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Chapter 28. Stephanie’s Law
When I returned to my office after the meeting with Masterson I found an intriguing note from my secretary that a Mr. Roger Medrock, President of a Boston firm called Prostitution Services Unlimited (PSU), had called earlier, wanting to discuss a business proposition. He had indicated that he hoped to hear from me this evening and that I might call up to 9 pm. Soon I had connected with him.
“We have a proposal we would like to put in front of you Mr. Steelforth”, he said “that could double your gross receipts in the coming year! We would like you to come to Boston at our expense to discuss the matter. Could you catch the late mag-lev train tonight and be in our offices tomorrow morning?”
“Of course, I will clear my calendar.” I found myself saying.
I had heard of PSU and knew that they ran one of the largest ‘slave brothel’ operations on the east coast, employing several thousand male and female indentured servants as unpaid prostitutes and perhaps as many as a hundred chattel slaves. If they wanted to use my firm to supply their ongoing needs for indentured servants – well – that could prove quite lucrative for my partner and for me.
By 10 pm I found myself boarding the maglev with a hastily packed overnight bag. It was only a one-hour high-speed train ride from New York City to Boston now. Soon I was enjoying a drink in the club car when I became aware of a news report on the large screen.
Marge and Harry, well known newscasters on the 10 pm segment of this national news network, were having an on-air discussion on a new bill that had just passed the House of Representatives. The new bill was being referred to as ‘Stephanie’s Law’ because Stephanie’s unfortunate experiences had received so much publicity that it became the rallying cry for those who wanted reforms in our indentured servitude laws.
“Apparently,” Marge continued, “the proposed national law, known as ‘Stephanie’s Law’, provides a uniform definition of what is an “indentured servant”. This will replace a patchwork of state court decisions on the meaning of “indentured service”.
“Yes,” Harry replied, “in many places there was little distinction between indentured service and complete chattel slavery – either because the state laws were not clear or because employers took advantage of inadequate enforcement of existing laws.”
I was more or less aware of what the content of the proposed law was to be. What was news to me was that it had actually passed the House – the first step on its way to the Senate and ultimately for the President of Capitallia to sign into law.
“Indentured servitude”, Harry continued, “will now be limited to a 40 hour workweek with the indentured person free to have a private life outside of working hours”
“One of the most interesting features of the new law”, Marge continued, “is that most indentures for simple debt will not require sexual service of the indentured person, unless he or she agrees to that as part of a plea bargain, or unless the court determines that the debt can be worked off in no other manner.”
“Does that mean”, Harry rejoined, “that in the future a young woman like the famous Stephanie, who has an established skill or profession, can only be required to work off her debt by practicing her profession?”
“That is exactly what it means!” Marge responded. “Not only that but a person facing the possibility of being indentured for a term longer than two years is entitled to a complete court appointed defense team at public expense if they cannot afford one otherwise. This would include an attorney, but also, if need be, an investigator, jury consultant, and all expenses incidental to the defense! That should make unjust indentures like Stephanie’s very unlikely in the future. She got convicted because her defense team did not have the resources to properly defend her!”
I began to wonder how I was going to explain all these new requirements to my prospective client in the meeting tomorrow morning.
“Another point our viewers may be interested in”, Harry interjected “is that the Congress has responded to all the protest activity concerning the Federal Labor Board. Our viewers may recall that there were demonstrations last summer and boycotts of fresh produce in major cities. The demonstrators had complained that the Labor Board was rationing jobs in such a way as to create a permanent underclass of unemployed workers. This long term unemployed population, in turn, could not pay their bills and wound up being indentured for debt. This was part of the problem leading up to Stephanie’s indenture. There were demands that the Labor Board be abolished.”
“But these … ‘demonstrators’ as you call them – they were not citizens and so had no vote”, Marge countered. “Did they get their main demand in spite of that?”
“Yes, actually! It was a strange coalition of Civil Rights Party types concerned about worker’s rights combined with a major chunk of the Economic Freedom Party concerned that government was meddling too much in the economy and playing favorites with various industries. One of the provisions of ‘Stephanie’s Law’ is that the Labor Board is abolished and there will be no more rationing of jobs.”
“Does that mean that prevailing wages can now go sky high when the economy is booming and the unemployment rate is very low?” Marge inquired of her co-anchor.
“Not quite”, Harry responded. “Congress has now authorized the Department of Immigration to grant green cards to immigrants who would bring to Capitallia any skills that are in short supply here or grant such cards to would be immigrants who would be willing to enter training indentures to learn those skills and live and work in Capitallia upon completion of their training.”
“So the bottom line”, Marge continued, “is that employers can create more jobs and the economic pressures on the unemployed have been lessened and there are now more procedural safeguards to prevent unjust indentures.”
“Quite so”, Harry responded.
“In other news today it was reported that a Tim O’Malley, owner of a chain of nudie pole dancing bars, lost his citizenship. It seems Mr. O’Malley neglected to pay the annual citizenship tax two years running. Since he is now a non-citizen he can no longer own the O’Malley Nudie Bar chain, nor can he own slaves. His shares of stock in the business as well as the slaves he owned will be put up for auction on the first business day of next month.”
Now this interested me personally. O’Malley owned the ballerina Vivienne Morentzy. She had been one of his pole dancers until I went to see him and persuaded him to lease her to the ballet company. I would have to make a point of attending the auction of his properties. I had fucked Vivienne on several occasions and I sure wouldn’t mind owning her!
Moreover this was yet another example, along with Robert Dexter’s loss of citizenship, that there was no permanent upper caste in Capitallia. Rather the citizen class was constantly being refreshed by the fall of citizens who weren’t living up to their obligations and by the rise of new talent newly admitted to citizenship.
I drifted off to sleep after a while. Soon we were in Boston and I took a cab to my hotel and checked in very tired for a sound night’s sleep.
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In the morning, promptly at 9 am, I presented myself at the offices of Prostitution Services Unlimited. An attractive young secretary greeted me and informed me that Mr. Medrock would be tied up on a conference call for about half an hour, but had requested his Sales Director, Ben Hardley, to give me a tour. She buzzed for him and soon he was leading me around their facilities.
“First, we cater to both men and women”, Ben began as he led me down the main corridor, “and we offer both male and female prostitutes to meet every taste. We have over 1000 indentured male prostitutes and over 9,000 indentured female prostitutes. They are all in our custody to work off their debts. We provide them the very best in medical care and many fringe benefits, but of course we pay no salary or other cash income to any of them.”
“A client coming to us for pleasure is first interviewed in a private room by an attractive and socially adept hostess”, he continued, leading me into an elevator. “She will try, by skillful questioning, to get a general idea of the type of girl or guy a client desires for a sexual experience. Using a computer display she will show the male or female client video clips of different physical types and different personality types to narrow down his or her general range of preferences. Then she will select, from those currently available and not serving other clients, ten likely candidates. These will be presented to the client as a group for his selection.”
“At this point some clients, the more cerebral types, will prefer to narrow their selection by interviewing the ten candidates until they find one that really turns them on. But we also get clients that prefer a method of selection that is both more physical and more impulsive. For them we provide a lineup of the ten prostitutes, all restrained and ready for immediate oral sex use. Here, let me show you how that works!”
Just then we emerged from the elevator, walked a short way down another hall, and he then led me into a room with plush carpeting, lots of drapery and soft music playing in the background. What startled me was that there was, all along one wall of this room, a row of ten very attractive naked women plus two additional stations where curtains were drawn and from which sucking and other noises could be heard. It was fairly obvious that patrons were taking their pleasure with two of the ladies behind the drawn curtains.
Of the ten not currently engaged there were a variety of physical types ranging from a couple of voluptuous large breasted women to some very muscular ones to some rather delicate thin types. Each of these women was on her knees with her thighs vertical, her ankles secured to floor gives, had her hands cuffed behind her, and had her neck yoked in a stiff leather collar which was at the end of a three foot long steel rod linking the collar to a stanchion on the wall. Several diagonal steel braces stabilized the steel rod so that the collar encircling each woman’s neck was not free to move in any direction. Each woman was held with her neck immobilized three feet out from the wall.
This reminded me of the way the shoplifter had been immobilized the other night for my pleasure. Only that it was being done not to a single woman but to a whole group of women. And, as with the shoplifter, each woman appeared to have some device in her mouth that prevented her from closing her teeth!
“We call this ‘Fellatio Row’ “, he said.
“Are these penal slaves then?” I asked.
“No indeed Mr. Steelforth! They are all women indentured for debt who have committed no crime at all!”
“How is that possible?” I inquired.
“I would prefer to let my boss explain that part to you after we finish the tour.” He slyly responded. “In the meanwhile if you would like some pleasure pick any of these women that might appeal to you and make use of her. You can pull out those red velour curtains on their tracks for privacy while you enjoy her!”
“Sorry but I’m not feeling very randy at the moment, but I am eager to see the rest of what you wanted to show me on this tour!” I responded. I was disturbed by the apparently unethical treatment of these women, but thought it best to respond in a tactful manner until I had a more complete picture of their operations.
“Very well Mr. Steelforth. I understand your reluctance to indulge at the moment. Let us proceed to the next floor up”
Again we boarded the elevator and were soon stepping out into another corridor.
“There are two types of prostitutes that are in highest demand”, Mr. Hardley continued. “One type is ultra submissive and highly obedient and believes that he or she has absolutely no rights of any kind, and even takes delight in the perception of his or her own rightlessness in the face of our demands and the demands of the clients. The legal reality is that our indentured servants do have rights that are enforced by slave advocates but we mind control many of these indentured persons into believing that they have no rights. This makes for a more delicious experience for the client. But sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words!”
So saying he led me into another room. There I saw a naked young man who might have been twenty years old. He was athletic of build and kneeling with his torso upright and with his buttocks resting on his ankles. He was not restrained in any way, but was facing us with his knees wide apart, and his head hanging as if in shame. I observed that his pubic hair was a dark brown like the hair on his head and that his penis was flaccid, his ball sack hanging loosely.
“You may look up now Andy, and greet your visitor!” Hardley commanded the dejected youth.
The one called Andy proceeded to raise his gaze and make eye contact with me, and gave me a smile I thought somewhat curious under the circumstances.
“Tell us, Andy, about all the rights you enjoy here at Prostitution Services Unlimited!”
“You well know Mr. Hardley, that I have no rights here at all! I must do whatever I am commanded to do with any client, no matter if it is dangerous, painful or humiliating!”
“Andy, perhaps you will show us what you mean. My shoes are a bit muddy as I recently came in from the parking lot.”
So saying Mr. Hardley walked toward Andy and took up a position about three feet in front of him.
“Now I would like you to clean my shoes Andy, using only your tongue!”
I watched, amazed, as Andy first prostrated himself on the floor and then brought his tongue into contact with Hardley’s shoes, licking vigorously, frequently looking up at Hardley like a puppy looking for approval. I was impressed with the overall muscularity of this slender youth and, although I have no homosexual desires, could see a certain eroticism in the lad’s well-formed buttocks. Mud would accumulate on the tip of his tongue and he would have to stop frequently, struggle to make saliva, and swallow in order to keep his tongue clean enough to continue the work. After about ten minutes he had finished one shoe.
“That will be enough Andy. You may rise to a sitting position now, as you were before.”
Andy sat up again with his torso vertical and his buttocks resting on his ankles. The muscularity of his shoulders and arms was quite striking as was his flat and toned six pack abdomen. I was astounded to see that his penis was now quite erect and that there was some pre-ejaculate oozing from the tip of it. I examine naked slaves for a living but had seldom seen so attractive a male physique or so attractive a penis.
“I see that you have taken note of the state of Andy’s dick. What you are seeing is testimony to the fact that Andy is sexually excited by being degraded, by being reminded in a very graphic way that he has no rights here.”
If I needed any further confirmation of Andy’s aroused state I could see it in the fact that the lad’s scrotum had pulled his testicles up close to his body.
Mr. Hardley then reached down, briefly lifted the dick, and gathered some of Andy’s secretions on a fingertip, then presented that finger to Andy to clean with his mouth. Andy quickly admitted the finger inside his mouth and began to wash it with his lips and tongue. All the while his penis remained erect. Hardley briefly fondled the lad’s face and chucked him under the chin as one might a dog.
“I think you have seen enough here Mr. Steelforth. Let us proceed to our next station.”
At these words Andy’s cock quickly became flaccid and I saw a tear roll down his face. I had the distinct impression that the youth lived for the approval of his superiors and could hardly bear it when they were not making demands on him.
We stepped out into the corridor again and soon entered another room. Here we found a slender and physically fit young woman who was perhaps as young as 18. She was kneeling erect with her buttocks resting on her ankles, much as the young man had been when we entered his room. She wore a corset of some kind that encased her upper torso. She was naked from the waist down. She faced us with her knees wide apart and her head hanging as if in shame. Her pubic hair was blonde like the hair on her head. I could not see more detail than that between her legs while she remained in that position.
“You may look up now, Barbara, and greet your visitor”, Hardley said to her.
She raised her head and made eye contact with me, giving a sly smile much as Andy had done.
“Tell us, Barbara, about all the rights you enjoy here at Prostitution Services Unlimited.”
“I have none sir, and I wouldn’t have it any other way sir!”
With that Hardley bade me walk over to the corner of the room where there was an old elevator shaft, no longer in use. There were no doors to the shaft, only a waist high railing, and one could look down the shaft by leaning slightly over the rail. It appeared that we were on the tenth floor and that the shaft extended well into the basement of the building.
“Are you highly obedient, Barbara? Would you do anything at all that you are commanded to do?”
“Of course sir! That is what I am for!”
“Show us girl! Run right over to that elevator shaft, climb over the rail and jump to your death!”
She ran over, looked over the edge, and began to shake with fear. I could see all her muscles trembling with the fear of what she had been asked to do. I could see sweat pouring down her back. Her face was white. Then, amazingly, she slowly climbed over the railing and jumped! I could not believe my eyes! I heard her scream and her scream began to sound further and further away as she accelerated in her descent. Surely this was the worst kind of slave abuse!
But after a few seconds her screams didn’t seem to get any farther away. I rushed over to look down the shaft. She appeared suspended about half way down. Just then the cab of the elevator, which had been at the bottom of the shaft began to move up until it could lift her back up to our level. Hardley reached out and pulled her back into the room. She was shaking life a leaf in the wind and immediately collapsed unconscious at our feet.
“What saved her?” I asked.
“That corset you noted earlier is made of magnetic metal. About half way down the shaft is a huge electromagnet whose magnetic field interacts with her corset to provide deceleration and eventually supports her magnetically in midair. That is why she did not fall all the way down to her death. The whole point of this demonstration is to show that she is absolutely obedient, no matter her fear or the danger she faces. Yet I will tell you that she has made that jump quite a few times before!”
“Yet she seemed genuinely afraid for her life!” I objected. “That seems strange. You might think she would have learned from earlier jumps that she is always saved by the magnet!”
“The answer, Mr. Steelforth, is that after each jump we wipe her mind of all knowledge of the jump so we can test her obedience again on another day when she will have the same level of fear all over again!”
At this point he walked over to the prone girl and began to shake her awake. Soon he had her standing somewhat shakily on her feet.
“Thank you sirs for letting me demonstrate my obedience. How is it that I am still alive?”
“Don’t you concern yourself with such details. The important thing is that you obeyed. Soon you will have forgotten all about this”, he replied.
“Let us proceed to our next demonstration”, he continued, leading me out of this room and down the hall to yet another room.
“You mentioned that there were two types of prostitutes in high demand by your clients. What is the second type?” I queried.
“That type would be the unwilling indentured prostitute who won’t submit to a client’s sexual advances without a fight. Each time such a prostitute is raped the memory of the experience is erased from his or her mind so that he or she can experience being raped fresh with each new client. The trauma of the rape is then eased during the interval before the next rape with a drug regimen geared toward minimizing PTSD.
“We prefer persons indentured for debt to work in our facilities, rather than persons who volunteer to be prostitutes.”
“I fully understand”, I replied.
I doubted very much he could ever achieve the level of obedience I had just seen with any volunteer prostitute. How on earth, I thought, was I going to explain to these people how much harder it was about to be to get people indentured for sexual service once ‘Stephanie’s Law’ was passed by the Capitallian Congress?
Hardley then took me back in the elevator to yet another floor of this vast establishment. He paused outside the door of a room.
“I will be taking you”, Hardley continued, “into an observation gallery that overlooks our ‘rape room’. There will be other observers there. They are clients who have expressed a desire to witness what will happen. You will see and hear a young woman who imagines that she is a virgin being raped by Jason, one of our trainers. This young woman is a penal slave so we can take even greater liberties with her than with the indentured servants. I ask you to just observe and hold your comments until later.”
In my career as a slaver I had witnessed many rapes of enslaved or indentured women. I had no real desire to witness yet one more, yet I did not want to be rude to my host. I could at least get an impression of what kind of skill and showmanship would be involved in this demonstration.
I was glad he had told me she was a penal slave. That meant that whatever happened would be perfectly legal so that I need not be concerned about being present at such an event. We quietly entered the room where there were three rows of seats raised on stepped tiers like theatre seats. These seats were all very comfortably upholstered and faced a ‘demonstration area’ that contained a bed surrounded by a frame with various restraint devices.
“In a moment you will see Jason, our trainer, come out and introduce himself”, Hardley commented to me before the show began.
Soon enough the trainer appeared. He was naked but for a g-string that clearly showed the outline of his generous endowments. He had a six-pack abdomen, a bubble butt and a very well defined musculature. He said a few words to us to explain what we were about to see.
“The young lady I will shortly bring out”, Jason began “is named Sherri Bamlitz. She is a penal slave convicted of poisoning her brother in order to inherit his estate. She would sell her own mother. So I hope that none of you gentleman will feel the least bit sorry for her for what she will shortly endure for your pleasure. What we will do to her is perfectly legal and she fully deserves the rape she will shortly experience. Actually she has been raped several times before, but her memory of those rapes has been wiped from her mind so that she will experience today’s rape as if it were the first. In fact we have even brainwashed her into believing that she is a virgin to add to the drama of today’s demonstration. So relax and enjoy what you are about to see!”
Then he left briefly and shortly returned frog marching a fully dressed slender young woman who was fully dressed in a fashionable blouse and skirt, nylons, high heels and jewelry. She was struggling fiercely to break from his grip and was yelling a string of abuse at him.
“I don’t know who you think you are, you fucking idiot, but if you think you are going to have sex with me you are very much mistaken!
Just then she noticed all of the men seated in the viewing gallery. I thought she was looking directly at Hardley and myself. We had not been all that obvious to her at first because the gallery was darkened while the demonstration area was lit up bright as day.
“Who are all these fucking men in those seats? Did they come to watch me get raped? Well they are going to be very much disappointed! I will put on a show for them but not the kind of show they had in mind!”
He had obtained a firm grip with one hand in her long blonde hair and held his other arm under her buttocks and proceeded to pull her head back and down while raising her buttocks until her feet no longer touched the floor. She began to kick wildly and soon had lost one of her high heels. He turned her so that her legs were pointed straight toward the audience and as she continued to kick about she provided, from time to time, an interesting up-skirt view. I found it agreeable to observe her long slender nylon clad legs from this perspective.
Soon he had placed her on the bed and quickly secured her wrists over her head with handcuffs to vertical posts at the head of the bed. A wide leather belt was wrapped around her waist. Her position on the bed left her feet pointing straight toward the audience. She continued to violently thrash her legs about, apparently heedless of the delicious view of nyloned legs she was providing us. He unfastened a zipper at the side of her skirt and soon had pulled the skirt off. For a moment the tail of the blouse obscured our view but he soon had that pulled up and held up by the leather waistband. Then we could see that her panties were very brief and semi-translucent except for the reinforced crotch panel. Her abdomen was flat, firm and well muscled.
Despite her wild kicking, he had managed, in the twinkling of an eye, to grab and firmly restrain her right leg. He did this while standing at her right side, wrapping his large left hand around her pretty knee while firmly grasping her right calf and forcefully drawing her full right leg up to a vertical position and beyond. He fastened a leather cuff on her right ankle and secured the right leg pointing back up toward her head and well to her right side.
He came around to her left side and repeated the process, this time drawing her left leg up beyond the vertical, then pulling it well out to her left side. Her two legs now made a wide ‘V’. The effect was also to raise her buttocks up off the bed by perhaps as much as an inch. The gentlemen around me began to applaud.
“You will shortly see her defiance turning to fear”, Hardley whispered to me.
Indeed this proved accurate as her trainer whipped out a wicked looking knife. He used it to cut off her panties, which he threw out into the audience and some lucky fellow got a souvenir of today’s demonstration. We were now treated to a very complete display of her genital area. I heard some intakes of breath from the men around me. I had experienced such entrancing views many times in the course of my career as a slaver. But I must say in all honesty that this was a sight a man could never grow tired of!
“There is no way you will get away with this!” we heard her scream at the top of her voice. “Where are the fucking police when you need them!”
“I must inform you”, Jason responded, “that police would be of no assistance to you young lady. You are a convicted felon and what is about to happen to you is a punishment fully sanctioned by law for one such as yourself!”
He now had her in a position where he might proceed to rape her. Clearly he meant to leave her with her fashionable and expensive silk blouse and scarf, her necklace, her diamond earrings, and her nylon hose on. That part of her which was important to him was now fully revealed and accessible. He would leave all her other clothing and accessories on just to dramatize that this was no common slut, but a woman who had formerly come from wealth and social standing.
The moment had come. Jason removed his g-string and the audience indicated its approval of his endowments with a sharp intake of breath. To be sure we all got a good view he rotated the bed ninety degrees so that a side view of the bed and its occupant was presented to the audience. He also lowered her left leg, which was nearest the audience, and secured that leg to a ring at the foot of the bed. High intensity lights were focused on the lady’s crotch. He took up his position, lubricated his penis, and slowly introduced that penis into the lady’s vagina until he was buried to the hilt.
Miss Bamlitz, who had been so defiant moments earlier, was now crying. Jason was now pistoning in and out of her with long even strokes. Every member of the audience had a clear view. She alternated between crying and shouting abuse at Jason.
After about ten minutes of this fucking we noticed certain changes in Miss Bamlitz. Her nipples were stiffening, her breasts were flushed, and she appeared to be lubricating copiously. Soon it was apparent that she was having a full orgasm, much to her shame. The trainer then took his time that we might all enjoy her reactions. Then he climbed off her, stood up and took a bow to deafening applause. Following this he unshackled her and carried her off the stage.
“Did you enjoy our little demonstration?” Hardley had turned to ask me as we exited the rape viewing room.
“Certainly”, I replied. “Such things are always entertaining when the woman involved is a felon who deserves such treatment. There is a satisfaction in seeing justice done to one such as she.”
Actually I think Roger should be done with his conference call by now. Let’s see if he is ready to meet with us.”
So saying, he took me up the elevator to the top floor where the executive offices were located. He greeted Medrock’s executive secretary.
“Is he ready for us Doris?”
“Certainly. Go right in Ben.”
I could sense that Roger Medrock was more than ready for us. He offered to have coffee sent in but I declined, protesting that I had already exceeded my caffeine quota for the morning. Actually I would have enjoyed a cup but thought it best not to let things get too casual since I wasn’t sure this was going to be an altogether congenial meeting. We took our seats upon his gesture of invitation. He had his secretary close the inner office door and requested that there be no interruptions for the next hour.
“Well Mr. Steelforth”, Medrock began, “you have seen what kind of operation we run here. What do you think?”
In truth I had little stomach for his kind of operation but I thought for a moment how I might respond truthfully without offending the man. Giving gratuitous offense was never a good idea in the business world.
“I think you know how to please your clients”, I found myself saying, “and turn a tidy profit while, at the same time, punishing penal slaves according to the law for the crimes they have committed!”
“I am so glad you understand our goals and objectives here!” he continued. “Before I go on I must have your word that everything we discuss here will remain confidential. I know you are a man of honor and your spoken word is good enough for me.”
“No problem. I always treat meetings with potential clients as confidential”, I replied.
“We find”, he continued, “that our customer’s demand for non consensual sex experiences far outstrip the number of attractive penal slaves we can acquire. That is where you come in Steelforth – if you are interested.”
“Tell me more”, I replied non committally. I wasn’t sure I liked where this might be going but I resolved to hear him out.
“Ben showed you our ‘Fellatio Row’ did he not?”
“That is correct, Mr. Medrock.” I replied.
“Well that is one of our most popular attractions”, he continued, “and we need hundreds of new prostitutes every month to staff it. On an annual basis we need at least 1000 new prostitutes, year after year.”
“I shouldn’t think it would be a problem to hire that many with so many young women walking the streets because any other kind of job is scarce”, I replied.
“We don’t just want to hire streetwalkers or any other kind of free workers” he responded. “What we really need is unwilling sex workers to please the appetites of our clients. We have always found indentured women to be our best source”.
“But now you are concerned”, I interjected, “that ‘Stephanie’s Law’ may put a crimp on your recruiting – am I right about that?”
“Well, we have some concerns, yes. But I always believe there is a way to do business under any given set of rules. Just tell me what the rules are and I will figure a way to make money!”
“Assuming”, I responded, “that you and I were to come to some agreement, what would be my role?”
“You would do more or less what you have been doing for the last twenty years,” Medrock responded. “Only you would be doing it on a much bigger scale. You would be researching women all over the country that are over their heads in debt and also attractive enough to please our clients. You would recommend suitable candidates to us and we would buy up their debts and you would work actively with our attorneys to prosecute and indenture these young women. For starters we would like you to open a branch office of your firm right here in Boston. And that is only the beginning!”
“Mr. Medrock – you realize that under Stephanie’s law the overwhelming majority of the women I would be able to locate could be indentured for debt but their indentures would be designated ‘non-sexual’ by the courts under the new rules. They would have to be employed in whatever trade or profession they were already skilled in and not used as sex workers!”
“Please! Mr. Steelforth! We would use the plea bargaining exception to the new rules!”
“How so?” I responded.
“Each woman you bring in”, he continued, “will be scared when she is arrested for debt. You will interview her and lead her to believe that she could be indentured for up to 20 years because of her unpaid debts. Make her also believe the deck is stacked against her and that she will almost certainly be convicted. And that the indenture could involve her being shipped off to work in another state where she might not see her family for a very long time!”
“After you have put those fears into her head you then begin to hint that possibly a deal could be worked out where she could voluntarily indenture herself for as little as three years and our corporation would then graciously drop the court case. Point out that under the voluntary indenture you are proposing she would only be obligated to work 40 hours a week and would be home with her family every evening and on weekends. She will begin to breathe easier once you put this less threatening alternative on the table. Then of course you have to let her know there will be one little catch to the voluntary indenture – that it will have to be designated as a ‘sexual indenture’. You will hasten to add that this is just a legal technicality to satisfy our insurance company that has refused to provide liability insurance unless all our indentures are worded that way. Tell her that her real work for us will be along the lines of her established profession.”
I found the muscles of my back tightening up, my pulse rising as I found the words I needed to say.
“This doesn’t sound like a business arrangement that I could be comfortable with, Mr. Medrock!”
“Oh don’t be a fucking boy scout! This is how business is done today. I am offering you a chance to make a lot of money. At least take a few days to think about our proposal Steelforth, before you turn it down out of hand!”
“I won’t need a few days Medrock. The answer is no. Find yourself another slaver.”
“Very well then Steelforth. I would remind you that everything we talked about today is confidential and I will hold you to your pledge to keep it so. Good day.”
With that he rose and escorted me to the door of his office. I found my way down the elevator and out to the street astounded at what passed for business ethics these days. I had sometimes cut a corner or two in my days as a slaver, but never had stooped so low as what he was asking of me.
I checked out of my hotel, boarded a maglev back to New York City. I wondered if Stephanie had heard on the news about the new law that would be named after her. I wondered too what I would tell Stephanie about Greg Masterson’s business proposition, about the proposition I had turned down today and about the remarkable demonstrations of sex therapy and self defense training I had seen in the last several days.
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