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About a week later I needed to check the final arrangements for the All Spice collection with Harry. When I called him, Sarah answered. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised but I hadn’t realised that she would be out of orientation that quickly. She set up the meeting efficiently. I could see that Harry hadn’t only been interested in her for her physical attributes.
When I got to Harry’s office, I saw Sarah for the first time since she’d been cowering at Harry’s feet after being released from an extreme bondage session. She had evidently come through her orientation without her cheery approach being affected. She looked up from filing her nails as I walked in. “Good morning Mr Ross,” she said with a smile as I walked in “He won’t keep you a moment, please take a seat.”
I did so. Sarah went back to her manicure. Harry obviously favoured a traditional look around the office. Sarah was still wearing her wavy red hair loose. She had on a white high necked blouse but I could see the line of her slave collar beneath it. Harry obviously had her wearing a padded bra, she’d certainly filled out since I‘d last seen her and there hadn’t been time for surgery – I guessed Harry had that planned in her future. I still really didn’t understand what they did in Orientation but Sarah certainly seemed to have been trained quite quickly and she seemed as willing to please now as she had been when I‘d seen her at interview.
“Can I get you a coffee or something Mr Ross?” she asked brightly.
“No, I’m fine,” I said. “How are you settling in?”
“Oh, OK,” she said. “I mean I know I was a bit silly at the interview and everything. Well, how stupid can someone be? Going off and buying the things their kidnapper needs to kidnap them!”
“Harry’s very plausible,” I said sympathetically.
“I know. I felt bad about it at first but then I got to see some of the snatch reports from the teams and there are plenty of brighter people than me get trapped in fairly silly ways. Lawyers, doctors, all sorts. And I mean actually it’s quite a good job. I know he just wanted to pick someone up and I can’t say I enjoyed the kidnapping bit and all the training and the rest but actually the job is all right. And Harry really needs someone to help him keep the office in order – there’s so much to do around here. Do you think I’m doing all right?”
“I’m sure you’re doing fine,” I said. “Harry would soon let you know if you weren’t.”
“Well, I like to do a good job, even if he did grab me like some piece of meat.”
A buzzer went off on Sarah’s desk and she got to her feet. As she came around the end of the desk I saw that at least Harry hadn’t changed her taste in skirts – if anything the navy blue skirt she was wearing was shorter and tighter than the one I had seen barely covering her backside as she struggled in the back of the van – and the heels she was wearing were higher than you’d usually expect in any normal office. She turned to open Harry’s office door, giving me a glimpse of stocking through the short slit at the back of her skirt. The day was getting better by the minute.
Harry got up from behind his desk and waved me in. “Thank you, Sarah,” he said. “Come on in Larry.” The day carried on getting better, Tricia was in his office too. She gave me a welcoming, “Hi”.
Sarah showed me through the door. “Can I get anything?” she asked.
“Now,” joked Harry, “the last time you asked Larry and me that, I seem to remember you ended up going shopping for ropes and tape.”
“Yes,” said Sarah, good humouredly, “and I never got my expenses paid either.”
“Ah,” said Harry, “where were the receipts? Can’t pay out expenses without receipts. Ask any of the team.”
“Oh, well,” giggled Sarah, “It could have been worse. You might have wanted handcuffs, a ball gag and a hood from a fetish shop. I’d have probably got those too.”
Harry smiled and waved her out. Turning back to me he said, “I asked Tricia to join us. You said you wanted to set these girls up in a recording studio? Tricia used to do a bit of studio work. She can drive a desk; give it all a bit of authenticity.”
“Great,” I said. “It’ll be fun. Have you done much operational stuff since our little burglary outing?”
“Oh sure,” she said, “Harry doesn’t let you sit around once you’ve shown you can do it. This one looks a bit different though.”
“Well, I guess so,” I said. “Let me fill you in on the plan…”
I’d just about got to the end of it when Clegg put his head around the door. Tricia seemed to sense that Freddie wanted a private chat, got up and excused herself to go. Freddie didn’t stop her.
“That your new secretary?” Freddie asked, nodding towards the door. “Very nice girl. Bubbly personality. And that hair colour looks real too.”
“Yeah,” said Harry. “She was a find.”
Freddie barely paused. “Oh, by the way Harry, she’ll have to go, you know.”
“What?” said Harry. “She’s only just started.”
“Come on if you’re in the meat products business you can’t keep the prime cuts for yourself. With legs like that and that red hair you know we’ll get a terrific price. And Brian’s numbers don’t look too good this month – he needs something to boost his margins and he’s got some Balkan buyers in the auction in a couple of weeks, they just love redheads. She needs to go in the sale with the other one you picked up at the same time.”
Harry tried to protest, saying that Sarah had only just finished her training and she’d not really been broken properly for re-sale. Freddie was adamant. “Sorry, Harry, if you want to recruit a PA you’d better find something that’s not so saleable or get Brian to fix his revenue stream” he said. “Call her in and tell her. I’ll do it if you’re not happy with it.”
Harry looked glum but gave in. “OK, Freddie, I’ll do it to help out the numbers, but Brian needs to lift his game.” He reached across and pressed the intercom buzzer. “Sarah, in here, please, now.”
Sarah appeared at the door of the office and seemed to sense at once that all was not well. “Is there a problem,” she said. “Have I done something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing you’ve done Sarah. However, you know how it is with slaves, we buy and sell them. I’ve been discussing your future with Mr Clegg here and we’ve agreed that the best option for you is to put you on sale at one of our next auctions.”
“Oh, but, don’t you need someone to go on doing the work I’m doing now? I mean I know I haven’t fully got to grips with all of it yet but I thought I was doing everything you wanted.”
“It’s all right, Sarah, you’ve been doing fine,” Harry was reassuring. “It’s just that we’ve had a change of plans.”
“I’ll take her back to the orientation area to finish her training,” said Freddie. “You’d better come with me, Sarah.”
“Oh, all right,” said Sarah. “She held out her arms. “Don’t you want to chain my wrists?” she asked. “They always kept me chained up when I was down there before. And gagged. I had to wear a gag. Is there one in here? I could get a scarf or something if you wanted.”
“Don’t worry, Sarah,” said Harry gently. “They’ll sort you out when you get down there.”
“Well, I don’t want to be any trouble,” she said.
Harry and I watched as Freddie led Sarah away.
“Bugger,” said Harry. “She was shaping up nicely.”
“I tell you what, Harry, I might be able to do you a favour. I going to need someone to do some work on a video I’m organising. I’ll try and get Sarah assigned to it. If Clegg agrees then maybe she’ll miss this sale and you can get another go at putting her back in the office if Brian’s numbers pick up. I reckon I owe you a favour.”
“That would be a help, Larry,” Harry said. “Do what you can.”
I wasn’t sure how I would persuade Freddie but that could come later. “How did Jules shape up?” I asked, changing the subject.
Larry had still looked glum but he brightened up at a little. “Well, she does seem to be seeing sense now. No more crazy escape attempts at any rate – she could hardly move for a day after we got her out of the trunk. Two days in one of those without the relaxants aren’t anyone’s idea of fun. I think she knows she’s not going to escape and that there’s no knight in shining armour going to come galloping over the hill. Jack said she was asking what she needed to do to get best billing at the auction next week. She even spent time trying to persuade Brian to spice up her entry in the sale catalogue. Brian was pretty pleased; he doesn’t get the stock coming on to him too often. And she really did seem to do all she could to promote her very considerable assets. Brian seems to think she might help the numbers too.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Brian obviously
needs something to help things out. Still, I’d better get on with our little
project.” I punched ‘
The phone bleeped, I spoke in response,
“Hi, Vicky, it’s Larry. Just to let you know my client liked your audition
tape. Can you give me a call?”
It was only about five minutes later that
she called back. “Hi,” she said, “sorry I missed your call. I was a bit busy.”
“All Spice work or Mistress P work?” I
asked.
I heard her giggle. “The latter,” she said.
There was a pause. “Hang on.” She’d obviously put her hand over the microphone,
her voice sounded muffled but I could still hear her. “Back on your knees, you!”
she barked, “I didn’t say you could get up.”
She came back to the phone. “Sorry about that,” she said.
“That’s OK,” I replied, “I guess it’s not
very convenient right now.”
“No that’s fine. You said your client liked
the tape.”
“Yes, he’s really keen. He’d just like to
hear a couple of extra tracks of your own stuff.”
“Wow, that’s great!”
“Yeah, can you get the girls back together?
I’ve got another studio we can use. And can you all wear your stage costumes?
I’d like to get a few publicity shots at the same time.”
“Absolutely!” Vicky was evidently pleased.
“Where’s the studio?”
I gave her the details of a converted
warehouse in the
They’d gone to town on their costumes: all
of them were in different black outfits. “I like the look,” I said welcoming
the girls. “Cover of Rolling Stone, July ’97, unless I’m mistaken.”
“Wow, you are a fan,” Posh said. “What do
you think?”
What I said was, “Like I said, I like the
look.” What I thought was; it was going to be a close call which of them the
Kalinin’s son found sexier; ‘Emma’ in her short skirt and basque, ‘Scary’ in
leather bra and trousers, ‘Posh’ in her short, slit skirt and bikini top; not
to mention the outfits that Geri and Sporty were wearing. I guessed that
Ginger’s hair would take priority, though.
‘Sporty’ handed over a bag of mini-disks.
“Backing tracks,” she said, “your engineer will want them. Let’s get started.”
I was as keen as the girls. Tricia and
another of Harry’s snatch team were with me in the control room. All Spice
piled into the small studio booth. They pulled on headphones and plugged
themselves in. ‘Emma’ called across to us, “We’ll do the track on the green
disk first if that’s OK.”
Tricia held up the disk, ‘Emma’ nodded and she
plugged it into the console. A thumping bass line spilled out of the monitors.
She leant forward, hit stop and the music died away. “I’ll cue that for you,” she
said, “three … two … one.” The music started again and the girls joined in.
Emma started a solo part, with the two Mel’s backing her up.
They were sounding as good as they looked.
It was almost a shame to hit the button that fired the gas canister.
As they reached the chorus the gas began to
seep into the booth. Emma, stretching for the high notes sucked it in quickly.
She gave a puzzled look and slid slowly to her knees. Ginger and Sporty went
forward to catch her and caught the gas too, following her to the floor of the
booth. Scary and
We gave it a few moments for the gas to disperse. As we opened the door to the recording booth, the unconscious form of Vicky slumped through it, down onto the floor of the studio, lying face up with a frozen, startled look on her face, her headphones clutched in her hand. The snatch team went to work quickly, taping the girl’s wrists and ankles, gagging them and blindfolding them too. Each of them was folded up into their own personal transport box. Emma and Vicky the two smallest into double bass cases; the others into boxes that looked from the outside like music amps. “We’ll get them back to the Prep Centre and see if they go up to 11,” said Harry’s man with a laugh as he and Tricia wheeled them out to the truck waiting outside.
“See you around,” said Tricia with a smile
and a wave.
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