The Hassan bus arrived at a cluster of large houses, each with plenty of land, all arranged around a small lake. Jane was miserable from traveling for two days from the community where she had been born and raised. Like most people, she had rarely traveled, and when she did, it was to a place that was not far from home.
Now she was far from home in the Atlanta area. She was not sure what she would do with herself for an entire summer. She was given a small room for her things, a small desk, a dresser, and not much else. There was a small window in the room. Jane smiled when she realized that there were no bars on the window. She quickly learned that while this room was for her things, she was only to use the room when she needed to pick out clothes, store dirty clothes until laundry time, or do some private studying.
She was expected to be in the common rooms of the house most of the time. She was expected to assist with cooking, but not as the primary cook. She was expected to spend most of her time in Amir's suite. This was a large room, with a double bed and a few tables and desks. Amir moved a couch into his room for Jane to sleep on. He sensed that asking Jane to share his bed was not a good idea. There was also a bathroom she could share with Amir, giving Jane privacy from the rest of the family.
The family dynamics were complicated. Amir's mother Pamela was very difficult. Her constant refrain was that Amir was worthless and would never amount to anything. Yet she encouraged Amir in so many ways. She helped arrange the loan from the extended family to pay for Amir's education and his slave. It appeared to Jane that Pamela was proud of what Amir had accomplished. It was hard to figure out why she thought that the best way to launch Amir into being an accomplished businessman was to berate him constantly and tell him that he was totally worthless.
Jane decided that job one for her that summer was to invent ways for her to have private time with Amir away from Pamela. But even this bored Jane a lot. There were stacks of business magazines in the corner of one of the main common rooms. This was the room that Amir's wealthy uncles used when they came over to talk business.
Jane started to read through the business magazines. One of the biggest topics was the constant flow of new technology companies. About 85% failed within five years or so. A few became very wealthy companies. Jane started to match the technologies against what she learned from Mr. Mitchell's books. Some of the magazines were old; some were recent. She was surprised that she saw many patterns between success and failure with the state of similar technologies from “before the first collapse.”
Jane started to talk to Amir about what she had learned. She had a unique set of keys to understanding the status of technologies. Amir was very skeptical. Jane showed all her notes and details she had obtained from Mr. Mitchell's books. She described how even an expert on re-engineering was unfamiliar with the word “Microsoft.”
Jane arranged for a way to test her knowledge. Amir found some business magazines that had been in a locked storeroom. Jane asked for Amir to film their “test.” He read capsule descriptions of the formations of new technology businesses. Jane looked through her notebooks and then announced whether the company was a winner or a loser. She usually was able to rate the chances on a scale of 0-10.
After going through 20 different companies, they looked up their five-year chart on the computer. Jane had pretty much aced the test. Amir looked like someone had punched him in the stomach. He played the video over again and after each prediction, he asked Jane how exactly she came to her conclusion. It took her a while to teach how her notebooks worked. She was able to use the information about how that technology worked against its competition in the past to how that technology would work in the present era. Sometimes the names of the financial groups that backed a company in the present era were a clue. Sometimes the announcement of certain types of stock offerings was a clue that “insiders” were expecting a big increase in stock prices soon. Amir asked about the names of the books that Jane had seen. Amir thought if he asked about all of the books all at once, it might get him in trouble. By making indirect inquiries, he found that these books were not in any list of “known books.”
Over and over again, Amir asked the sequence of events by which she, a simple slave, held the keys to financial mastery. She explained how Mr. Mitchell had a collection of very rare books that were clearly forbidden. Somehow, it amused him that his slave was drawn to these books and was able to sense their power. For all Jane knew, Mr. Mitchell arranged for that mystery visitor who knew about re-engineering but never knew about Microsoft Corporation. Jane showed that many schools and programs were named for Bill Gates, but the history was blank as to who he was and what he had done.
The problem was that Amir had no money to invest. But he did manage to talk his uncles into letting him borrow $250,000 of the fund for his college and graduate school education for the summer. The one condition was, “Do not put this money in the stock market.”
Amir and Jane were constantly studying every business magazine they could find. They explained that Jane had worked out a special challenge to learn major business concepts by carefully reading business magazines from beginning to end. The family thought these kids should just relax and have a good summer. There would be plenty of time for business school once fall arrived.
Amir and Jane worked out a list of 15 companies in which to invest. Amir set up a stock account with all of the money. Most of the time, they invested all of “their” funds. It was hard since they needed to return the money at the end of the summer. Of the 15 companies, they lost it all on five companies, did so-so on 4, and did well on the other 6. But one company went up very, very much. By the time the summer was over, Amir had returned $260,000. His uncles asked about the extra $10,000. He just said that he made a little bit of money over the summer and wanted to split it with his uncles who made it possible. They said, “We are just glad that you did not lose it all. Keep the $10,000. And we will not tell your parents that you made $20,000. They would just worry about risk-taking. We are just happy it was never in the stock market.”
Amir and Jane were by now full business partners. In reality, they made $210,000 above the college fund they returned to Amir's uncles. This was possible with Jane's insights, but Amir refined many aspects of their procedures. He had a sense of risk control and helped Jane understand some of the trends in recent technologies since he had been reading current business publications in his home since he was a small boy.
For a slave, using a phone was rare. Technically, it was not allowed, but in practice, it was just prohibited if the owner did not allow it. Jane got many phone calls from her friends from high school. They all wanted to know how she was doing and if she was happy. Jane was busy beyond belief and just said, “I am perfectly fine. I am busier than I will ever be in my life. Please wait until college so that I can talk more.” None of her friends would believe her. They all thought that she was in deep trouble.
Jane wrote a computer message to all of her friends. She told them, “I am happy and involved in a very big project that I cannot describe. I am sharing the work with my new owner, Amir Hassan, of whom I am quite fond. I am very well treated. I hope everyone who reads this is having as good a summer as I am having. Please trust me if I just say that I am very busy.” Jane's close friends tried to decode Jane's words. Jane was not using any of the code words they had all agreed on which would have allowed Jane to say that she needed help. Summer was the playtime between high school and college. What kind of project could be so involving and so secret? It did not sound legal.
Just before leaving for college, Amir purchased a used car for $3,000. Amir's parents thought the money came from Amir's uncles. The uncles thought the money came from the $20,000 that Amir said he made that summer. Amir's uncles gave Amir a good sum of money before he left, even though they knew that Amir had a fair amount of money. They just said, “We are proud of you and want to make sure you do not need to dip into your savings for basic living expenses.” It was hard for Amir to assert his independence at this point in his life.
Jane left quite a few things in her “room” at the Hassan house. They packed their things into the car, barely allowing room for two people to squeeze into it. They drove away to Georgia Tech, their new school.
They also took care of their money. Now Jane needed to make sure that she had better access to the money. Jane arranged to ship their entire savings account to Charles Mitchell as a short-term “loan.” They converted all of their stock holdings into actual stock certificates. Once at school, they opened new accounts that were joint accounts. The loan was repaid to the new joint account. It would have been difficult to add a slave to Amir's accounts. But creating a new account and sliding assets into it went under the radar. Theoretically, Jane could sign a bank draft all by herself that would make someone rich. But of course, every aspect of their business was a joint affair. But if Amir were tied up, Jane had the right and the credentials to move large sums of money all by herself.
Amir and Jane had told their family that they were renting a small two bedroom apartment. They considered renting a larger apartment but decided to stick to what they discussed. They ordered some inexpensive furniture for the apartment: a double bed, a small table, two small dressers, and two desks. Amir's desk was larger than Jane's since it had the computer.
Amir and Jane had planned to sleep together in college. It was too stressful to sleep together at Amir's parents' house. They were both looking forward to sleeping together. Their frantic summer of making the best of the $250,000 of seed capital was a 24-hour exhausting activity. Now that their money was on track, and they were not living with family, their new life together was beginning.
Classes were the rhythms of the day. They got up, made a quick breakfast, got dressed, and headed off to class. Sometimes they used the car, especially if the first class was on the far side of the campus. Mostly, they walked. By now, Amir and Jane were experts at walking quickly together using a leash. Most of the time, Amir slipped the leash around his wrist, and they held hands as they rushed across campus.
It was a point of pride for Amir that he did not need Jane's help to handle his coursework. Jane was diligent to learn everything. Jane and Amir constantly talked about their coursework. Amir learned a lot of material through informal discussions with Jane. Sometimes Jane learned something from Amir. Sometimes they were competitive; sometimes they were silly. Unlike high school, Jane did not get a grade. College was expensive. Jane, as a slave of a college student, was auditing courses for 15% of full tuition. There were some restrictions. In crowded classes, the owner had to be in the front row, with the slave sitting on the floor. But the slave auditing courses could not take tests or get a grade. Jane did not mind. She felt her job was to help Amir obtain good grades. In her mind, his grade became her grade. If Amir made a mistake on a test, Jane would say, “I cannot believe I made that mistake.” Then they would laugh at how silly that sounded.
Besides the purchase price, having a slave in college was relatively inexpensive. Tuition was cheap, and housing could be shared. It was legal to economize on food and clothing for a slave. Other expenses were minimal.
It was a bit of a status symbol to have a “college slave.” Many people made jokes about trying to date students who had same-gender slaves. The punch line was always “two for the price of one.” There were also jokes about people who had opposite-gender slaves. They did not seem to need an outside social life. And that was true for Amir and Jane. They had a satisfying personal relationship. Amir and Jane attended many college social events, but they did that for enjoyment, not to find a partner. It should be pointed out that these comments about Slave/Owner Teams in College are based on the assumption that none is gay. Once one or both members of the team are gay, the possible combinations and possible social partnerships require a more complex analysis than can be offered in this narrative.
Jane started a campus organization for the owner/slave teams on campus called The Team of Teams. Once a month, they had a party with food, drink, and dancing. There was always some discussion or presentation before the party. Of course, close partners and friends were always welcome. There were modest dues. Jane and Amir made sure the organization never ran short of funds.
Jane wanted a gold collar. A slave with a gold collar was much more useful than one without a gold collar. She was too young; the rules said you needed to be 24 before you could apply for one. Jane suspected that there had to be some exception that was well hidden except for the well-connected. She called Emily Mitchell and asked what the exceptions were. Emily said, “There is one exception. If you get a letter of endorsement from a level one person, you and Amir can make an early application.”
During her sale, Jane had met a level one person. Jane wrote a letter of application to Roger Carter. She got his address from one of the business magazines she had. She wrote a cover letter that explained that she fondly remembered his consideration of her when she was placed on sale. She wrote how much she could help her owner by being able to go to the library or do errands without requiring him to follow her footsteps. Amir also wrote and requested his signature. Jane and Amir were amazed when they got a signed document from the world-famous Roger Carter. He attached a note wishing them well. The application contained an encrypted code that allowed authorities to authenticate the document via computer.
Amir and Jane went with their documents to a slave processing center. The workers were very careful to run about eight different checks that Jane and Amir were the people named in the documents. They were photographed numerous times. They did many computer checks to see if there was any negative information on file for either of them. They did ask about Jane asking a question at the TV station. Jane just said, “I did as my master ordered me to do.”
There were several models of gold collars. They chose one made of steel, thickly plated with nickel, with the nickel thinly plated with gold. The gold was micro-covered with a transparent plastic that was guaranteed to last for decades. It had the standard loops for electronic modules and leash/chain connections. The removal of the old collar was long and brutal. Special tools were needed to cut off the old steel collar, which was made of ultra-hardened steel. Jane had to wear a large apparatus that circulated chilled water. Jane was frozen and semi-burnt at the same time. It took two hours to remove the old collar. The new collar was attached using an automatic welding machine. Jane wore a shield to protect her from melting metal. The welding was quick. Burnishing down the joint and fixing the plating and plastic casing took over an hour.
Altogether, it took most of the day to switch collars. Jane remarked, “It felt like I was in surgery to replace an important body part.” But now she had a gleaming gold collar. Jane had walked into the slave processing center in shackles and a leash. She left with a gold collar and a bag containing the now unneeded restraints. Many slaves clapped and cheered as they saw her leave with a gold collar. She could now travel independently around campus and could enhance her work on projects for herself and others.
Jane's most important “job” was to attend classes, understand all of the material, and make sure that Amir got properly grounded on all of his classes and projects. She helped keep a schedule so that long-term papers did not get lost and Amir did not procrastinate.
Jane felt that her second task was to be a good companion to Amir in all ways. She wanted to be his loving partner who took joy in all the things in their lives, especially the things they did together.
Jane also took the lead in their business ventures. Her charts were showing that their capital was growing about a factor of 5 a year. Not increasing by 5% a year, but multiplying by 5 or more. It was like holding a tiger by the tail. If a company's stock started to fall, waiting a day to sell was a disaster. Jane used a series of electronic devices which alerted her when a stock made an unusual move. Jane was able to prevent disastrous losses when some of the stock prices fell without any warning. She wondered what triggered these plummeting valuations for the companies involved. But it was impossible to find anything about these episodes in any business publications. It was all a mystery. They knew which companies were good investments. But sometimes the companies would just die suddenly.
Jane also kept thinking of her immediate family. She wanted to free them, but she was scared that “Jim” would sense that she was willing to pay any price to get her family. That would lead to a very, very high price and a possible disaster.
The only thing she could think of was to accelerate her personal plans so that she would be in a better position to rescue her family from slavery.