'Are the stresses of your modern office driving you insane? Do you need a release, but can't find time for dating? Then you need to get on down to your local Bluenorth Compound!

'Our prime selection of females are on hand to fulfil any and all desire you may have. Private booths, unlimited time slots and as many women as you can afford all at your disposal. What are you waiting for? Come on down! Bluenorth: A Future That Works!'

Deek watched the commercial with a gaping jaw and more than the usual amount of sweat on his brow. His glasses almost steamed up from the perspiration condensing between his eyes and the screen in Wilkes' office.

'Are you mad?!' He exclaimed as the progamming switched to a current events show. 'There'll be riots! Protests outside our door! You take us public now? There are still women in Congress!'

'Not for long.' Wilkes replied with a sigh as he slid a heated rod into Ruth's upright and quivering asshole. She was bent over a high bar at the midriff with anklets and wrist shackles pinning her arms and legs downward. As the rod slid into her she screamed into the gag, which became a muffled garbling sound. Wilkes pulled the rod back out and left it to heat a while longer.

'You cannot be so cavalier about this,' Deek wiped his face at last and then scrambled for the quarterly projections Wilkes had absolutely no interest in reading, 'this place is... its...'

'Its making money.' Wilkes nodded and rolled his eyes, flicking a bit of dirt off Ruth's otherwise perfect ass.

'No, Wilkes, its not making money. Its making a fortune. These five compounds are more profitable than any business venture you have ever entered into.'

'Huh...' Wilkes frowned as he lifted the rod off the flat hob heater and pushed it back into Ruth's hole, 'so what's the bad news?'

'The bad news is if this place gets shut down, you'll lose more money than you made!'

'Yeah,' Wilkes smirked, 'that's the important word, Deek. If.'

There was a knock at the door. Deek gathered up his paperwork and shuffled out, not stopping to greet the Compound Commander. Archibald held his cap in one hand and a shock-stick baton in the other, service medals pinned firmly to his chest. Wilkes gave him a salute - it turned out the Commander liked that - and allowed him to sit down.

'I trust you've given the situation some thought?'

Archibald stared at Ruth. Wilkes pulled the rod out and tossed it away, clearing his throat awkwardly.

'Sorry, just a bit of stress relief.'

The Commander said nothing. Eventually Wilkes realised he was expected to speak.

'Oh, right. Yes. The escape. Well, we have search parties hunting down the fugitives, and our man Nate-'

'Turns out he wasn't our man.'

'Yes, true. He will be brought to justice.'

Archibald sniffed. He looked as though he had swallowed something sour.

'You realise this will be the first time?'

Wilkes sat back.

'First time for what?'

'The first time we execute a man in the name of our cause. The first time we cross that line into "not with us, then against us"?'

'I never said we would execute him.' Wilkes spoke carefully and slowly, threading his fingers together and trying to ignore Ruth's moans of pain from the corner. 'I believe the boy should be put on trial.'

'And if found guilty?'

'Then...' Wilkes took a long, deep breath, 'then he should be dealt with as criminals are. He should be imprisoned.'

'In Ekpow?'

'No. This is not a prison, this is a Female Control Compound. Nate will be put into a federal facility-'

'For breaking which law?'

'My friend, very soon what Nate did will be punishable by federal law, and those women will be criminals for complying.'

'How soon?' Archibald pressed, and now Wilkes could see through the General's pose to the nervous wreck that lay beneath, 'before we catch Nate?' He sniffed to suggest his scepticism.

'Hopefully,' said Wilkes, 'the question is not whether or not Nate will be caught and punished; the question is whether it is us, the police, or someone else who gets to him first.'