Third of nine parts.
Copyright 2009 by F. Diriger
-5-
Judy
I was working on homework Saturday after lunch when the house phone rang. Mom answered, and after a pause I heard my phone-tune and picked up. It was Davey Carmody's Mom, asking if I was interested in doing part-time work. I'd been looking for an after-school job, so I asked what she wanted done.
"You'd be providing a kind of training to an individual who needs it badly!" She sounded kind of tightly wound as she answered, but after a pause she spoke more normally. "I'm afraid I can't tell you any more until we meet. It's, uh, delicate, and I'm going to require your Bonded word not to repeat anything I tell you to anyone else."
Wow! Mysterioso! I decided I'd like to hear the details at least, before I made a decision, so I immediately agreed to come over to discuss it.
I live close to the Carmody house, so I walked there in only a few minutes. Mrs Carmody was cordial when she answered the door, but seemed not to remember we'd met before when I'd come to visit Davey. We sat down at the kitchen table and she got right to business.
"I need to access your school records, Judy, if that's all right with you?"
I'd given transcripts to half a dozen potential employers by now, so I was used to it. I told the wallscreen to connect to my school, then touched the input to give authorization. A moment later my transcript came scrolling out. Mrs Carmody looked it over for a minute or so, then nodded, looking pleased.
"This is excellent, Judy. You have a very high TechIQ and Maturity Index. Maturity is very important for the job I want you to do! And I see that, um, you also have excellent conscientiousness ratings in your work." She looked up at me, and I did my best to appear modest. "I think you'll be perfect for the job I have, if you're willing to take it."
"Thank you, Mrs Carmody," I answered, but I was beginning to worry a little. When she'd said, "if you're willing to take it," she'd sounded like the job might be a bit repulsive in some way.
Mrs Carmody took out a slip of paper and read it aloud. "Will you give me your Bonded promise that you'll never repeat to anyone anything I tell you this afternoon, or anything we discuss, or any actions you take on the same subject at a later time, unless you have my permission?"
Then she handed me the slip, so I could read it. It made me feel like a real Corporate to be giving a bond like this. I put my hand on the Voluntatis plate she had on the table and started reading. I noticed the note was smart, since all the pronouns changed to the first person when I touched it to take the oath. When I finished I knew I wouldn't be able to repeat anything I was told without a legal override, which was pretty rare.
"OK, good." Mrs Carmody gave a small sigh. "Do you know anything about psychological agents? What they do?"
I thought for a minute. "I don't know much. They usually deal with problem kids, right? Like involuntaries, uh, involuntary discipline subjects. And the agents find some way to make them act more socially, and accept authority."
"That's very good," Mrs Carmody said, nodding, "Now how would you feel about becoming a trainee psychological agent?"
I still wasn't sure what she was asking.
"I guess -- I guess I could do that. Is that the job you called about? You want me to train to be a psychological agent?"
Mrs Carmody hesitated before answering. "Yes. You'd be administering a therapeutic treatment called 'Reward-Avoidance Training', and it would involve whipping the person you'd be in charge of as part of the training. Would you be able to do that, Judy? Whip someone as a punishment?"
I flushed. I hadn't known psychological agents did that kind of thing. I began to worry that Mrs Carmody somehow knew about my VirtWeb interest groups, although they were supposed to be utterly private. I spent a lot of time at the BAD SOMA site because I got turned on both by giving whippings and getting whipped myself when I found a cute boy partner I liked.
"I, ah, I could do that I guess, Mrs Carmody." My face was hot and my voice sounded strained, so I worried that even if she didn't know about my VirtWeb preferences, she might be able to guess from the way I was reacting. But she put an entirely different interpretation on my flushing face.
"Are you sure, Judy?" Mrs Carmody sounded concerned. "I couldn't help noticing you seemed embarrassed when I brought this up. If you think whipping someone -- hard! -- is something you wouldn't want to do, we can just drop this right now. I'm certainly not going to think less of you because you don't want to hurt another person."
I took a calming breath so I'd sound more rational when I spoke again.