Part 5
Brennan hated this. Once again, he had to put on a show to keep things running. He’d much rather be in the back, making sure the mechanical part of his operation was running smoothly. Tomorrow would be the boost to 90% production and he wanted to make sure the inner workings were ready for it. Instead, he had to play happy hugboxer in the hive. He halfway wanted to tell Fluffy Rights Now to go to hell. That could at least get them off his back in the short term, but those damn hugboxers were so persistent. No, he had to see this through. Get them in, let them take their photos, maybe give them a fluffy foal or two if they were so inclined, whatever!
Brennan watched from the front atrium as the FRN entourage pulled in their electric car in front of one of the building’s free electric car charge ports. He watched as two members he technically didn’t know yet got out of the car followed by Margot. There was a young woman in front, wearing a FRN t-shirt and a long, flowing hemp skirt. She was talking to Margot looking as she was barking orders as to what was supposed to happen while the young man in attendance hooked the car up to the charging port. Brennan couldn’t help but laugh. They were charging their car directly from generators powered by the Kremlin. So very, very fitting.
The young woman kept talking as the three members of FRN (technically two) headed towards the front entrance. That had to be Karissa Davis. Margot warned Brennan about Karissa’s zeal. Often times her passion for fluffy rights overrode her logic and common sense. Brennan knew that he would have to tread carefully lest he set her off. It was important to keep things cordial for this encounter.
Brennan looked to the guard at the front gate, nodding to have the group buzzed in. He pushed open the secondary doors as they walked in with a smile. “Welcome!” he said, beaming his best fake smile, “It’s nice to have you visit!” He held out a hand to Karissa. “I’m Brennan Torgl, and you are?”
Karissa seized Brennan’s hand with a deceptively strong grip and shook it with vigor. “Karissa Davis. Chapter President of Fluffy Rights Now Vancouver!” She motioned to the man on her right. “This is Mitchell Kelloni, media contact and I’m sure you remember Margot McLavey……” she gestured to Margot on her right.
Brennan laughed. “It’s hard to forget when the first word you hear from someone is ‘Asshole!’, in description of yourself. However, given the presentation of the early model….” he gestured to the prototype on display in the atrium, “I can fully understand your organization’s vitriol towards me. However… as you can see……” He walked forward to a small pen that stood next to the hive’s entrance. “You can see Toots no longer has to live in a sorry box……”
Toots was playing in his spacious pen with a few foals. He looked up at the group, sitting back so he could wave with a front leg. “Wewcome tu Torgw-Tech!” He beamed, smiling his stupid grin.
Karissa sauntered to the pen, kneeling down to get a better look at Toots. She reached in to scratch behind his ear. “Hello, Toots….” she said, “Are you happy here?” There was a hint of interrogation in her question.
Toots nodded happily. “Weawwy happeh! Daddeh gives sketties! Pway wiv babbehs! Nu mowe sowwy box fow Toots!” He was distracted as a ball that was rolled by one of the penned foals moved in front of him. The dimwitted brown earthie had no choice but to submit to his nature and roll the ball back to where it came from. Karissa sighed as she realized that this conversation was over. They were so cute, but ultimately not the brightest sources of information.
Brennan clapped his hands. “Well… before we move to the hive how about a few refreshments? Let’s move to the conference room; I’d like to have a sit down and see how Torgl-Tech can help your organization.” He led them through the atrium to a room off to the side. “I was surprised to find out that FRN wanted another look at our operation, given your…. abrasive introduction….” He shot Margot a glance as he opened the door to the conference room.
“I have to admit…… we rushed in a little early…. Oh!” Karissa was stopped in her tracks as she saw a nice spread of coffee, fruit and bakery treats. “This… is quite generous. Thank you!” She said, looking back to Brennan, not wanting to dig in due to her feelings of guilt.
“Help yourself… you can take some home, if you’d like. I love Incabrew. You just can’t beat the South American fair-trade coffee!” he said, trying to choke back his disdain. It really tasted like battery acid to him. “And the pastries are vegan…. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t offend anyone’s personal convictions….” He tried not to sound too patronizing as he mentally pictured shoving meatloaf down Karissa’s gullet.
Once the two hugboxers and Margot gathered their small brunch Brendan leaned back, trying not to choke on the Incabrew shit as he took a sip. “So…. Tell me what you’d like to see. How can we help?” He folded his hands on the table, looking at Karissa.
Karissa quickly swallowed the bite of pastry she had been eating. “Well,” she started, “like I said… we rushed in a little early. We didn’t have any information on your Mark 1, so we assumed – again, sorry!- that it was like what we saw on Feeding Frenzy. I have to admit, that was our mistake……” She held up her hands, wincing a little. “After actually seeing the Mark 2, though… we must say we are really impressed! We have seen a lot of operations, but not many take care of the fluffies like you do. We’ve seen some bad ones. Lots of bad ones. In fact, Margot here used to work at one of them!”
Brennan turned to Margot, looking surprised. What the hugboxers didn’t know was that Toots came from that exact mill. So much had been put into motion that day…
….
Six months before Feeding Frenzy
Margot quickly left the Happy Fluffy Farm’s main building. She had just got off her shift for today’s disposal duty. There was a ton of brown “poopeh babbehs” that had to be tossed in the trash. At this mill, they were just a waste of time and resources. The mares were bred early and often had serious bitch mare syndrome. Tossing them out was a mercy as they would likely end up being abused by their family, if not killed right away.
Still, the little chirpies were fun to “play” with. Though it was strongly against company policy, she had wrapped some of the brown ones in a sack and stuffed them into her lunch bag. She had just punched out and was making a hasty exit to the door as an older car pulled in right next to hers. The driver of the car barely missed dinging her door before he caught it as he got out. He looked up to Margot, mouthing “sorry”. He slammed his door. That’s when her lunch box started peeping.
Margot froze as his gaze shot to her lunchbox. She didn’t know this guy. Was he new? Was he going to apply? Did he know the policy? Was she about to get ratted out? She slowly started making her way to her car, hoping to not find out.
“You have foals in there?” The man asked, clearly seeing her discomfort. Margot stopped dead in her tracks. She slowly turned around, smiling nervously.
“Look….” she admitted, realizing she had been caught red-handed. “These are all brown ones…. poopy babies! They were just going to go in the compactor, and I thought-“
“Think I could have one?” he asked; stopping Margot midsentence. She blinked. This was unexpected.
“Umm…. Sure……”
“Do you think you might be able to get me more? I promise not to tell….” He flashed her a smile, slowly disarming her defenses.
“Umm….” she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure this guy out. “Maybe?” She still wasn’t sure if this was a sting or not.
“I have a feeling you don’t really like the little fluffballs….” He stated, testing his waters. Not many people loved collecting the brown ones. It was also unlikely that you’d find a hugboxer working at a mill such as this one. It did have a reputation.
“This place pays well for what I do. Keep the foals coming, keep the good ones, toss the bad ones. Sometimes the tossing is more fun than it should be….” She said, smiling.
“How about we go for a drink somewhere? Not hitting on you, I promise!” He held up his hands. “I have a project coming down the line for business and I might need a few foals here and there. Plus… I think when you find out what I have planned for the fluffy bastards… well, let’s say we could help each other out….”
Margot thought this over. “Sure…” she said. Couldn’t be that bad; get a drink or two and give up a foal. Nothing wrong with hearing what he had to say……
……
Now
“Yes…” Margot replied. “At first it was just a paycheck… but then I couldn’t do it anymore. When you realize that they’re not toys, and they cry for their babies… I just had to stop….” Like magic her eyes started to water. Damn, she was good…
Brennan nodded. “Yes… understandable. No need to relive it further…” He turned to Karissa. “So, Ms. Davis, as you were saying?” Once again she had to swallow another big bite of her pastry. Clearly fluffy activism didn’t pay the grocery bills well.
“Yes, as we were saying…. We really like what we see. We notice that the fluffies here are treated really well. Again, we admit that we were premature to condemn… but we would like to learn more about this hive of yours. Though it’s tall…. It has a smaller footprint than many breeding mills-“
Brennan interjected “You don’t care that the first prototype is in the entrance?”
“No…” she said, trying to steer away from the subject, “we really don’t care at all. We just want to see what you’re doing and try to highlight what works about it. In exchange, we would give you the rights to use FRN’s stamp on media. It’s not much, but more people are seeing how great fluffies can be if you give them respect and care. With an FRN seal on your business, you’d be helping us to spread awareness!” Brennan could see her getting ready to rant.
He had to interject. “Would I be required to make a financial contribution for use of this seal?” He asked, trying to slow her down a bit.
“Donations are always welcome!” She said cheerfully. “Of course we would be willing to highlight any donations you are gracious enough to give!” She may as well have been begging. “But in return for learning about how you keep your fluffies happy, you’d still get full use of our seal! If you feel inclined to contribute a donation, though, it would be much appreciated.” She beamed a big smile towards Brennan as if expecting him to open his wallet.
“I’ll have to discuss it with my investors, but I think we can come to some type of arrangement. Still, when we’re done with our little brunch, I’ll be happy to take you into the hive. I think you’ll find that our fluffies are very well cared for…”
….
Brennan smiled and waved goodbye as the FRN hippies and Margot got in their car and drove away; fueled by the suffering of fluffies. He held his game face until they were out of sight, then let out another long sigh. He hoped that he would be done with this soon. The hugboxers were raving over the happy fluffies with their toysies and bwankies and fwuffteebee… It just made him want to puke. He couldn’t wait to start moving some of the lower-value colts and fillies into the Kremlin….
He went back to his office to monitor the plant operations for a good hour, then made the call. He rang up Karissa on the cell number she had given him. “Hello?” she asked, wondering why she was being called so soon.
“Yes, Ms. Davis, this Brennan Torgl. It seems that either you Ms. McLavey has left their handbag in my conference room……” he said with a small air of concern in his voice.
“Ugh! That has to be Margot’s. My phone was in mine, so of course…”
Brennan chuckled. “Of course…… but let her know I could have it brought to her, or…. If you would be so kind, I would like to see if she would be willing to come back to my office. I’d like to get to know her perspectives on our fluffy breeding program. Having been in a bad mill, I’m sure that if we are making any mistakes that have already been made she could point them out. Maybe you could have her ring me up?”
“Hang on one sec, would you?” she replied. He could then hear her in the background, talking to Margot about her lost handbag. He could hear Margot pretend to be so upset since her phone was in her bag. Karissa got back on the line. “She said she’ll be on her way there, if someone could hang around?”
“Yes, I’ll be here all evening. I look forward to her return. And please assure her, I’ve touched nothing!” He said, half-joking. He smiled as he put a thumb drive in the back pocket of Margot’s purse. “Have a good day, Ms. Davis. Please know I’ve already sent a letter to many of my investors regarding a donation to FRN.”
“Thank you so much!” she raved. God, she really did have a thing for the shitrats. “Bye for now!” She promptly hung up.
Hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with Karissa anytime soon. He turned to his computer, looking through the security files. He looked up the surveillance in the meeting room, replaying the video from the early meeting. He found the part he wanted……
“We really don’t care at all….” Karissa said in the video. Brennan smiled. He hoped that Everett’s people knew what they were doing. He got them to say everything that Everett advised him to get on video. Hopefully in a week or two the FRN would be no problem at all….
