Industrial Espionage II (A Better Offer)

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Woman: MJ Ranum
Snake: Dreamstime Free Image

It had been three weeks since Sandra had tried her amateur attempt at industrial espionage. She had enough time now to learn to hate the routine of this place. It was regular as clockwork and boring. Every morning, they brought her breakfast, usually some small creature or other. Rabbits seemed to be their favourite. Of course they were never cooked or even washed, just a small carcass tossed in through the opening at the front. She, at first, refused to eat them but hunger eventually got the better of her and she ate them regardless of whether or not she loathed the idea. After breakfast, such as it was, they'd wait an hour or so (it was nearly impossible to get a feel for the time without clocks). Then a handler would come in and she'd have to bit through a rubber sheet and produce her venom. She longed to bite one of the handlers rather than the rubber sheet just once. It would be so satisfying to inject her venom (and she produced nearly 50 ml a day) into her tormentor. The rest of the day was spent laying around digesting her breakfast for they were only fed once a day under a heat lamp or slithering about investigating her enclosure.

Sandra wanted to escape to show the world at what cost Calanden had achieved their breakthrough. She was sure a snake woman slithering down the streets of any city or town would attract some attention. Likely there would be an investigation and Calanden would be in major trouble with the government and any number of legal organizations. But escape was proving difficult. Though the enclosure was covered in soft sand, Sandra soon discovered that solid concrete lay under it. She'd spent hours digging to find that the floor and walls seemed to be one seamless concrete container. Without some tools, Sandra knew she'd never get out to show the world.

That way out was provided accidentally by a handler who dropped a metal tray and forgot to retrieve it. Sandra quickly hid the tray and spent several days bending it into something she could dig with. This wasn't as easy as it sounded without hands. Digging with the makeshift tool proved difficult, too. It was hard to get purchase to scrape the concrete at the back of her enclosure when she had to hold the thing in her mouth. More often than not, she'd end up with a mouthful of sand and dust. Over the weeks, though, her efforts slowly began to pay off. She managed to scrape a hole several inches deep and large enough for her body to wriggle through. Though she was definitely not yet outside, even this modest success buoyed her spirit.

She was careful to hide her tool and her digging when handlers were about. This limited her digging to the night. It cost her many hours of sleep but she persevered. One night, she was startled when a large chunk of the concrete broke free and a cascade of sand spilled into the hole she was scraping. It took several hours to scrape the sand out of the hole again because it kept pouring in through the hole from the other side. She'd only managed to keep ahead of it. In the end, as morning was approaching, she decided to finish digging out the sand the next night.

She was excited for she hoped that her tunnel would lead to the outside and freedom. Calanden had best watch out then for their secrets would be exposed. Her elation made even the stupid rabbit taste good. But after the meal and her milking, she had to continually resist the urge to finish her digging. In the end, lack of sleep saved her revealing her escape plans. The warm heat lamp in her enclosure soon had her asleep for several hours. She didn't awaken until evening.

Once everything settled down for the night, Sandra went back to her digging. The sand stopped pouring through the hole about midnight and Sandra went back to levering bits off the concrete to enlarge her hole. By morning, she had a hole large enough for her to crawl through. She carefully hid the hole on her side deciding to make her escape the next night. She hoped that the hole in the sand on the other side wouldn't be noticed during the day.

That night, she carefully slithered through her hole and up the slope of sand on the other side. She proceeded with caution as she didn't want to escape only to be returned to an enclosure by a passing guard. She kept low to the ground and made as little sound as possible. Without warning, she crested a small dune and ran into something soft.

"Huh?" the soft mound stated and then it began to uncoil.

Sandra swore. All that time digging and all she'd managed to do is dig into the next enclosure.

"Sandra," she introduced herself.
"Doreen," the other snake woman responded.

It was dark so neither one could get a clear look at the other. Sandra, though, was sure she'd heard that voice before somewhere.

"Tried to escape," Sandra shook her head.
"Escape?" the other woman's voice brightened.
"Dug in here at the back."
"Oh."
There was a lull in the conversation. Sandra had learned from the handlers that most of the convertees were volunteers and that they'd be changed back in a couple of years. She wasn't sure whether this was a volunteer or another, such as herself, converted agaisnt their will.
"Been here long?" Sandra asked.
"Less than a week," Doreen replied. "Tried to get word on one of my employees. They drugged me, changed me and tossed me in here."
"Doreen?" asked Sandra.
Doreen had been her boss' name back at her old job. But this couldn't be that Doreen.
"Sandra, you didn't work someplace else until a few months ago did you?"
"Yeah. Tried to break in here to find out how they were doing their production."
"Not the brightest idea. I wish Jerry hadn't put it into your head."
"Jerry?!"
"I was your section supervisor."
"Doreen? How did you end up a snake?"
"I tried to find out what had happened to you. They grabbed me, drugged me and changed me."
"I'd just snuck inside here and then that doctor guy did the same to me."
"So why did you quit?"
"Quit? I didn't quit."
"We got your termination eMail. Verified your digital signature and all."
"I never sent any such thing. I've not been near a computer to send an eMail since I was captured."
"Forged then," Doreen frowned.

She was willing to bet that she had quit her old job, too, in the same way. Those electronic signatures were supposed to be foolproof. Obviously, Calanden had a way to forge them well enough to fool the electronic validation software. That was definitely not a good thing. It meant they were likely doing other illegal things to protect their operation, too.
The two women lapsed into silence for several minutes. Sandra was still angry that all her efforts had been in vain. Doreen was worried about the other illegalities Calanden was using. She had considerable stock in many of Calanden's competitors. She'd hate to see all that lost while she was trapped, slithering about a desert enclosure.

"I'd best get back," Sandra decided. "I wouldn't want them to discover my hole."
"I'll cover up this side," Doreen offered.

The pair of women slithered side-by-side to the back of the enclosure. Sandra wriggled back through to her side and hid the opening. She returned to her sleeping rock and its heat lamp and lay there for a long time. Weeks of work to break into Doreen's enclosure. Damn. Still, maybe with two of them working, they could break out in half the time on their next attempt. She'd propose it Doreen when next she saw her.

Halfway through the day, though, a handler unexpectedly came through the door of her enclosure. Sandra was half asleep on her rock and didn't noticed him coming in until he was nearly on top of her. Instincts she didn't know she had dictated her next move. She raised her head and rattled her tail.

"No need for that," he laughed. "You'll have a visitor soon."
"Visitor?" Sandra was puzzled.
"Your old boss came looking for you. We're opening up the gate between your enclosure and hers. You and she will have a lot to talk about, I imagine."

He walked to the back of the enclosure to a post with a square top. He pulled an object from under his arm and fitted it over the square top. A few turns of the wheel raised a metal door in the wall. Sandra look at the man with a puzzled look.

"Most of our enclosures are connected. Its boring being alone and the rest of our production staff are volunteers and like to spend their days together. Some day, when you're ready, we'll introduce you to them. Until then, you'll have to live with your ex-boss."

Sandra waited a few moments disgusted by all the work she'd done to get to see Doreen only to have them open up the wall the next day. She decided she'd best slither on over to Doreen or they might get suspicious. It only took a few minutes to find her on her sleep rock. Each enclosure, it seemed, was of an identical layout.

"They've opened the gate between our enclosures," Sandra stated sadly.

Doreen uncoiled herself and turned to face Sandra. Before Doreen could say a word though, Sandra got a look at her face. Scales covered her cheeks and neck. Her tongue flicked in and out as she tasted the air. But most startling were her eyes, her slitted red eyes.

"Doreen," Sandra's were wide with shock. "Your eyes!"
"Probably exactly like your own," Doreen shook her head slowly.
"Oh God."
"Hmm," was all Doreen could think to say.

Industrial Espionage I
Industrial Espionage III (The Power of the Press)