Nefarious Schemes and Long-term Plans
Four weeks later, the Matriarch was still fuming.
The Festival had gone well, the people were happy and her position was once more secure. But she wanted that damned source of Triple-A Perfect and she wanted it NOW!
"Mistress, your Chief of Security is here," Madge announced from the doorway.
"Send her in," the Matriarch instructed.
"She's got two 'guests' with her," Madge added.
"Fine. Send them in, too," the Matriarch snapped.
Madge stepped out of the way and the Chief walked in, followed by two other women. When the three got to the Matriarch's desk, they stopped.
"What have we got, Chief?" she asked, then looked up.
"Mistress, I would like to introduce Mistress Tara, a Rancher, and Mistress Deanne, a Procurer. They have agreed to aid in our investigation, with the utmost secrecy, of course."
"Where is your ranch, Tara?" the Matriarch asked, surveying the woman. Mid-to-late forties, weathered, seemed familiar.
"Out near Bigglesby, Mistress," Tara told her. "Same as Morena's."
"And you?" she turned to Deanne. "Where are you from?"
"Vern's Dale, Mistress. On the edge of the Wilderlands."
"Where the best hunting is, apparently. Okay, so what have you been told?"
"Not much, Mistress," Tara spoke up. "Except that recently some Triple-A Perfect product has appeared and in quantity, and you want to know where the source is. You suspect it has something to do with Morena's ranch."
"That's a pretty good summation," the Matriarch agreed. "You missed the part about the research having nothing to do with me."
"Of course, Mistress," Tara agreed. "That would always be the case."
"Here is what I am offering. I will advance each of you 1,000 for expenses. I will pay an additional 5,000 for any solid information about Morena's source of Triple-A+ product. Solid means being able to give me a location, whether it is in her stables, cooperating with another Rancher, some new source of stock - and if so, who the Procurer is - and so forth. I will pay an additional 5,000 for detailed information, such as pictures, or the names of the donors, or delivery routes if she is getting it from someone else. That is a total of 11,000 for a very successful mission. Each."
"I want to know enough about her operation or supply to be able to seize the specific assets and charge her with the crime of treason, specifically interfering with the life, health and well-being of our citizens by manipulating government resources to do so. "
"Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am, you do," Tara answered.
"Yes, Mistress, quite clear," Deanne affirmed.
"Then my Chief here will get you your advance and this is the last you will contact me unless she determines I need to meet with you. This is completely off the books and everything goes through my Chief of Security. Is that understood, as well?"
"Yes, ma'am," they both agreed.
"Then be on your way," the Matriarch told them with finality and looked down at the report she had been reading.
The two women quietly followed the Chief out the door.
* * * * * * * * * *
"I take it you do not value your life..." the Matriarch commented, looking at the woman before her. They were alone in the Matriarch's private study. She did not trust this conversation to her office.
"I value my life highly, Mistress," the woman responded in a slightly surprised and fearful voice.
"Then how was Mistress Morena able to supply over 5,000 milliliters of high-grade semen for the Festival?" the Matriarch demanded.
"You are the head of the Micropathology Department at my University and you promised me that you could develop an immunogen which would render Morena's entire stock tainted to sterile inside of six months. My Bureau of Medical Practices has been salting her food supply with your creation for over a year now, and she is still capable of producing high-quality semen, in quantity. So either they're fucking up, or your immunogen doesn't work."
"Fucking with me will get you the death penalty," the Matriarch reminded the woman.
"Mistress, I assure you it works," the woman protested. "It has worked in every test we've run on it. And there have been reports of Mistress Morena having to turn large numbers of her stock out to Pasture. Those specimens we've managed to recover alive for testing have shown markedly decreased quality, some almost sterile. She is certainly not waiting for them to become sterile before getting rid of them."
"The bigger questions are, Mistress, how is she replacing them, and how are the replacements avoiding ingesting the immunogen?"
The Matriarch thought about this for several moments, then instructed the woman, "you may go. Outside the door, you will find a servant to show you the way out. Have her send in my Chamberlain."
"Yes, Mistress," the woman replied quietly, attempting a curtsey.
She left, to be replaced by Madge.
"I need Gordon, from the BMP. Bring him here under the strictest confidentiality and security."
"Yes, Mistress," Madge acknowledged and left to do exactly that.
Somehow, Morena is getting around my sabotage,
she thought.
I've got to figure out how she's doing it, and adjust. That woman needs to fail before next year's Festival. She has become way too popular. Hell, some reports have her more popular than me! And that, I will not stand for...
* * * * * * * * * *
"We're going to need a plan to distract her, so I can snoop," Deanne was telling Tara. "I've been in her stables and know what to look for. And I can avoid Rodriguez - unless we can get him out of the stables as well. Her stock won't dare mention seeing me, if they do, because they'd be afraid of ending up dead."
"Also, I'll have to figure out a way into her basement. Rumor is, she keeps long term product storage and records down there. I'll need something I can scan documents and such with... and that doesn't come cheap."
"We have a portable document scanner at our ranch," Tara told the Procurer. "You can borrow it. Break it and you've bought it. I can probably drum up some pretense to visit Morena and get her engaged in a conversation that will draw Stella in, too. Not sure about Rodriguez, unless I can figure out a way to get her to have him bring me one of her herd for inspection. This will be tricky. Morena won't be easy to fool."