Chapter Ten
It was imperative that the information be brought to the Board immediately.
Mr. Michelson convened the meeting in the Board Room prior to the club’s quarterly slave auction. The auctions were black tie events that, along with Members’ munificent contributions, funded the club’s agenda. Their primary purpose, however, was generally acknowledged to be the Members’ amusement. The funds raised were simply a drop in a bottomless bucket.
The auctions’ only rules were 1) the slave was purchased for twelve hours, either daylight or night, and 2) the slave could not be permanently altered without its Master’s prior permission. Certain slaves went for inordinate sums, once or twice even seven figures during a lively bidding war. “After all,” Ward mused, “what would one pay to degrade
