The 'Hunger Games' were a huge hit and became a recurring theme every Friday for the firm. Gayatri recognised the importance of keeping up morale since she certainly pushed her team hard to excel. An all-woman investment team was unheard of in the industry, and she wanted to prove a point to the world at large.
As the next quarterly review rolled in, the results provided a shot of encouragement. The funds had earned a return of 250%, as the women had gone above and beyond in researching new ideas. Ramesh's algo continued to beat them with returns of 300%, but at least the gap had narrowed. Gayatri decided that celebrations were in order and invited ideas at the end of the review meeting.
"How about a strategy off-site at some nice destination?" Ramya suggested.
"Great idea. I know the right place, where we will have complete privacy. That way, we can take the slaves along to keep us entertained," Gayatri responded.
Mallika, Gayatri's friend from college, had recently received a windfall from her ESOPs at a start-up, which had listed at very juicy valuation. She had decided to quit the corporate life and bought a small island off the coast of Goa. It had an exclusive resort with a private beach, great views all-round and lots of water sports and adventure activities. It was a huge hit with the rich-set, and was usually fully booked. But Gayatri was sure she could pull some strings with her old friend.
So, the venue was decided, dates blocked (although Gayatri had to sweeten the deal with the offer of exclusive use of Ramesh by Mallika to free up the dates!) and travel plans finalized. They'd charter a jet to Goa, then a luxury bus to the jetty, and a yacht ride would bring them to the island resort. The women were very excited about the trip, and for a change, even the slaves were looking forward to the trip. They knew they'd be ordered around as usual, but at least they'd be kissing feet with a gorgeous sunset view.
On the D-day, the women were picked up in individual limousines from their homes, each with her own personal slave to attend to her needs on the ride. Ramesh rode with Gayatri of course. As they arrived at the private airstrip, the women stepped out in style, dressed to party in stylish outfits, high heels, flashy accessories, none more flashier than the leash they held, with a naked slave crawling behind each of them like a dog following its mistress.
"There is not enough space for all the slaves in the jet. I will take Ramesh in, but we can maybe fit two more at max. The rest will be put in the dog-cages and will travel in the luggage hold," Gayatri announced.
"How do we decide which two are the lucky ones?" Lily asked.
"Fastest luggage loader wins. After all, ours bags aren't going to walk into the luggage hold by themselves," Gayatri said.
There was a mad scramble among the slaves as they practically leapt over each other to rush to the limousines to retrieve the bags. No one wanted to be caged in the luggage hold after all.
Bobby and Dinesh had loaded the maximum luggage and both eagerly crawled forward, sweating profusely, but glad they had avoided the fate of being stuffed into the luggage hold.
"Wait, I don't want
him
inside the jet. Throw him in a cage in the luggage hold," Ankita said pointing to Bobby.
"But I loaded the maximum luggage, Ma'am. This is so unfair..." Bobby began to protest as a hard slap landed on his face.
SLAP! SLAP! Ankita gave him two more tight ones for effect. "Speak one more word and I'll leave you naked on the tarmac. You should count yourself lucky that I am allowing you into the luggage hold," Ankita said, her voice stern.
"But, Ma'am, I did carry the maximum luggage..." Bobby turned and appealed to Gayatri. He clearly wasn't backing down.
Gayatri didn't reply. Instead, she merely flung her shoe from the top of the stairs where she was standing to the tarmac. Ramesh immediately crawled down the steps, fetched the shoe with his mouth and brought it back to her. She kicked it back down the stairs again. Ramesh went back, crawling all the way down and fetched it again, held it up in his mouth for her to wear it.