Mailgirls on the Run Pt. 09

Megan logged into the smartphone and opened up the contacts listing. There were entries for Megan Brooks, Professor Chang, Colin Fforde, Dr Rodriguez, and the SG&T Human Capital and Security Desks. Wondering about Dr Rodriguez, she texted "Maria's phone" to both herself and Lin Chang. Then she settled back to work until it was time to leave to meet Maria at the loading dock at five p.m.

With just over an hour to go before she was due on the loading dock Mailgirl Fourteen's MMU chimed with instructions to report to Human Capital. She wondered whether she was being called for a delivery or a lecture about her expected behavior over the coming week. Miss Bradley just motioned Fourteen to go into Ms Barnes' office; Fourteen couldn't decipher the expression on the Admin's face.

Ms Barnes was seated behind her desk and Mistress V was standing to the side against the wall. Fourteen had seen Mailgirl Twenty-two strung up in the courtyard on Monday and crossed paths with the gagged woman several times that afternoon -- Ms Barnes had to send her down to the loading dock at five p.m., didn't she?

"Mailgirl Fourteen, right on time. It won't save you today though. Just lean over my desk and grab the other side. Now hold that position."

Mistress V's paddle crashed across both ass cheeks.

"Don't bother counting, you don't want to know."

The beating went on for an eternity, then blessedly ceased.

"Now, something to remind you of us while you're playing college student."

Mistress V's cane cut across the meat of Fourteen's ass. She then laid down five more stripes moving her blows up and down. Fourteen was sure that she would see six perfectly spaced parallel lines when she had a chance to review the damage in a mirror.

"Now stand up and go over into that corner. Feet spread, palms flat against the wall above your head, and nose into the corner. You'll stay like that until, say 4:58. It shouldn't take you more than two minutes to get to the loading dock; after all it's all downhill. And if you're late, you'll just have a head start in accumulating demerits on your return.

"You can go back to your other charges, Mistress V. I have a switch here in case this girl breaks position."

Fourteen groaned inaudibly -- she knew better than to make a sound -- she would never manage an hour in this position. She felt the switch four times while her nose was pressed into the corner; her arms and legs were quivering with fatigue long before her MMU chimed with a new destination and Ms Barnes told her, "Now go, already."

Megan pulled in behind the loading dock at 4:55. She was sure that Ms Barnes and Mistress V wouldn't release Maria until 5 p.m. on the dot, but she didn't want to take the slightest chance that the mailgirl would have to wait for her. The messenger bag was sitting on the passenger seat with the pile of clothing beside it.

At 4:58 she picked up the clothing and walked up the steps to the door at the end of the dock. She rang the bell, but got no response, so she stood, waiting until the door opened a few minutes later. A sweaty, naked mailgirl emerged with her MMU flashing 'Late'. Megan hastily reached over and acknowledged Fourteen's arrival. Then she looked at the woman noting the dark red color of her buttocks and the thin lines from the cane wrapping around to the side.

"First, Samantha on Monday and now you today. I'm complaining to the fifth floor that Ms Bratz is trying to sabotage the running team. This is not right.

"Maria, do you want me to drive you to Frederick instead of having you take the train?"

"No, I think it will be more comfortable to stand on the train than sit in your car or even kneel on the back seat."

Maria got dressed while standing on the loading dock, wincing when she pulled the pants up over her ass. Megan led her down the steps to the car and pointed out the messenger bag and told her about the wallet, the phone, and the monthly commuter pass for the train. Maria spent the short drive to the MARC station trying to put as little weight on her bottom end as she could.

The two women stood together until the train pulled into the station. Then Maria leaned over to kiss the younger woman on the cheek and said, "Thank you." She stepped up into the train car and disappeared inside. Megan waited until the train pulled out of the station, then texted Lin Chang that Mailgirl Fourteen was on her way.

* * * *

Megan barely paused at her desk on her march into Human Capital Thursday morning. She didn't even look up to check out the framed display of mailgirl photos and panties on the wall.

"I need to speak to Ms Barnes."

The admin for the office looked up and said, "I'm sorry, Ms Brooks, but Ms Barnes is taking a personal day today." She looked at her workstation and continued, "It looks like I can fit you in late tomorrow afternoon. Would 5:30 work for you?"

Megan started to respond angrily, but decided not to vent to Miss Bradley who neither made or implemented any policy in re mailgirls. "I'll have to get back to you."

"Oh, and Mistress V requested that you meet with her this morning. She is in the Mailgirls' Lounge currently."

Megan turned around and headed for the stairs. Mailgirls were prohibited from using the elevators unless delivering packages on carts or hand-trucks, but now she just used the stairs out of habit. She made her way down to the Mailgirls Locker Room where she could see Mistress V seated behind her desk The taskmistress stood up as Megan entered "Good, I need to speak to you. Let's go around the corner to my rooms where we can talk in private."

Megan meekly followed the older woman out of the locker room stunned that she had spoken in flat mid-Western tones totally at odds with the heavy German accent that Megan had expected. Mistress V swiped her ID card at a nondescript door down the hall and the two women entered a chamber with overflowing bookcases lining three walls.

"Call me Helen. I'm Helen Wilhelm from Dayton, Ohio by way of Oberlin and Cal-Berkeley. Ms Barnes has lost it and needs to be stopped."

"But, we all thought you were an ex-Mailgirl from Germany."

"I was working on my Masters in Medieval German Literature and doing community theater when I hired on part-time with DDE as a research assistant. Barbara Anderson persuaded me to convert to a mailgirl -- I'm sure you remember how that goes -- just before she left. There were no Mailgirl Mistresses at that time, discipline was handled by the suits in Human Capital, but they decided the optics would be better by handing off that part of the job to an in-house dominatrix. I was one of the first graduates of their advanced training program; fluency in German and a drama background were pluses on my resume.

"I enjoy my job. I see it as continuing improv theater where I get to torment younger, more attractive, and often more accomplished women -- which I confess makes my juices run. On the other hand my salary is probably less than what you were paid as a mailgirl, even discounting the bonus, and my workweek is if anything longer. Still, I make more than I would in community theater or as a junior faculty member, and my living expenses are close to nil -- mostly just books and the occasional trip home to visit my family."

"What does that have to do with Ms Barnes?"

"I just wanted to explain where I'm coming from. I believe Ms Barnes feels threatened by you."

"I don't want her job, I want to work in finance; I'm good at it, I enjoy it. My current involvement with mailgirls was foisted on me by the fifth floor over my objections."

"She was outraged by the memo turning over control of mailgirls to you while in training. Twenty-two and Fourteen were demonstrations that she's still in charge. I'm not going to inflict any punishment that I believe to be dangerous, but that allows a lot of latitude and I can't provoke an open breach with her. My contract allows for conversion to mailgirl status is my work is found unsatisfactory. You need to talk her down or get the fifth floor to step in."

* * * *

Megan finally made it back to her desk frustrated that she was spending ever more time with mailgirls rather than banking business. She preferred the latter and that's where her next promotion and yearly bonus were to be found. Logging into her workstation she discovered that she had a meeting scheduled for five p.m. with Mr Soames and Dr. Rodriguez, no topic indicated. Curious, she picked up the phone and called Mr Soames 'executive assistant,' Tiffany Alvado -- the former Mailgirl Three.

"Tiffany, do you know what is to be discussed at my five o'clock with Mr Soames?"

"That's Ms Judge, please. You have a meet and greet with Dr Rodriguez; she's a newly appointed member of the Board of Directors. She has meetings scheduled today and tomorrow to brief her on the operations here in Washington. There is no topic listed for your meeting, just a list of attendees, Mr Fforde and you."

"That would be about Mailgirl Twenty-three then. Thank you, Ms Judge."

Megan sighed, more mailgirls Well, it was time to ping Fforde on what was going on with Twenty-three and her former employers. And it was good that it was getting visibility at the Board level. That should be positive. Next step, call Starnes and then she'd have to keep an eye on her sister and Twelve on the treadmill. Mailgirls.

* * * *

Megan cleared her desk in time for the meeting, she planned to leave afterwards, no matter what. Starnes had promised to raise Ms Barnes treatment of mailgirls to the Fifth Floor, Samantha looked okay on the treadmill -- she'd had plenty of support from the men also 'working out' in the exercise room -- and Fforde had refused to provide any insight into meeting with Dr Rodriguez, except to say that she was an excellent addition to the Board.

Tiffany, looking unusually subdued, looked up and said, "Go right in Ms Brooks, they're waiting for you."

Megan entered Mr Soames expansive corner office and saw an older black-haired, olive-skinned woman seated at one end of the small conference table; Mr Soames and Mr Fforde were standing.

"Our Miss Brooks is here. Colin, if your Mr Rhimes isn't getting anywhere with Mohr Brothers, why don't you sic Peggy on them?"

"I don't know that the Board will authorize outside counsel, especially at her rates."

"She'll do it pro bono, she enjoys sticking it to abusive men. Now, Johnny, you and Colin go away, I need to talk to Ms Brooks. I'll see you tomorrow, Colin. And Johnny, tell Tiffy to send Mailgirl Ten here."

Megan looked on in amazement as the two meek meekly left Soames' own office.

The tall, attractive woman stood up and extended her hand to Megan, "I'm glad to meet you, Megan. I'm Dr Rodriguez, aka the elder Maria Hyland, Mailgirl Fourteen's mother."

Megan took her hand and Mrs Hyland gestured, "Let's sit down and chat and once we're through with the confidential stuff we can take it down to the coffee shop and watch the floor show."

Megan sat down in the indicated chair, next to Mrs Hyland, still warm from Mr Fforde's body heat. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am," she stammered.

"I need to thank you and Mailgirl Ten for the help you've given my daughter. I'll talk to Professor Chang when I go up for Convocation at Hood this weekend. I'd thank Colin as well, but he has ulterior motives, he's lusted after Maria since they met -- she only had eyes for Frank then.

"She was in such a bad way when Colin came to me with this mad scheme to make her a mailgirl. I'd heard of mailgirls, but like any thinking person dismissed it as misogynist nonsense. He said he thought the shock of losing everything would snap her out of her depression. It took him several months to convince me and then it was only because she just kept sinking deeper. The mailgirl cure didn't exactly snap her out of it, it took months, but Colin's reports and what Peggy passed on from Marcy gave me hope."

"Peggy? Marcy?"

"Peggy Judge was my sorority sister at Wellesley, you probably know her as Mrs Soames. I'm sure you know that Johnny was, and is, fucking Tiffy. Peggy forced him to offer her up as a mailgirl. When Colin proposed his scheme, she offered to put Marcy in place to keep an eye on Maria -- you know Marcy as Mailgirl Eighteen. It was a real sacrifice for Peggy -- she's counting down the days to her reunion next month -- but, she's been a great friend for a long time.

"By the by, Johnny says you're doing a fine job for the bank which is a rave review for him when speaking of a woman. He has such an outmoded view of things and an over-inflated view of his own capabilities. As much as I denigrate little Tiffy, there's no doubt that she is the brains in that partnership, her temporary replacement did not half so good a job managing him. I've been telling Peggy for years that she is wasted on him, but she says Johnny is great arm candy and now it would be such a cliché to replace him with a younger model."

Tiffany's voice sounded through the intercom, "Mailgirl Ten, Dr Rodriguez."

"Send her in, Tiffy."

Ten walked in, then stopped upon seeing Megan and an unknown woman seated at Mr Soames' conference table.

"Close the door, Ms Wreibel." Mrs Hyland leaned back to the inter-comm and said, "Go home, Tiffy." before switching it back off.

Mailgirl Ten had gone reflexively into 'Feet' position, but was clearly stunned by being addressed by name and the unknown woman's brusque dismissal of Mr Soames' executive assistant -- a title that Tiffany Alvado firmly insisted with her former colleagues.

"I'm Maria's mother -- Mailgirl Fourteen, that is -- and I called both of you here to thank you for the help you've given her over the past two years. We all despaired of her recovering, and then tough definitely-not-love seems to have brought her back. I've told Megan that I'm going up to Hood to see her this weekend."

"Mrs. Hyland, I don't know what to say. It took many months for Maria to open up, to let herself live again. I, we can't take credit for that, she pulled herself back up. We didn't know her story at all for the longest time, we just knew that she was hurting and was shut down. She conformed better than any of the rest of us to what Human Capital demanded from mailgirls; there was no rebellion, no flirting. It took her most of the first year to seek physical comfort from her fellow mailgirls and by that I mean just touching, just being held, not sex. It was so wonderful when she could let the rest of us comfort her."

"Ms Wreibel, if there is anything that I can do for you, just let me know."

"I may take you up on that next summer when my contract ends. I don't know where I'll be going at that time."

"If you want to walk away now, I can make that happen, though I hope you'll stay through the end of the year and the end of Maria's contract."

"No, I made a promise to myself that I would help the other women to the best of my ability and I believe that is as a mailgirl."

"You can contact me at any time via Mr Fforde. He will pass on anything that you wish him to. Thank you again and now I will let you get back to work. Ms Brooks will escort me down to the lobby for a coffee and some conversation."

Megan reached over and tapped Ten's MMU to indicate that she was available again and the former HR staffer left Mr Soames' office.

"Shall we go straight down to the lobby coffee shop or would you like a brief tour of all things Mailgirl?"

"Why not, lead the way."

Megan led the older woman out of the office and past the kneeling mailgirl on the mat by the admin desk at the entrance to the executive suite. Ten was leaning down from her knees lapping water from a steel bowl.

"Once a mailgirl has completed her task she finds the nearest mailgirl mat and waits for her next summons. I've heard of companies where mailgirls drink by sucking water through a hollow dildo."

They exited into the fifth floor lobby and Megan led the way to the back stairs.

"Mailgirls are only authorized to use elevators if whatever they're pushing a hand-truck or cart. Since deliveries are to be completed within a specified time mailgirls get lots of exercise running up and down the stairs -- we've had several broken ankles over the past three years."

She led the way down two flights and then into a short hallway. Human Capital is the office that manages the Mailgirl Program. She gestured at the framed displays spaced along the wall. "Those are the panties that each of the twenty-four mailgirls were wearing when they first stripped down. This is traditional décor in Mailgirl Programs. The panties are not returned at the end of your contract."

Back to the stairwell and down to the ground floor. Megan led the way into the Employee Dining Room. "This is extremely well patronized at lunch and they do modest supper business as well." She pointed out two mats in the middle of the room, each with two gleaming steel bowls in front of them. "Mailgirls eat here in shifts, on their hands and knees of course, no utensils allowed. Everyone else picks their food up at the counters; mailgirls get served. A dining room staffer pours water into their bowls and then scoops out a can of Mailgirl Chow. It is highly nutritious, but looks and tastes like dog food. There are also mats in the Executive Dining Room on the fifth floor."

Megan led the way to the glass wall fronting the interior courtyard. "Those pillars are whipping posts, that X-shaped structure is a Saint Andrew's Cross, and multiple mailgirls can be strung up at the same time from that wooden frame. The schedule of public punishments is available via the Mailgirls App which is available to all employees and selected individuals off-site."

The two women left the dining room and turned towards the front of the building. "The Med Center is back behind us, it's staffed during the working day and we have physicians on-call. Comprehensive healthcare is part of each mailgirl's employment contract with the exception of contraception and maternity benefits since sexual relations are not authorized -- mailgirl-mailgirl is ignored if conducted out of view. Oh good, the executive table is available."

"Johnny said that he would reserve a table for me. Peggy recommended that I have him do so."

"Well then, just take a seat and I'll get your coffee and come back to join you."

Megan returned with a latte and a tea to find Dr Rodriguez looking down into the Mailgirl's Lounge.

"I'm going to have to go down there and see for myself."

"We can tour the lounge and dormitory. Normally those spaces are restricted to Mailgirls, Human Capital, and Security, but I have access currently because of the running team. The walls are mirrored glass so that they can't see out, but they know they are on display."

A naked black woman appeared from a corridor down below and entered the lounge.

"That's Mailgirl Two, she's a dancer and decided that two years as a mailgirl would fund at least a year in New York trying to break into theater. The two women showering are Mailgirls Three and Fifteen -- they're both members of the running team. The showers are cold water only, of course. Those two are likely looking at an early dinner in the dining room. Those are the only showers and sinks available to mailgirls, toilets are in the dormitory. SG&T presumably decided the ick factor outweighed the humiliation of forcing mailgirls to urinate and defecate in public. Some other mailgirl programs are not so decorous.

"The desk belongs to Mistress V, she's the in-house dominatrix that directly supervises the mailgirls and doles out punishments. She has an apartment in the basement and is on-call 24/7."

Megan paused to sip her tea, Dr Rodriguez turned to her coffee.

"What is a mailgirl's day like?"

"The lights go on in the dormitory at 6:30 and the grills over the sleeping niches slide open. Two mailgirls go to the dining hall and bring breakfast down in the freight elevator. Most of the mailgirls eat in the dormitory, simple nutritious food, no sweets, no stimulants. Four to six women, usually, dine on mailgirl chow and water, no utensils, no fingers allowed, in the lounge where they can be seen from here. Mistress V tells off which mailgirls get locker room duty.