Chapter 4

Recovery and a Break.

Carol, Nancy and Liz were all sitting at the tables a few minutes later while David ordered some pizza and pasta for the group. He had poured some water for Carol to clean out her mouth, and given Nancy a ice pack for the back of her neck. Liz snickered at the other two while she thought about why and what she had seen.

“I have to give Margaret credit. She had us all fooled there. I never would have expected her to be the Terminator beneath that nice sweet exterior,” Liz opined.

“Would you believe that this was her first day here? In fact, the first day she even set foot near the building?” David asked.

“Hell no,” Carol and Liz said almost simultaneously.

“Well, I sure feel she found her calling. So sweet and considerate right up to the time she was cutting throats and bleeding people out. Almost like she really did care for what was going on,” David.

This was seriously scary for Carol. She had dwelt with violence as a prosecutor, and knew that the human meat business was violence of a permitted sort. But the combination of murder and quiet whispers was something that shook Carol to her core. “I wonder what she was really whispering to them. I don’t think I ever want to find out myself,” she said out loud

“I believe that it was all good and intended to comfort,” David said. “Margaret has always been very considerate of people and I think she was seriously concerned that these women were panicked and distraught. And I believe that she did have a positive influence on them right up to the end.”

“Maybe so,” Elizabeth said. “ But I won’t see her in the same light again after that.”

“I won’t either,” David said. “I see her in a better one. I used to think she was disconnected or that she looked down on me for the business. Now I see her as a partner.”

“Now,” David continued. “ Do the three of you know why you are not hanging down the hall being cut up into shipping box sized pieces?”

“I had wondered about that,” Carol asked. Ever the lawyer, she knew a lot about the process law. She had a personal interest in finding loopholes around becoming a selectee in this particular situation, and there were not any. The fact that she was sitting here was a shock enough to her. And she was anxious to see what the immediate future held for her.

“Ok. Now for the three of you,” David began. “There are some rules regarding processing plants that are holdovers from the old days of livestock processing. Some are from tradition. Some of those traditions have been codified into law. Carol, what is the legal status of a Judas Goat?”

“Judas Goats are individuals trained as a part of the handling system for stock in both pens and slaughter houses. They can be receptionist, or movement workers or clean up and other assistance. They are not allowed to slaughter, but they are allowed to prepare stock for slaughter. My God, Margaret is a Judas Goat? But she killed those last three women”

“And she is my wife. As such, she is part owner, so the participation block does not apply. I was informed by my union membership of that little fact.”

“So what does that mean to us?” Liz asked.

“Wait a second,” Carol continued. “There are rules around Judas goats though.”

“Yes,” David continued, “there are. The ones that apply to your particular situation are as follows. The three of you are more valuable to me as consultants than as meat. Under these circumstances, I can hold you as working property for 30 days from a date of filing. That allows you to move about the property or anywhere else in my control. So long as you do not become pregnant with a female child, or run off outside of my control. As owner and operator I have some responsibilities to the public, but very few toward you. I do have some strong recommendations from the Meat Assignment board.”

“And what are those?” Carol asked. Ever the lawyer, she was looking to understand how this would work in a legal system. She did have to admit that temporary servitude beat hanging down the hall.

“First off, I have to properly tag you. Second, I can only use you in the development, operation or management of enterprises associated with activities of a human slaughterhouse. Third, I have recommendations that I feed you and care for you as any other livestock and that you be humanely slaughtered when your service is finished.”

This was a shock to Nancy and Liz. Carol however saw the implications immediately.

“You can’t use us to replace union labor tasks which are part of a bargaining unit. And you cannot have us work in activities not associated with a slaughterhouse. Which means you cannot pimp us out or have us work in a bordello outside of this location.”

“I had not thought of opening a bordello here, but thank you for the suggestion,” David replied.

“You are welcome,” Carol responded with a snicker. “So what do you want to do with us?” she asked. “And how much can we accomplish in 30 days?”

“Oh, it is not just 30 days,” David replied. “I have it on good authority that I can legally extend the duration in 90 day increments indefinitely. And that these extensions will be granted IF I do not use you to conduct activities outside of those necessary to develop my business as outlined in my business charter and license.”

That got Liz and Nancy’s attention as well.

“You schmuck. You are opening up a slave labor camp,” Nancy interjected.

“No,” David replied. “Slavery would indicate that you were property. I don’t own you. You are your own person. You have infinite choice. At any time you can choose to be processed by me or any other plant in the U.S. All you have to do is walk out the door and flag down a cop or a cab.”

“Hear the man out,” Carol said as she shushed her two compatriots. “What are you really trying to do?”

“Simple,” David said. “I have one of the finest legal minds in the state. I have one of the best and most brilliant market development managers in the country. And I have one of the most capable and ethical academic authorities on Women’s Rights in the country. I could not plan or steal better talent to develop a Custom Conversion house that would appeal to every woman in the country. One that would appeal to all of the women who do not care about being on the table but who do care about how they leave the world. We can provide painless, or painful, fantasy or horror. For all of the fertile imaginations of upper middle and upper class women who do not want the risk of a botched skewering at a party in front of their friends.”

All three looked at David with a blanched nod. They all remembered that occasion. “And we can be artistic, we can interview, we can design a death that fits the client, and charge them properly for it. Carol, how much would you pay for a slow dance at the end of a rope in a semi-public venue? And Liz. Beheading or the spit? Which do you seek? And Nancy, you want painless. If so, a warm bath and a sharp pinch of your wrist lets you slowly bleed out in a bathroom while sipping brandy and listening to music.”

All three heads nodded. David had something. Now how to market it and what to price it at was the key. “How much do you intend to charge?” Nancy asked.

“I think we can keep it in the 3500 to 5500 range. The meat is irrelevant unless they are grade A and those we could give to H&S or someone else in exchange for samples to use in demonstrations.”

“Samples?” Nancy asked

“Sure. Samples. Suppose you have a half a dozen women interested in a slow hanging. Or who want a quick drop hanging. We do a few samples free of charge, and then book the women in advance. If their number comes up, their arrangements are already made. All they have to do is show up.”

“You are talking about pre-selection contracts here,” Carol interrupted. “You have to be really careful here.”

“And that is why I want to have a great lawyer,” David explained. “Design a contract that is legal, binding on us, and which will refund the money in the event of either non-specific termination or accident, or maturity past the age of 40.”

“Some states won’t allow travel out of state when you are selected,” Carol demurred.

“Ok. So those we don’t write. Or we get the client to get a waiver to travel first.”

“Ok. How long do we have on this?” Elizabeth asked. Carol and Nancy both listened closely for an answer.

“For as long as I am above ground and alive, and this business is economically viable, and or until the state selection board no longer has any interest in any of you. Is that open-ended enough from my end?” David asked with a challenging glance.

“I’m in,” Carol said. “This is the best deal I have ever heard of for my circumstance.

“I guess if Carol says it is the best deal, then I am in too,” Liz said.

“Do I get laid before I die?” Nancy asked.

The others laughed and sputtered while looking at Nancy’s face. “I am serious. I want to be a harlot. I was a good girl all my life and now that I am almost dead, I want to have some fun.”

“I think we can take care of that,” David answered with a smile.

David left the three “Consultants” talking while he moved up to get the pizza from the delivery at the front door.

In the meantime, Candy and Margaret were moving Jane over to the table for her field-dressing. She had quit moving a while ago, while Crystal was still twitching a little. Caroline was occasionally moving a little.

“Mrs. Findley, I want to do like you do.”

“What do you mean, Candy?”

“You sat with these women, talked with them while you brought them through the reception room, exam room, bath room, and into the stripping room. You cajoled them and talked with them and made them feel better about what was going to happen. And then when it happened, it was still a surprise and they were over it real quick. That is a real gift to give a woman on a day like today.”

“Do you think that they appreciated it? “ Margaret asked.

“I know I would. I know that Stacy would have. There is a lot of fear about coming here. You know you are not going out. And you know that someone is going to kill you. Having it be a surprise from someone who is friendly is probably the best thing that can happen. Lots nicer than other ways I can think of. It’s always best to get things from a friend.”

“Well, thanks, Candy. I think we have to do some research into how far and how much we can do and what you can do. But before we go any further, I better get a collar on you right now. So we are not in trouble if we have any inspections. I wouldn’t want to have to process you after you did so much hard work. Then we can come back and finish up Jane, Crystal, and Caroline.”

“Sounds good to me, Mrs. F.”

Margaret and Candy walked back to the shipping office where David had gotten Margaret’s collar earlier today. Picking up one marked “16”, she placed it around Candy’s neck. They had just gotten it locked when there was a loud commotion was at the back door. People were banging and yelling for someone to open up, A loud voice said “Open up, this is a USDA surprise inspection.”

Grabbing the box of collars and putting it into Candy’s hands, Margaret ordered “Quickly now, Candy, take these and run to the break room up the hall and give them to David to link up the other three. Do it now, before there is any trouble.”

Candy took off fast up the hall with the box, while Margaret wandered back to the rear door. There she saw Carl standing around.

“Well, do we open up?” Margaret asked him

“I would suggest you do. But take your time. He does not need to know you have an inspector on site just yet.”

“Opening up,” Margaret yelled as she moved toward the door and started to open the locks.

When the locks were withdrawn, the outside door was yanked open by two burly men followed by two of the Chicago Police.

“This is a surprise USDA inspection. We need to see your management team and check the area for violations of the Meat Management Code.”

“Sure,” Margaret said, “Do you need to see our license?”

“That too. But first I want to see your papers of status. You look like Meat attempting to escape to me,”

“I doubt that I would want to escape my own business, now would I?” she asked.

“Your business?”

“Yes, I am Margaret Findlay.”

“Do you have any identification?”

“Not on my naked body, but I do have it in the office out front.”

“Well, we will hold you here until that checks out. And we will start with a step by step search of the rooms and the different people here on the property,”

“Excuse me, young man,” Carl asked as he came forward.

“What do you want?” the officer asked.

“Your inspection certificate, your identification and your badge number. I’ll take those for starters.”

“And who wants to see them?”

“Former deputy director Carl German of the USDA. Currently in active retirement as a location inspector paid for by David Findley of Findley meat processing. Now, who are you again?”

There was a sudden shift in behavior while Carl reached into his pants and drew out his wallet. No one moved while he opened it and displayed it to the USDA and PD officers now standing wondering how they could disappear without leaving a trace.

“Uh, We had a complaint,” the first office began.

“Produce it,” Carl’s voice snapped like a rat-trap.

“Uhn, I have to go to the car.”

“Not without first providing your identification as to who you are, and who your manager is. I already know who your division director is and I am just going to make his job easier to find you.”

“I have to go to the car to get it.”

“Officer. Could you do me the favor of either vouching for this young man, or accompanying him to his automobile and then back here with his identification?”

The first cop behind the inspector nodded with a smile coming to his face. He had a funny idea that this kid was about to get an expensive legal education.

“I most certainly can accompany him. I do not recall seeing any identification. We were responding to a call as a request to assist in a service.”

At this point, Margaret was slowly backing away from the door. Carl appeared to have more control over this situation then she would ever have, and so she was going to wait and see what happened next.

“But I am an inspector in the USDA. I really am.”

“I believe you are, son. But I believe that you will probably have to write a lot of paper over the next few weeks regarding search warrant and inspection protocols. Now once again, where is your inspection book, your identification and who is your supervisor?”

“I don’t really have inspection certificate. This was a surprise inspection.”

“Officer, if you can accompany this young man to his car so he can produce his identification, I would appreciate it. Margaret, can I please use the phone in the office?”

“Carl, you can use anything in this building you want.”

“Later, I might consider that, Mrs. Findlay, but right now the phone will do.”

Carl walked into the receiving office and dialed a number from memory and waited for a few seconds while someone picked the phone up

“Davenport, this is Carl German. I have one of your young lions trapped here in a cage of his own making in front of my current place of business along with two of Chicago’s finest. As soon as I figure out what his name is, I am going to hand him the phone while you talk with him.”

Carl listened for a few moments and then continued, “I am sure he is a honest young man. I am also sure he abused his authority. If he had called here first he would have found out that this operation pays for me to be on-site every single business day that they manage conversions.”

After a few moments, Carl continued, “Davenport, I don’t really care about H&S or Myers and Hancock. This man runs a legitimate business and most of his produce goes to pet food processors. And your young man stepped into my sandbox and tried to take a crap. Now what are you going to do about it?”

Margaret listened quietly while she heard some mumbles over the phone, and then saw the USDA agent returning with the police officer beside him.

“Thank you, Charlie. Mr. Weaver,” Carl began as he was reading the identification. “I have a mister Davenport on the phone right now who wants to talk to you. Here he is.”

The following conversation consisted of Weaver saying “Yes, Sir. No, Sir. Yes, Sir” a number of times followed by “I understand, sir, Right away, sir” followed by “Mr. Davenport wants to talk with you for a moment, Mr. German, if you don’t mind, sir.”

“Hey, Charlie. Thanks a bunch. How are the wife and kids? Really? Daughter got a conversion notice? When is her due date? Well, I will tell you, send her here if you want her treated like you would want her treated. These people only usually do fifteen to twenty a day, three days a week, and a few odd stragglers on Saturday. This is a quality operation. No abuse and no stress. I like them. Ok. Give me her name and registry number and I will ask David to pick her out of the pot. I am sure that H&S wants to co-operate with you on this. So do you need Weaver again?”

“Ok. I will tell him. You have a good day and send me that number. I will have David get on it.”

“Mister Weaver. Do you know how to stand at attention?”

“SIR, YES, SIR.”

“Good boy,” Carl continued without raising his voice “Now I am sure you have been informed of the error of your ways in this matter.”

“Sir, yes, sir, I have.”

“Good. Now I am assuming you are going back to your normal assignment at Hill and Stienhauer and to perform your duties there to the fullest extent of your ability, is that correct?”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“Good. Now you have a good day and mosey on down the road.”

“Yes sir. Sorry, ma’am, to bother you. Please accept my apologies and have a good day.”

After the door closed and Margaret heard the sound of tires leaving, she turned to Carl and said “Carl, are you married?”

“Yes, but she passed naturally several years ago,”

“Well, I was quite serious about you using anything that this building has, including the owner’s wife,”

“Ma’am, I can’t do that around the meat.”

“Carl, who the hell said anything about around the meat. Hell, you can do it WITH the meat from this place if you want.”

“Not really. It might violate sanitation laws.”

“You know we clean them up while processing.”

“Yes, ma’am. I know how well you do that. I watch it every day. But I still feel a little funny fucking what might be my dinner.”

“Ok. How about what isn’t on the menu? Like me?”

“Mrs. F, we will have to talk about that some other time. If you don’t mind, I am going to get back to watching Chris and Marty and Gus finish up with this lot. They have a lot of work to do today, and we want to pay attention to the little things to keep things up to code. And please let your husband know that the USDA area manager wants him to do his daughter who just got selected and ordered for processing by next Friday.”

New Goats from Old Stock

Meanwhile, David had returned from ordering pizza to find Candy with the box of collars in a panic to collar his three new Goats. He did so, and made sure that the collars fit correctly. “I am also going to look into a ankle band as a substitute that is locked in place so I can take you out securely.”

“David. Can my husband and Liz’s husband visit us here?” Carol asked.

“Sure. We have enough room in the unused part of the plant to house two or three families. In fact, Physical plant to match business plan is right up on our task list. So far as I am concerned, as long as what we do does not endanger our license, we can do it. And that, Carol, is what your first order of business is to discover. And you, Candy, go back to Margaret and see if she needs anything.”

“Ok, Mr. F.”

“Now, ladies. I expect you to start to work on some sort of plans for our new venture in quality terminations for the discriminating housewives of America. And I will go see what my wife is up to.”

What his wife was up to was her wrists in Jane’s body, pulling out intestines, bladder, kidneys and female organs. “Candy. Good, you are back. Can you go over and get me the Wyoming knife on the shelf there. I should have started using that from the beginning.”

As Candy brought over the strange blade, she looked up and saw a host of organs falling out of Jane onto a paper mat on the floor. A lot of guts in a body, she thought.

“Chris, I know that neither Candy or I can cut meat, but do you mind if I work with her to field-dress?

“Candy? Is that your name? Do you know anything about field-dressing?” Carl asked.

“My uncle had me help clean and butcher hogs on his farm in Ohio all the time. I must have cleaned out a hundred of them,” Candy responded.

“Ok, Mrs. F. If you will finish up with these, that will leave me and Marty doing the chop and box work. Go for it.”

“Ok. Jane is ready for Chris at the table. Now, let me show you how to get started on Caroline using a Wyoming Knife,” Margaret said to Candy.

“Ok,” Margaret started, “First you take the raw blade of the knife and make a one-inch incision just above her clit on the pubic bone to her belly button. Don’t go too deep. See?”

“Sure do. She don’t bleed any.”

“Nothing much left in there. Ok. Now we take the backside of the knife and we slide it under the skin tissue. This lets us slide the knife down toward her sternum or breastbone. See? Just like a zipper.”

“Yeah, I see that,” Candy replied, paying attention to the fast movements.

“Now you want to make two horizontal incisions from where you got to the zipper along the hip and pelvic bone in both directions. Just like this.”

“Wow, this opens her up completely.”

“Yeah, it pretty much does. Now you go down and make lateral incisions all along the rib cage from the sternum, under the tits, to the bottom of the armpits.”

“Wow. She is opening up like she was popping”

“Yes. That is the way you get it open quickly. So now we pull open the skin, using the Wyoming knife blade to slice ligaments while we peel the skin away on both directions. Once that is done, you pull the organs out, slicing the veins, arteries and ligaments as you go. Pretty soon you can have her as empty as a drum.”

“Ok. So what do I do now?” Candy asked.

“Why don’t you start on Crystal? Be careful that you don’t cut any intestine, or bladder or kidney shell. We don’t want anybody’s pets getting sick. She is not much more then cat food anyway.”

Twenty minutes later, Jane, Crystal and Caroline were completely clean of stomach, lungs, heart, liver, intestines, bladder, vagina, ovaries, endocrine glands, and other non-meat products. Their heads had been removed, along with hands. They were rolled over to the tables to await dissection.

For the next hour, Chris and Marty worked to reduce the bodies of 42 women to the components of meat, bone, organs, and waste to be disposed of in landfills. From the average 150 lb. woman, there was about 45 lb. of meat, 15 of bone, and 12 of organs usable for first-line feed. The rest went into second-line containers for rendering of fat and other tissues. Much like slaughterhouses had been doing to food animals for a hundred years. Only some of these animals used to have wedding rings.

Late Lunch

The pizza had arrived and nothing stimulated appetites like survival. Candy being a late teenager kid had an automatic appetite. Margaret and David ate with almost as much gusto. Carol and Elizabeth were a little more restrained and disconnected. Nancy was the only one still a little peaked. She did not eat a lot normally, and watching three women sliced and slid down the trolley was still on her mind. She saw herself hanging up there with the rest of them and it was a sobering thought.

Much of the conversation was around the discussion of economics. David brought up the point that 6 people were involved in converting 42 people to roughly 20 thousand dollars of revenue. And while this was successful day, it still was a day where half of 42 of those bodies had to go to S&H.

“Actually,” David said, “I should send all of it their way as compensation for you four. You guys are worth the money. And the 15 we did on our own covers our allotment for the week. I would rather have the four of you meat-exchanged free and clear, so there is no issue later in case anyone asks.”

“Thank you, Master,” Carol replied with a smile, “That makes us little old property pieces very happy.”

“Yeah,” Liz chimed in. “Funny how you can’t abuse us, neglect us, or breed us, but you can kill us in any manner you want.”

“Now, girls, David is not like that,” Margaret spoke up. “If he was, none of you would be wearing those collars.”

“For which we are eternally grateful,” Carol broke in “But you do realize that we are on borrowed time?”

“We are all on borrowed time,” Margaret piped in. “But just to level the playing field I will tell you what I will do. I will burn my release letter.”

“WHAT?” From everyone in general.

“Sure. If I burn it, then I am just as vulnerable to the whims of fate as any of you. Stay or go.”

“Not so fast, Sugar plum,” Carol broke in. “If you burn that letter and David dies, we are all in shit-shape. While you have a release letter, you can inherit all chattel and property. That means us. Without it, we are on the table by dinner. We have twice as good a chance of living to a ripe old age with you released.”

“Leave it to Carol to find the legal angle,” Elizabeth said.

“And that, ladies, is why she is here,” David said.

“So. Ladies,” David began. “What we need is a plan. A marketing plan. A delivery plan. A legal plan. And last we need a product-listing plan. Nancy,” David continued, “Since they are services, we are going to have to depend on you to help to define them.”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to help devise the favorite female fantasies on being snuffed?” Nancy incredulously asked.

“That about sums it up. You are the authority on the feminine here, and as such you should be able to tell us what would turn women on. And more important, what they would pay for. Or even advance us money to use in the case they got picked.”

“How far in the Pain direction do we want to go with this?” Nancy asked. “It is one thing to stake a woman or skewer her, it is another to have her screaming her head off so loud that the neighbors for miles around run from it.”

“We have a consumption problem with pain management. The tranks we introduce to the subject may still not be metabolized when the subject terminates. That means we have to flush the meat. Either chemically or literally.”

“You know,” Liz opined, “we might also want to think about something else. We may capture ten percent of the market that is selected each year. That is one percent of eighty percent of the population. But what about the population that is not selected, but is still facing painful death. Cancer or others who won’t make it through over time and yet cannot be admitted to a real meat house because they are diseased?”

“That is a market, but we have a couple of problems. For starters, how do we address it, and then how do we set up the facility that allows us to do meat in one area and non-meat in another?”

“We could ask Carl,” Margaret suggested. “I bet he would know what we have to do to insulate the two facilities. Consider one a mortuary and the other a butcher shop. How do we selectively separate them?”

“Candy, if Carl is available, ask him to come up here.”

“On the way.”

“Now that she is away, we also need to look into another issue. We need to find a means of recruiting additional butcher/ killers. I mean licensed, in case we get overload. We had 47 today and it almost ran us into the ground.”

“Actually we only did 42. Remember 3 are here, one is down the hall and one went home,” Margaret interjected.

“Yes. So we need at least 2 goats running full time if things get big Monday. And we need more interviewers, right, Carol and Nancy and Elizabeth?”

“We also have Helen coming over tomorrow. Do we have a collar for her?” Margaret asked.

“Geesh. I forgot about her. Yes we do. We will have to juggle things a bit. What do you think of Helen as an interviewer, Margaret?”

“She is the one with the shrink degree. Abnormal psychology, as I recall.” Margaret said.

“Ok. Now who is second goat?” David asked, eyeing the people at the table. “I think that Margaret is pretty much in the position of First goat. Who is second?”

“I nominate Candy,” Margaret said. “She has a touch with people, I think she has confidence, and she actually likes the helping people aspect. And she has no more problems with this job then I do,”

“OK. That works. Is this going to get us into any problems with the Union?” David asked his new corporate lawyer.

Recovering from the shock, Carol replied “The law prohibits a Goat from doing any job of any union employee in a business. It does not prohibit a goat from being in the Union and then performing those activities.”