardless. One thing is for sure. We don’t have Merle Hill kicking at us any more.” David said with grimace.

Monday Morning, Post Selection, Poste Election

“Well, we will see what happens now” Barney Maguire said to Ben Weaver, the federal director of the Selection Board. “With the change in the administration and that case brewing up from South Carolina, we could have some changes in the near future.”

“I will believe that when I see it. We have had a half dozen presidents vow to look into the treaty. But no one wants to antagonize the international community.” Ben replied

“It would be the first time in a while that we have told everyone to screw off.” Barney said.

“In the meantime, what is the issue with Findley? Do they really have a real jump in male exclusions? Is it their equipment?” Ben asked

“I don’t think so. You know they were the only shop that ever really screened. Carl Davenports daughter had twins and they found them.” Barney responded.

“Yea, I heard that. I also heard that they tried to have exempted or excluded every client they could that came their way. Is this abundance of male fetus a slant on that?” Ben asked.

“I doubt it. Findley has always been careful as hell, even when they didn’t have to be. When he was only pet food, everything was done to human consumption standards. He is just crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s “ Barney responded.

“They are kicking out fifty or more each week for one thing or another. And it isn’t for fluff cases either. If I didn’t know better, I would think that they were anti term advocates.” Ben said. “Do you think there is a political agenda here?”

“I don’t’ think so. David has been very careful to be non political on this whole thing. And no one wants to push on him either. After what happened to Merle Hill no one wants to go near that place. And politically they are as quiet as mice. “ Barney said.

“I think we are just seeing his focus on doing things the right way. “Barney continued. “You know, we still don’t know how they term people. Other then the USDA saying it is both humane and safe to the food supply. We don’t know what happens when women walk in that door. I do know that a lot more walk out than anywhere else.”

“What we do know is this. We are on track with respect to the requirements set by you guys for the first time. We have no cases of misfiling’s or selection errors. We have other states looking at us to emulate us in their operations. And we may have finally gotten this whole thing right.” Barney said with a grimace

A knock at the door interrupted the conversation. “Guys, There is an unscheduled presidential news conference. I think that there may be something on the news we want to pay attention to.” Delores said from the hallway.

On the podium was Ben Conyers, the outgoing President of the United States. A staunch conservative and by the rules lawyer who had served as vice president, he had ascended to the role of president when his predecessor had died on the campaign trail a bare sixty days before. Realizing that it was too late to mount an effective campaign for his own election, and believing every president should leave something as a legacy, he had been considering the executive order he had in hand carefully for some time. This particular country boy executive had decided to leave on a note that would put his successor in a cat box to either deliver or cover up. “By god, I will leave a legacy even if I have the shortest term in history” he thought to himself as he stood on the podium.

“My fellow Americans.” The President began. “I thank you for this opportunity to address you. For years we have functioned under a treaty that was thrust upon us by nations who were both foreign and different in culture and values. We complied with the international laws that these nations had enacted to be a member in good standing of the international community. This treaty has caused untold pain and anguish to our people for too long.”

“My successor has announced that he intends to review this treaty in light of his feelings regarding international relations. In recent weeks the Supreme Court has decided to take up this issue as well on it’s docket after the holidays.”