Confessions of a Mailgirl Ch. 17

My morning started out fairly routinely as I made my pickups and deliveries. I was familiar now with every inch of DDE's vast complex just as its inhabitants were familiar with every inch of my body. In my role as a lowly servant girl the best that I could usually hope for these days in an interaction with a norm was that it would be brief and businesslike. More likely, though, it would involve some combination of rudeness, condescension, or undisguised lust as they demonstrated their superiority over me. For my part, I had come to accept this degradation with submissive deference.

At one point during the morning, while kneeling on a Mailgirls mat between runs, I overheard someone say that a team from Hiromoto Industries had arrived this morning to finalize the extension of their Mailgirls deal with DDE. Anger surged through me as I thought about Mr. Hiromoto's betrayal and Mariko's apparent complicity in it. I couldn't help but wonder if they were here, though, or if I would see or talk to Mariko. I wasn't sure I even wanted to anymore or what good could come of it if I did.

If there was one thing the drinking session at Hooligan's had done, though, was help diminish my feelings of being adrift and alone. Kelly, Anna, and I had re-established the bond that had once been so strong when we were the only mailgirls working together in the tower. Diana, even though we'd just met, also felt like a part of my "crew" now, even managing to win Kelly over by the end of the night.

And although Lin's current duties and responsibilities had kept the two of us from talking much lately I knew she was another person I could trust. She once told me that she'd kept working naked even after being promoted to lead programmer of the upcoming "Mailgirl 9" game out of solidarity with me, although I was pretty sure it was mostly because she got off on it. Her job didn't require the same rules and restrictions as being a mailgirl so she was still the same filterless chatterbox as always, never shy about letting her bosses and co-workers know her opinions even as they stared at her bare tits. I resolved to try to find a way to talk to her by the end of the week. After that I'd be totally under Barbara's thumb and it would become much more difficult.

Although I was friendly with other mailgirls, I now considered Anna, Kelly, Lin, and Diana to be my inner circle, people I could trust in the days to come. The meeting with Barbara had snapped me out of whatever spell I'd been under and I'd finally come to understand that the life that she had planned for me was a path of self destruction. But did this realization happen too late to matter? If there was a way out I just couldn't see it.

My morning runs continued, up stairs and down, through corridors, past cubicles and offices. DDE's Mailgirls program, after two full years, had become a well-oiled machine and I was just one of its cogs.

The program had taken over the actual mailroom now so every package or piece of mail coming into or leaving the complex was handled by a mailgirl. There were currently thirty mailgirls serving more than three thousand employees working in the vast complex, not to mention a growing number of tangos who would be auctioned off to other licensees at the end of their six weeks of training.

Information now flowed far more swiftly and efficiently throughout the complex than it ever had before while the company's productivity, morale, profits, and stock price had never been higher. Employee turnover, among both men and women, was at an all-time low. The presence of beautiful nude women in an otherwise normal business environment now seemed so natural and organic to most DDE employees that they couldn't imagine working somewhere without that. The surprising success of the Mailgirls program at DDE had caught the eye of corporate America and resistance to a concept that had once seemed so outlandish was slowly fading.

The gap between the "norms" and the mailgirls had also never been greater. As Barbara had predicted, both groups had, for the most part, internalized their roles as masters and slaves. While inappropriate touching and sexual contact was still strictly forbidden - and there had been incidents that had cost employees their jobs - there was a growing debate at the highest levels about what the company might be able to legally get away with. Could mailgirls be forced to assume even more sexually provocative positions than they already were? Could a mailgirl be requested to "voluntarily" masturbate in front of employees since no contact would take place? Could "light" corporal punishment and bondage (spankings, paddlings, handcuffs, leashes) as punishment for disobedience and excessive demerits be written into future contracts? Just how far could they go in debasing and humiliating mailgirls and get away with it? Company lawyers had already begun researching these and other thorny legal questions.

There was also the question of what to do about mailgirls when they were away from work. While they were on the job virtually every step they took and everything they did - from bathroom breaks to the amount and type of food they were allowed to eat - was carefully monitored and controlled by the company. Away from work, however, mailgirls reverted back to being "real people." They could dress as they pleased, eat and drink too much, say whatever they wanted, and otherwise act as equals to anyone else. More and more executives at the top of DDE were finding this "problematic" since it undermined the company's emerging caste system with mailgirls at the bottom as its servant class.

Although fraternization between norms and mailgirls away from work was strictly prohibited, in reality it was something that was nearly impossible for DDE to enforce. Most of the company's youthful workforce lived in Wildwood near the DDE complex so it was inevitable that norms and mailgirls would run into each other out there in the real world and interact and converse as normal human beings. There was a growing thought in upper management that being a mailgirl needed to be a 24/7 commitment. They obviously couldn't be forced to work all day every day but their "dress code" and manner of addressing their superiors (everyone else) must be strictly enforced at all times. In other words, mailgirls must be required to remain naked and subservient even when off duty. Barbara, of course, fully encouraged this idea. Although there was still quite a bit of debate about how the logistics of this would work, the consensus was moving toward making that happen.

At 12:15 my MMU vibrated alerting me to my thirty minute lunch break. I took a quick shower to wash the morning sweat and grime off and then went to the employee cafeteria to eat my meal alone on the floor surrounded by norms. This was something that Barbara had ordered long ago because of my disobedience and I wondered if it would continue after becoming her full time pet. I actually hoped that it would if for no other reason than to have some time alone away from her.

After lunch I went back to work and was just finishing my third delivery of the afternoon when my MMU buzzed with another summons. I glanced at it to check the location and then glanced again to make sure I had read it right.

I was being summoned to that little room in the east wing. Hiromoto's room.

MARIKO

As I entered the room I found Mariko there waiting for me along with Hideki, the Hiromoto technician. It was the first time I'd seen her since Tokyo nearly two years earlier. She bowed her head in greeting and smiled at me. "Hello Danica. I am very pleased to see you again," she said in her formal, methodical English.

I didn't really know how to respond so I said nothing. In a way I was glad to see her so I could get some answers but I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of betrayal over the release of our phone conversations to Barbara. Mariko spoke a few words in Japanese to Hideki who then turned and exited the room leaving the two of us alone together. Without speaking she removed her heels and then pulled her black business dress up over her head and placed it on a nearby desk.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I sense you are angry with me and I wish that we speak together as equals. We cannot do that if I am dressed and you are not." Mariko continued stripping until she was completely nude, then knelt down on the floor before me. She was displaying the same uncommon grace and humility that I'd seen in Tokyo no matter the circumstances. My anger began dissipating as a result of this humble gesture.

"Please? Will you join me?" she asked. I knelt on the floor facing her. "I wish you to speak freely, Danica. I will answer your questions as best I can." The scent of her delicate perfume wafted in the air and I remembered my first impression of her in that parking garage in Tokyo. Two years later she was still the most beautiful and intoxicating woman I'd ever met.

There was still much to be resolved though and I wasn't going to leave this room without getting some answers. "Mariko, you knew that Barbara had found out about my spying and you let me keep doing it anyway."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"What would you have done had I warned you, Danica?"

"I would have stopped!" I said.

"That is why I did not tell you," Mariko explained. "You would have lost Mr. Hiromoto's protection if you had done so."

"What protection? He gave those damn recordings to Barbara. She used them to blackmail me into signing a terrible contract and now I'm stuck as her personal slave!"

A look of concern came over Mariko's face. "Please tell me everything that has happened since we last spoke," she said. I told her the whole story of my meeting with Barbara on Monday and her plan to strip me of what little freedom I had left.

Mariko remained silent for a few moments after I'd finished as if contemplating her next words. "Danica, please remember that when you first contacted me from this room and asked for help I counseled you to leave Barbara and the company immediately. You chose not to take my advice. I did not wish you to get involved with Mr. Hiromoto in this."

"I know, but that would've wrecked me financially. You're the one who told me I would have Hiromoto's protection if I gave him information. Was that a lie, Mariko?

"No."

"Then why the hell did he screw me over?"

"He did not," Mariko replied. "Mr. Hiromoto gave those recordings to Barbara because he considered them inconsequential."

"Inconsequential? They're evidence that I committed a crime! And he made it worse by having Kelly steal the VR headset."

"They are inconsequential because Mr. Hiromoto believes that Barbara would never allow the company to hear them. That would risk the future of her Mailgirls program and she cannot allow that to happen." This had occurred to me as well but I couldn't risk calling Barbara's bluff because the consequences if I was wrong were so high. Those tapes were anything but inconsequential to me.

"I would never have gotten involved in this if I'd known his plan was to steal technology from DDE," I said.

"What did you believe Mr. Hiromoto was going to do with the information you provided?" Mariko asked.

"I don't know. Insider trading or something."

"And is that not also illegal?"

"Of course it is. Listen, Mariko, I didn't have any illusions that Hiromoto was going to use the stuff I told him for altruistic reasons. Believe me, I've had a guilty conscience about this for a long time. But I never would have agreed to steal proprietary technology for him."

"That is why you were not asked to do it. Your friend Kelly had no such reservations."

"Did Hiromoto know about DDE's VIrtual Reality program before I told you about it?" I asked her.

"No."

"So how did you guys know this prototype even existed because I didn't tell you that. I didn't even know about it myself."

Mariko was silent for a minute as if wrestling with the decision about how much to tell me. She finally spoke. "Hideki was asked to look for information involving this program and he discovered the existence of this prototype and where it was kept."

Hideki! Suddenly I understood the full brilliance of Hiromoto's corporate spying scheme. Mailgirls Tracking Units, also known as MTU's, were located throughout the complex to track mailgirls' movements via the MMU's strapped to their arms. The contract with Hiromoto allowed only his technicians to service these units, allegedly for proprietary reasons. These MTU's were all over the place hanging from ceilings and walls which allowed Hiromoto's techs access to virtually every room in the DDE complex. So Hiromoto not only had mailgirls to supply information but also had his own men on the ground here to help verify this information and coordinate any plans of action. Hiromoto probably used this information for insider trading, technology theft, and maybe even to blackmail executives.

"God, Mariko, this whole damn Mailgirls thing is just a scam by Hiromoto to rip off his licensees, isn't it?"

Mariko lowered her eyes to the floor. "Our Mailgirls program does provide real benefits to businesses but I am afraid Mr. Hiromoto has also used it for his own purposes. I wish that were not so."

"Why do you do it then?" I asked. "Why are you helping him?"

"I do it to protect the girls, Danica. I fear that in many places mailgirls would soon become sex slaves if I did not. Mr. Hiromoto uses his power to prevent this, but only as long as I am providing information that may help enrich him."

So mailgirls like me are nothing more than bargaining chips to get Mariko to do his bidding for him, I thought to myself. What a sick bastard. We were many things to many people, but real, living, breathing human beings seemed to be far down the list.

There was something else I was curious about. "What about Linda?" I asked. "The girl who quit and went to that feminist group to sue DDE. Did Hiromoto buy her off to get the lawsuit dropped?"

"Linda belonged to Mr. Hiromoto all along," Mariko replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Hiromoto knew there would be many challenges to his Mailgirls program in America so he believed it would be useful to discredit his opponents as quickly as possible. He used his contacts in this country to find an actress who would play a role for him in doing this."

"So Linda is just an actress who was hired to discredit the UAW?"

"Yes," Mariko replied.

The brilliance of this was stunning. Knowing that there would be legal challenges to the Mailgirls program Hiromoto had planted Linda into the UAW only to have her recant at a time of his choosing and then scorch the feminist organization and its famous attorney on her way out. It had thrown the opposition to the Mailgirls program into disarray. As much as I hated to, I had to admit a little grudging respect for the man. He was playing a very long game and was clearly a master of it.

"Did Barbara know about any of this?" I asked.

"No. Mr. Hiromoto did not need or want Barbara's assistance in this."

It was at this point I think I finally realized the full depth of the mess I was in. I was caught between a crazy woman who wanted to turn me into her slave and a cunning, ruthless Yakuza who was using me for his own twisted purposes. I closed my eyes and wished I could just disappear someplace where no one knew me. Somewhere I could just start all over again.

"I should have listened to you, Mariko," I said quietly. "I should have just gotten into my car and driven as far away from this place as I could before it was too late."

"I understand why you did not, Danica," Mariko said. "I must admit that protecting my girls is not the only reason I have not left Mr. Hiromoto. The life of a mailgirl has a certain allure to women like us. It is difficult for me to imagine returning now to a normal life. It is why I still work mailgirls shifts when I am able though I am not required to do so."

"I suppose that's true," I replied. "I know there's a part of me who still wants to surrender to Barbara even after everything she's done."

"Do you remember Aiko?" Mariko asked.

"Yes, of course." Aiko was the mailgirl that Kelly and I had interviewed in Mariko's office in Tokyo. She was the one who Kelly had followed around the next day on her rounds.

"After Aiko completed her contract I placed her into a good job in the accounting department as she requested. It was the field she had been trained in at the university. Six months later she came to me and begged to be allowed to return to being a mailgirl."

"She did? Why?"

"She said she could not bear the thought of another day chained to a desk and encumbered by clothing. A normal job had become slavery to her while being a mailgirl was freedom."

"And you let her come back?"

"Yes. She has been a loyal worker and may remain a mailgirl as long as she desires."

I understood Aiko's feelings. Even now I still felt the strong gravitational pull of this crazy life. If I ever did manage to gain my freedom I wondered if someday I might also find myself begging Barbara to return to it. But there was really no choice for me anymore. I would rather have the option of begging to return to this life than being trapped in it with no way out.

"Mariko, I have to get out," I said to her. "If I don't do it now I may never be able to."

"I understand," Mariko responded. "Mr. Hiromoto is not a good man but he has not lasted this long by betraying those who fulfill their agreements with him. You have done as asked so if you wish to leave he will assist you."

I looked at her, stunned. For the first time in days I began to feel hope again. "Really? He will? Is Hiromoto in town with you?"

"No," she replied shaking her head. "He is too old now for long journeys. I am here only with a company lawyer to finalize the agreement with DDE."

"So when can he pull me out?"

"Any time after the new contract with DDE is signed. Not before."

"When will that happen?"

"Everything should be completed by Friday. Mr. Hiromoto is only willing to do this once the new contract is signed with DDE."

"What about Kelly?" I asked. "Can he get her out, too?"

"Yes."

"And there are others..."

"No," Mariko interrupted. "You and Kelly have been useful to Mr. Hiromoto. The others have not. He will not help them. Only the two of you."

"How is he going to do it?" I asked.

Mariko smiled. "I cannot tell you that. I can only say that Barbara thinks of herself as a master of the game, but she has not been on the playing field with Mr. Hiromoto before."

"What does that mean?"

"Mr. Hiromoto believes that once the new contract is signed with DDE his Mailgirls program here can safely continue without Barbara. She is not as indispensable as she believes she is."

"So what will happen to her? He won't hurt her will he?"

"No, he will not physically harm her. But you must understand that Mr. Hiromoto intends to ruthlessly destroy her ego and her hubris."

"Really? Why?" This was suddenly starting to sound very personal between Hiromoto and Barbara. It occurred to me that he had very little interest in me, it was Barbara he was after.

"Barbara bypassed me and demanded to deal only with Mr. Hiromoto in negotiating the original contract. She presumed to be be his equal and that was a foolish mistake."

Hearing this reminded me of the time I had bypassed the chain of command to bring Lin to Barbara and had received a whipping as punishment. Had Barbara made the same mistake with Hiromoto? Was she about to receive her own figurative whipping for her arrogance?

I also thought about something else. "Barbara said you were there during the negotiations as his interpreter. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"So Barbara doesn't know he speaks English?"

"No," Mariko replied. "Very few people do. He keeps it secret because he believes it gives him an advantage when dealing with English speakers. He only spoke it to you because he considered you inconsequential." There was that word again. Inconsequential.