created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Chapter 13
Sarah walked into the conference room on the eighth floor and wasn’t phased by the fact that Mira was kneeling on the floor. Addison had stood when Sarah had entered. Sarah nodded at Addison, and then looked at Mira. “Mira, you can sit in the chair.” Mira stood and sat in one of the chairs. Mira was wearing a skirt suit, Similar to what a number of people in the office wore every day. Sarah could see the jewelry that Mira had alluded to on the phone. She wore a collar and cuffs that were similar to Addison’s but a little more substantial. It was taller and a little thicker and there was no visible keyholes that Sarah could see. Sarah sat down at the table across from Mira and Addison sat to the right.
“So you’ve done research on the devices that we’re looking at as part of the mitigation program?” Sarah asked. Mira looked between Sarah and Addison. It was clear that Sarah was the dominant partner here, but Mira wasn’t sure if Addison was the submissive partner, or if she was just a coworker on this project.
“I have,” Mira said, a smile forming on her lips. “Let me just say I’m glad that I was on a chartered jet and not flying commercial...”
Sarah and Addison shared a glance as both of their phones beeped. Addison looked at hers as she knew that the message would be the same on both phones.
“Oh?” Sarah asked, “Is it because of your collar?”
“Not exactly.” Mira said.
“Shit...” Addison said, looking at Sarah. Addison handed Sarah her phone, holding it from the bottom so Sarah could take it from the top. Sarah read the message as both phones beeped again. After Sarah had read the message, she picked up her phone and called Cassie’s cell phone.
“Do you need us down on 5?” Sarah looked into Addison’s eyes. “Ok, Let me ask. Mira, do you have security clearance?”
Mira’s eyebrows raised. “I do... I hold confidential."
Sarah listened for a few moments. “Alright, we’re on our way.”
Sarah and Addison walked into the conference room on the fifth floor with Mira in tow. Cassie, Dr. Gaffin and Dr. Smithfield were standing in the corner talking. Sarah saw the room freshly through Mira’s eyes. The table would seat fifteen, and around the outsides of the room were another twenty chairs. Cassie glanced up at Sarah and nodded. Sarah approached the group. “They haven’t called it that yet, but I think it might become one...” Dr. Gaffin said, acknowledging Sarah with a nod. Sarah had seen the alert. “The ones in San Franciso are probably just the beginning.” Sarah watched as the Deputy Director of the CDC, Dr. William Speakman walked in.
“Ok,” Cassie said, looking at Sarah. “Robert, Get a hold of the county officials out there and offer to help in whatever way we can.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Dr. Gaffin said.
“Sarah, I need you to get with media and start to put together some sort of a packet we can disseminate... Also, set up a meeting with Senator Gordon first thing tomorrow. As early as possible. If we have to be on the plane at 4:30, then we will be on the plane at 4:30.” Cassie said. Sarah had snatched a notepad from the table and was making notes. “Sarah, please bring Addison and Miss Gordon up to my office.”
"Yes, Ma’am.” Sarah said.
The four people sat around the small conference table in Cassie’s office. “Ok, I’ve got a preliminary message that, with your approval, we can get over to the web folks and get on the website.” Sarah said. “I’ve emailed it to the three of you.” Sarah looked over her laptop screen at Cassie.
“Got it,” Cassie said. “I’ll look at it here in a minute. Sarah, can you get with IT and have them bring a desktop up and set it up on the counter over there for a dashboard, also, have them bring the full equipment package up for Mira. In addition have someone from HR come up, I want to onboard Mira as a temporary employee. She lives in Fredricksburg and can keep her dad up to date and we won’t have to lose as much time due to flights.”
“You can make that kinda call?” Mira asked.
“I’m the Director, I can do as I damn well please.” Sarah and Addison both giggled.
Mira smiled. “How can you guys laugh with this going on?”
“Cause if we didn’t,” Sarah said, “We’d have all gone over the edge. You should have seen me the night I found out about the birth rate issue, I lost it when I got back to my desk. But I put myself back together and put the energy toward saving the world. It helps to have close friends and family.”
“Family?” Mira asked confused.
“Yeah,” Sarah looked at Cassie and Addison. “Cassie is like a second mother to me and Addie is my girlfriend.”
“There’s more to it than just being in a relationship,” Mira said, a smirk on her face. “That’s why...” Sarah looked at Mira, and Addison blushed, turning her head to try to hide it. Cassie raised an eyebrow. “That’s why Addison waited to sit down until you had sat. That’s why when Addison got the text and handed you the phone, she handed it from the bottom, so you could take it from the top.” Mira sat back in the chair and smiled. “When you have rules that you follow like that, You notice when others do it.” Sarah and Addison looked at each other. They had actaully never spoken about rules. Mainly because there hadn’t been a need yet.
“The three of you are going to form a working group on the devices.” Cassie looked at the three girls. I’d rather not have you testify before Congress, so I’d like to put together a comprehensive report on issues and successes on wearing the devices. Now we probably could get the hearing closed and not disclosed to the public if we had to, but I think that would look like we’re trying to hide something and we need that to not be the case.
“Every working group needs a name, right?” Mira said.
“Yeah...” Addison said.
“How about the “Work on the problem and fix it” group?” Sarah said with a chuckle.
“It works until we can come up with something better...” Mira siad
The phone in the corner of the room rang, and Sarah jumped up to go grab it. Mira Smirked at Addison as there was a knock on the door. Addison hopped up and went to the door. She opened it to reveal Kyle Young with a bunch of stuff on a cart. Getting off the elevator was Bronwyn Gables from HR, she had a bunch of paperwork and a laptop under her arm. Onboarding had moved from paper to electronic, by the time that Addison was brought on. As the two new people came in the room, Cassie stood, causing Miranda to stand as well. Miranda was used to being in environments where when the highest ranked person in the room stood, everyone else did as well. “Ok, Thank you, Cheryl, we will see you then.
“Good afternoon Director,” Kyle and Bronwyn said in unison.
“Good afternoon. Cassie said, “Kyle, the desktop is going to go over there on that counter, the employee equipment package is for this young lady, Who Bronwyn is going to go through onboarding with. I would like her fully set up and operational before close of business today.” Even though the CDC didn’t ‘close’ the phrase was often to used to indicate around five PM when the ‘top brass’ usually went home.
“We will make it happen,” Bronwyn said. There were a few folks that this team had gotten in and setup in a hurry. It usually happened when the director said to onboard someone. It had happened a few times since Cassie had taken over six years ago. Sarah walked up to Cassie.
“I just got off the phone with Cheryl,” Sarah watched as Addison sat there, the only person of the group not activly working on something. “He will see us tomorrow. He’s got a surprisingly open schedule, so whenever we get wheels down will be good, I just need to let her know what time so she can have the cars lined up for us.”
“Ok. Let’s aim to be wheels down, by 0800. Make the arrangements.” She said, moving the pointer on her laptop and then swiping her finger on the reader so she could unlock it. “Kyle?”
“What do you want Mira’s title, to be Director?” Bronwyn asked.
“Yes, Ma’am?” Kyle said, turning away from the computer he was setting up.
“If we have any more of those new really thin and light laptops, please issue one to Sarah, Addison, Mira and me, please. These are in addition to our currently issued laptops.” Cassie said. “Bronwyn, She’s a special assistant to the Director.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Kyle replied. “I’ll bring them up after I get done with this computer over here.”
“Yes, Director.” Bronwyn said.
“Hey, Cass?” Sarah said from the corner where the second extension to her phone was.
“Yeah.” She glanced up at Sarah.
“Paul and Rich will be ready in Hanger 14 at 0600, expected wheels up will be at 0630.”
“Thank you.” Cassie stopped and thought for a second. “Sarah, can you get copies of Quentin’s report and the proposal we gave to the President? Worst case, she can read them on the plane up in the morning.”
“Sure thing, Cassie.” Sarah left the room to get a copy of the report and the proposal. A few moments later she came back, two thick stacks of paper in her hands.
The four of them sat around the table with two pizza boxes in the center of the table. Between the four of them the two pizzas were gone. Addie and Mira were giggling as they compared their collars and cuffs. “Oh! I want to show you all something.” Mira said suddenly. She had changed into a pair of lounge pants and a tank top as soon as they had gotten to the house. Mira looked around to make sure the blinds were all closed and then stood. Addison and Sarah glanced at each other as Mira unceremoniously dropped the lounge pants to reveal...
“A real chastity belt...” Sarah and Addie said. They both got up and walked around the table to look at the belt. It was so shiny that they could see their reflections. All of the metal was lined with a red trim and Sarah counted two padlocks. Addie started to reach out to touch it and stopped. She looked at Mira. “May I?”
Mira smiled. “Yes, touch, tug, try to get past it. I’ve only had it on for the last two months... Trust me, you’re not gonna get past it. I’ve tried every way I know how... Even a hand held shower head won’t get past it.” Addison reached up and touched the front of the belt, She gave the front of it a tap. Sarah was standing behind Mira.
“I see D rings for other attachments, do you have any other attachments?”
Addison reached down to fiddle with one of the two locks. She gave it a tug and it remained locked. “Why two locks, the belts we were looking at only had one...”
“Yes, I have thigh bands but I don’t have them here.” Sarah stuck her finger between the waist band and Mira’s skin. “And two locks because that lower panel will come off without removing the whole belt. Let’s just say that Natalie plays with that lock a lot...”
“What are the thigh bands like?” Addison asked. She was curious about them, even though she didn’t know that Sarah was eventually going to forbid her from wearing pants.
“Well,” Mira started and then paused. “You have to take smaller steps and you can’t wear pants... It’s possible to control the length of the amount that you can step by changing the length of chain between the bands themselves.”
“Intresting...” Sarah reached up and gave one of the D-rings a tug. All it did was pull Mira to one side. There would be no shimmying out of the belt for the girl.
“I’ve tried every which way to escape from this belt except learning lock picking and I’ve been expressly forbidden from doing that...” Sarah glanced at Addison and slightly shook her head. Cassie caught Sarah’s eye and shook her head. Mira giggled. “And a new dynamic appears...”
“You both will be forbidden from doing that...” Cassie chuckled.
“Yes ma’am.” Addison and Sarah both mumbled at the same time.