Our goals for our in-residence programming training program were slightly optimistic. We thought we could make our three students employment-ready in two years. It took a little over two and a half years. Our students joined the workforce in March 2052. We thought we could lift their annual income from $5,000 to about $45,000. Their average starting salary was $30,000. Again and again, the parental units in our household said this was not about money. We wanted these three women to get a better start in the world. But there was money to be earned. All of us, the trainers and the trainees, were being well compensated by the additional income.
We helped them line up jobs. They were all in downtown Portland, so we set up an apartment for them to stay for the first few months. We gave them some basic financial advice. We set up their salary pay-flow, so it was split half and half between our household account and their account. We paid for minimal housing, food, and expenses subsidy from our half. We pointed out that if they lived a Spartan life, they could save almost their entire salary. We recommended that they put at about 75% of their savings into government bonds, to avoid taxation. We set up their account so they could pay for most items directly out of their account without any issue. We would need to approve bigger purchases, such as furniture, luxury goods, trips, or a used car. Each young woman told us that they had never been this free from supervision. They each expressed the idea, “We will not disappoint you.” We told them that they would all be free in about ten years, and we wanted them all of them to have as much freedom that they could enjoy.
We had to set some limits. They could have boyfriends and get married, but their married life could not interfere with their work life. We told them that we would allow up to two children in the ten year period, but any kids after that would cost them two additional years of enslavement. We made it clear that we would not tolerate any use of drugs, alcohol, or lifestyle choices that would interfere with their jobs or their striving for independence.
Faith and I had a meeting with the Human Resources people at each company. Faith said, “My husband and I need to be informed about any episode that involves the HR department. However, ‘our family member’ has as much independence as persons with free status. For example, ‘our family member’ can quit and take another job at her own initiative. She gets a financial incentive package directly related to her salary. She will quit if she does not get the incentives, bonuses, and opportunities that other staff people have. It would be unwise to try to exploit their labor status.” The Human Resources folks looked startled, but they nodded that they understood. I am sure they were wondering, “If we could not exploit the slave status, then what was the point of hiring a slave?”
We had many fears. Would any of our Pygmalion Programmers lapse into any of their old lifestyle of bars, sleazy restaurants, and brothels? Would they tell the full story of how they came into our household? Would they relate an experience from one of their previous jobs that would be so lurid that it would backfire unintentionally? None of that ever happened. Instead, we had a big headache that never occurred to us. At work and various social gatherings, they gave the outlines of their financial incentive package. Our household started to get a wave of phone calls and letters from slaves and free people in difficult circumstances wanting to have access to the same attractive terms.
Sam was a champ. He collected all the letters. Sam called everyone who phoned and asked them to write a letter. He showed the letters to the parents, wondering if he could extend the informal school into a full-time job. Sam estimated that he could handle 10-12 students. The only problem was he needed millions of backing to purchase the slaves to make his dream work.
Faith and Ruth sat down with Sam. Ruth did the arithmetic. She said, “The average slave of some intelligence would cost about $100,000. A class of twelve would cost $1.2 million every year. The third year, the payback would be $200,000. The fourth-year payback would be $400,000. Eventually, it would be immensely profitable, but it would take a whole lot of years to be cash positive. The only reason your class of three is working out so well is the unique circumstances that led them to join our household. However, there is another approach. What if we were able to borrow slaves at no cost? We could split the increase in salary: 70% to the owner, 15% to us, and 15% to the slave. We could widely advertise, and only accept the best of the best. Perhaps we could graduate a class in one and a half years. After three years, there would be 24 graduates. Assuming a $40,000 bump in wages per student, this would total close to a million dollars of additional income to split. Our share would be $150,000. At year 6, the revenue would be $300,000. If Quincy, Chris, and I were to join the effort, we could further multiply those numbers.”
Sam looked shocked. He said, “What are you talking about? You are going to set up a programming business. I am very confused.” Faith said, “Sam, we have all been running the numbers. We think we can run a training business that would be way more lucrative than any software business. We might make more if we let our students go out and form new companies. Yes, thank you for identifying this business opportunity. This may be the opportunity that we have been waiting for all this time.” Sam said, “Are you taking away my business?” Faith said, “The whole family would jointly own the business. We will make you the head teacher. All teaching will be under your supervision. But yes, we are jointly taking over this business opportunity. We will purchase a major property in Portland and outfit it as a major school.”
Once the family was all in, things moved quickly. We bought a small school next to a modest apartment building. We did a rapid remodel to meet our minimum standards. We hired Julie and Jennie to work as administrators for the educational department. Bobbie and Mary were our security department. Raymond was the administrator in charge of facilities, contracts, and financial oversight. The teaching staff was Sam, Ruth, Quincy, and I. Faith kept her job as a vice-president at a local bank.
Faith and I worked on publicity. We sent e-mails to lists of slave owners, explaining how they could unlock the earning potential of their slaves. The minimum qualifications to be admitted were a high school diploma with a B average, with some exceptional work in math and science. At orientation sessions, we carefully checked ID cards and ownership paperwork. We verified all the high school records. We passed out mathematics aptitude tests to all the candidates. We explained our principles that it was our goal to allow each student to buy their freedom about ten years after graduation. We explained to the owners that they should view this process as selling their slave over a ten year period for an obscene amount of money.
We refined our offerings to a slave owner; they could choose between two levels of participation in the increase of salary: 60% and 70%. To get the 70% rate, the slave owner needed to accept low supervision. To be tightly supervised, the owner needed to accept the 60% rate. We explained that all slaves are highly motivated to stay the course and cooperate with all basic rules and regulations. We had Jay, Sophia, and Patricia give this lecture. They explained how lightly supervised they were, and how they co-operate with us to reap the rewards of the whole arrangement.
We started our first class in August 2052. Once we had our first class underway, we could recruit the next class in a more relaxed fashion. We had a lien on each of our students. If the owner did not share the money with the slave or us, we would petition the court to take ownership. We pointed out that the owner had signed a contract, and we would hold them to the contract. If the slave did not get their share, they would not be motivated to keep increasing their salary. That was the magic kicker that made the deal very lucrative to us. By incentivizing the person earning wages to earn more, we unlocked the profit motive.
After we had been in business, I knew that our rapid growth and obvious profitability would attract the wrong attention. We had some family meetings. Quietly, we asked around Portland to identify as many victims of Mr. Sears and his thugs as we could. We ended up with a list of about 100 family owned business that had been victimized.
We turned the list over to Bobbie and Mary who went full Erin Brockovich on this. They went out and interviewed everyone. They wrote up countless affidavits. Bobbie and Mary were very careful to ask very detailed questions about how Mr. Sears and his thugs showed up. Did they come to their home or the business? How many thugs? Did they all show guns? Did they leave a gun on a desk as a means of threatening everyone? Did they guard any children? They had victims draw diagrams of where everyone was sitting.
Bobbie and Mary learned that there were usually five thugs, never six. One thug would sit next to Mr. Sears. The bodyguard for Mr. Sears would place a gun on the table while the negotiating took place. The rest would guard other family members out of view of the principles doing the negotiating. The idea was to scare the business owners to give in since they could not tell what was happening to their family members.
The whole family planned out every detail. We decided on the layout of chairs and tables to give Bobbie and Mary the best advantage. Bobbie and Mary endlessly practiced with their weapon of choice. We bought over a dozen tarps and additional supplies needed to repaint the downstairs. We collected other items for a darker purpose.
Eventually, we got the dreaded phone call from Mr. Sears. “I would like to discuss the ownership of your company.” Ruth answered the phone, and she said, “I am sorry, we are not interested in whatever you are selling.” He called back again and again. He threatened to hurt the children. Faith took the call. She said, “You can come to our house at 10 AM this Saturday. Try not to be too disruptive to our household. The kids usually do their homework on Saturday morning, so they can have the whole weekend free.”
At the appointed time on June 21, 2054, two cars arrived. One car held four thugs, and the other brought Mr. Sears and his personal bodyguard. Faith pointed to the sign in the entryway that said, “This is a gun-free household.” Faith said, “Please respect our house rule. The kids go ballistic if they see a gun. If you have a gun, please put it back in the car.” The men came in as if Faith had not said anything at all. The men looked around when they saw all the furniture covered with sheets and the floor covered with tarps. Ruth said, “We are repainting the ceiling and walls here.”
A man in a red shirt said, “We want the children in one room and the adults in another room.” Four thugs and five kids settled into the dining/study room. The parents went into the library with Mr. Sears and his bodyguard. The bodyguard put his gun on the table, as expected. Faith said, “I warned you not to bring guns into this house. Please put this back in your car now.” The thug ignored Faith. Faith said, “If anyone points a gun at any of my children, there will be hell to pay. This is your last and final warning.” The bodyguard grunted, “Shut the fuck up.” I stood up and was about to eject everyone. The bodyguard said, “Hey asshole, sit down.” Everyone was silent for about 30 seconds. Mr. Sears presented a document to sell our business to him for a meager sum of money. I decided to slow things down by insisting on reading the contract and asking a lot of questions. At one point we heard a scuffle and some muffled yelling in the hallway outside. I was dying inside. I could not believe that I had arranged for my children to confront experienced gun-thugs.
All of a sudden, the library door crashed open. Bobbie and Mary burst into the room and raced towards the desk. All the parents hit the floor. Mr. Sears and the thug turned towards the door. The thug's hand reached for the gun he had placed on the desk. By the time his fingers touched the gun, there were three knives in the thug's throat. Raymond and Sam rushed into the room behind the girls with a plastic tarp. Julie also entered with a pile of towels that she laid next to the dead body to prevent the blood from getting on the rug. Julie placed one small towel on the floor and pulled out all three knives to put on the towel. She moved aside so that Raymond and Sam could roll the body onto the tarp. All five kids pulled the tarp back to the entryway, which was already covered with plastic tarps.
Mr. Sears yelled, “What the fuck? What is going on?” Ruth said, “When the kids were younger, they liked to play this game called ‘self-defense’ where guests would pretend to point guns at our kids, and the kids would throw pretend knives at their throats. It looks like they are playing a more adult version of the game right now. My kids do not tolerate anyone pointing a gun at them. Do you let strangers aim guns at your kids? Seriously, did I not tell you never to bring guns into this house? I suspect that five people have died because of your ignorant refusal to listen to me.”
Quincy yelled out, “Is everyone fine? Is anybody hurt?” Sam yelled back, “Sorry, I forgot to say. We are all fine. No one has a scratch. All five of the assholes are as dead as doorknobs.” Julie ran back with a big plastic box containing guns and knives. She put the gun and the towel with the bloody knives in the box and closed the lid. She said, “After we deal with the five unit disposal problem and clean up the blood, I will be cataloging the new weapons and their ammo. These jerks did not bring much ammo. I think they must have thought we would melt at the sight of a bunch of guns. Bobbie and Mary got them all in seconds.” She ran from the room with the box of weapons.
Faith turned to Mr. Sears. She said, “Mr. Sears, you were explaining to us that we had no choice but to sell our business to you at what seems to be a very, very low price. I know you are a very good lawyer, but I am having difficulty understanding the legal basis of your argument. It is almost as if you were using gangsters to scare us into doing what you want. Are you attempting to intimidate us?”
Mr. Sears said, “I cannot believe that you think you can get away with this outrage! I will make sure you all hang for this!” Faith said, “I would like to wait until my youngest daughters have a bath and put on fresh clothes. I know they would like to discuss this exact issue with you.” After ten minutes, Faith called Bobbie and Mary into the library. Faith asked, “How is the cleanup coming? You know I am having a dinner party tonight, and I would like to make the house presentable.” Mary said, “We are a bit behind schedule, but there is some wiggle room. I think we all set on this. Sam and Raymond are preparing the packages the way we discussed. Julie has collected and has hidden all the artifacts. She is starting to repaint the places on the walls and ceiling that got splattered. Once she is done, we need to pull up all the tarps, padding, and tape. ”
Faith cut in. She said, “Dear, it would be nice for you to address some concerns that Mr. Sears has. If I remember his question, he wants to know how we think he can get away with this.” Bobbie said, “Is it OK if I sit down in a chair? I have been running around, and I am a bit exhausted.” Bobbie rested for two minutes, then said, “So, Mr. Sears, here are some issues. First, we did not invite these five gentlemen. You insisted that they show up here to be your muscle. Next, they made the mistake of pointing those awful guns at my siblings and me. We have a rule in this house that guests cannot bring guns. If they do have guns, it is very bad to point them at anyone. The one with the red shirt pointed a gun at Mary. Mary had started to use her phone. Mr. red-shirt said, ‘Put that down.’ Mary said, ‘No.' Mr. red-shirt pulled out a gun. I threw a knife at his throat to protect my sister. He was not watching me.”
“Even though the principle of self-defense was obvious, the other three guys started to make the exact same mistake of brandishing a gun. They all started to look at me. Meanwhile, Mary was getting them. When the survivors started to look at Mary, I tossed a few more knives. At various points, Sam, Raymond, and Julie moved around a bit to add to the distraction. I always say you should not bring a gun to a knife fight. It takes a long time to pull out a gun, hold it the right way, point it, aim it, and shoot it. We were tossing knives much faster. We made it difficult for them to figure out who is throwing the knife. My siblings hid lots of knives in hollow books, so we didn't have to worry about missing now and then.”
“When we had killed four people in self-defense, we came into the study intending to tell our parents what had happened. We do not like secrets in this house. It just happened that both my sister and I had some knives in our hands as we came into the study. Naturally, our parents fell to the floor, since they guessed what was about to happen. The guy next to you just compounded the problem by trying to pick up his gun. So Mary and I zapped him. Do you have any questions about the sequence of events?” Mr. Sears said, “No. But I dispute your right to ambush my friends like that.”
Bobbie responded, “As I understand the law, we face no legal jeopardy at all. We acted in self-defense. But I ask you why you brought these very bad men into our house. As I understand it, you did not give my parents any choice. They just came in with their bullying behavior and sense of entitlement. And you brought guns into this house, even though that was expressly forbidden. Do I understand that you brought them into our house to intimidate our parents into making a deal that puts them at a disadvantage? Can I see the paperwork of the deal you brought here?” She flipped through the papers quickly; she turned to me and asked, “Are you interested in selling this business at this price?” I said, “Hell no.” Bobbie turned to Mr. Sears, “What kind of sweetener were you planning on to get my parents to accept this lousy deal?” Mr. Sears shook his head and said, “This deal was theirs to reject. I was not forcing it on anyone.”
Bobbie said, “We seem to be going round and round, not getting to the heart of this matter, which is a pattern of criminality. Chris, have you showed him the affidavits yet?” I said, “We have not gotten to that yet. Be my guest.” Bobbie pulled a huge stack of papers from a shelf. Bobbie said, “Mr. Sears, this is a stack of affidavits which detail 83 incidents of extortion and intimidation. I spent two months typing these up. You may not know it, but I do a fair amount of pro bono legal clerking work. Producing these affidavits has been my biggest project yet. Each of the file folders in this big stack details a separate act of intimidation and extortion. The file I am holding now is most meaningful to this family. You and your thugs came to Wind River Systems and asked to purchase that company at rock bottom prices. The owners refused. So you killed them. Did you know that Chris here is their son? You probably didn’t. I do not think you care about your victims even to keep track of them. You came here to buy our training academy at rock bottom prices. If my parents had refused, you would kill them, just like you murdered my grandparents. Here is the thing. I want this business to remain in the family, and I do not want my parents to be killed. Let me be as clear as I can. Your days of stealing businesses are over. Your only job from now on is to help restore your ill-gotten gains back to your victims. Get used to it. Man up. You said we would hang for our acts of self-defense. Let me throw some numbers at you. If you are found guilty of just four of these episodes outlined in these folders, you would be sentenced to 20 years. That is the limit for prison. You would face the hangman in a week after you were found guilty. Let me say that once more. We walk away. Right now, the disgusting corpses of your gun thugs are in the process of being fed to some pigs. You face the hangman. Good day.”
Before Mr. Sears could answer, Faith spat out a few angry sentences, “my husband and I could have turned Wind River Systems into a 50 million dollar business in our lifetime. Instead, you killed the owners and shattered the company into a thousand parts to gain a few hundred thousand dollars. I would kill you in seconds, but I want you alive to take this whole fucking corrupt system down. Be grateful for the information in your head. It is saving your life!”
Mr. Sears said, “There is no way I could ever be found guilty. I work with almost all of the judges in this county. I would be free within minutes.” Faith said, “So we agree. You are giving us a great incentive to kill you tonight and dispose of your body the same way we are getting rid of the others. Once your corpse has been taken to the pig farm, we will make sure to tell your family they can find you recycled as some pork in the supermarket. Do you want that? I did not think so. I would like to work out a deal. We would like you to spend a week or two in our basement giving video testimony against all the crooked judges. We intend to show up with you and the videos in another county. We will let the criminal justice system handle you. It does not matter if you are rich or poor; you need to follow the law. Is that not part of your professional oath?”
Mr. Sears said, “I would not last a month in jail. They would kill me for betraying them.” Bobbie cut in, “The person who put you in your position is none other than yourself. My mother is offering you a way out. Of course, you can refuse to cooperate with my parents. For myself, I draw the line at justified homicide. I will let my parents deal with you. But I would recommend that you cooperate. Again, it is just my hope, but I would love to see that many judges be found guilty all at once.” Ruth said, “I know we have asked a lot of you. Can you prepare a secure area in the basement to hold Mr. Sears? It will take him some time to respond to each of these affidavits in this stack. By the way, Mr. Sears, we are returning your car to your house. We do not steal the property of others.”
Faith said, “Mr. Sears, we are having a dinner party here tonight. My sister-in-law Jennie, who is one of your former clients, will be here to celebrate her upcoming wedding. You are welcome to join us upstairs for the party. We will supervise you carefully. Do not worry; we are not vindictive. We do believe in redemption. During the process of exposing this sordid affair, there will be many voices wanting to strip you and your crooked comrades of all of your assets. We will help you retain some basis to sustain a modest life. To the best of your ability, remember who got the assets. We would like to return assets to their rightful owners, if at all possible. After you have spent two full days giving testimony, you can draft a statement that you are alive and well that you can give to your family. Once we turn you over to law enforcement authorities, you will have access to others based on your legal status. Let me answer one of your questions. You asked how we thought we could get away with the events of this day. I would like to ask you how you and your buddies thought you could get away of twenty years of extortion, murder, and robbery?”
As Bobbie and Mary marched Mr. Sears to his cell in the basement, they walked through the entryway. The older boys, aided by Quincy and me, were stripping the corpses of all clothing. Julie was carefully collecting all wallets, watches, and personal items in yet another plastic box. The clothing went into a series of garbage bags. The naked bodies were being wrapped in fresh tarps, which were being sealed with some duct tape. Quincy and I used a cart to move the packages to the pickup truck. According to our schedule, we wanted to dispose of the corpses, finish painting, pull up the tarps and sheets, donate the tarps and clothing to a homeless camp, and make everything look normal in four hours. It was going to be a busy day.
In early 2056, we got a strange phone call from someone who was quite vague. They wanted to set up a meeting. I was afraid it was one more group of gangsters that wanted our business. Someone named Danny was coming into town. We assigned Ruth and Quincy to take the meeting. Danny took them into one of the most exclusive restaurants in Portland.
The big joke was three people with slave collars go into a fancy restaurant. They scanned Danny's card to make sure he was loaded. His pitch was amazing. He was a leader in a hidden project that needed thousands of computer programmers. They wanted people trained as soon as possible. Danny said that he was not supervising the programming projects, but he was in charge of hiring staff. Danny said, “We do not want to attract too much attention. We would prefer to avoid causing a shortage of computer programmers that would alert authorities of the size of the project. We would like you to ramp up your training as fast as possible. We would like to have your train 2,000 people that we will select for a flat fee of $5,000 each for ten million dollars. We will give you four million so you can jump start the training process.”
Our partners asked quite a few questions about the nature of this big project. Danny Hughes was very vague. Ruth said, “Without knowing if your project is legal or not, we cannot agree to this. Why don't you come to our house tonight? Perhaps you can show us some document that will help explain your project in more detail. Tell us, where are you from, and how did you hear about us?” Danny said, “Many of us come from a small town in Ohio. We learned about you from a software billionaire who is our friend. He knows about your efforts on behalf of enslaved persons.” Danny walked with Ruth and Quincy back to the Training Academy. During the walk, Danny learned more about the blended household and their shared projects.
At our house, Danny stopped at the framed deed. He asked, “Within a week of being purchased, you bought this house in the names of all four adults? This is an amazing story.” Faith and I got to meet Danny. Over dinner, we learned about this mysterious Jane Foreman who had a project to overturn the rule of the billionaires. We learned more about conditions in the rest of the country. Slaves in Portland had even more rights and privileges than the Ohio slaves had with gold collars. We all thought that having to run around holding a leash all the time to bring a slave anywhere was a pain. We kept asking, “Who would pass such stupid laws?” We learned that these laws had been passed after major slave rebellions.
Faith started to run some numbers. She said, “There is no way we can do what you ask for given the budget you have suggested. If we tap into our two million in savings, and you give us eight million up front, we can expand enough so that we can triple our current ‘regular customers.’ By tapping into the final two million of your offer, and the cash flow from our expanded existing business, we would avoid going bankrupt. Are you sure you cannot offer us more?” Danny said, “our entire budget, including several years of salaries, is somewhere near 200 million. We are pretty much up against a wall. I have been traveling around the country, and you folks are the only ones that offer us any chance to get the staffing we want. I know we will put an enormous strain on your ability to stay solvent. But we plan on so transforming society that any company that is associated with this change may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” Sam and Raymond almost spit out their food. Faith said, “This does have all the hallmarks of a very large scale con game. Would you mind if our security team visited Jane Foreman and other key staff, so we know this is all for real?”
Danny said, “I can draw up a contract, and deposit eight million in your account. That is how much I trust you. I know you are people of your word. Of course, all of this has been confidential. Bobbie and Mary are welcome to come to Ohio. Bobbie, you need to wear a leash most of the time and suffer other indignities. Are you willing to travel under these circumstances?” Bobbie said, “Sure, it sounds like an amazing adventure. But I want a full list of all these slave rules. I hate learning about a rule while a cop has a gun on me.” Danny replied, “No problem. We could arrange for you to get a gold collar, which allows travel without a leash. It requires written permission from your owners and the signature of a billionaire. Please bring lots of ID cards, and permission slips. I will make sure you travel safely with a minimum of discomfort.”
Bobbie and Mary came back to Portland three weeks later. Bobbie did indeed have a gleaming gold collar, which was the source of great curiosity in Portland. We asked her about her trip. She said, “It was amazing. I was required to be chained to a fixed location every night. They are paranoid as hell out there. Mary was very sweet about the leash thing. Jane Foreman is the real deal. She got rich in the stock market and has now raised about $250 million to overhaul the new America. It will not end slavery, but it is a real first start. I saw all her papers including her diary, her educational record, and her poetry. Every paper we asked for, they had, and it all cross-checked. We did not see their confidential business plans, so I do not know what they are programming, but I am sure it is all for real. The person who signed my application for the gold collar is Roger Carter, the software guy. I think he is the one who told Danny about us. I did not know we are famous. Mary and I enthusiastically endorse this project. I do not care if we have to eat potatoes and porridge for five years. Accept the eight million, and change the course of history.”