LINDA'S NEW SCHOOL

BY JOREYMAY

[ part 5 ]

Power Play

Once they closed the door behind her, the headmistress turned to Linda. "Now, before there are any more unfortunate incidents, I believe we should adjourn to my office." She held up her hand. "I will show you the way."

Taking Linda firmly by the arm, she bustled down a short corridor to a room at the corner of the building. Releasing her, she unlocked and opened the door. She gestured her through the door, then followed her and locked the door behind them. "Have a seat. I think it would be best to have a bit of privacy for this discussion."

As she moved to the windows and drew the curtains, Linda noticed her eyes in the glass. Clearly, she was covertly watching Linda as she sat. She steadied herself on the edge of the desk, and lowered herself into one of the available chairs. She noticed that the chairs were low enough to keep her a bit off balance. She also noticed that Miss James' chair was slightly elevated, to allow her to look down on most visitors.

As she moved to stand behind her desk, she began. "The time has come for a frank discussion of your situation. Wouldn't you agree?"

"In that case, the chair trick is a little old fashioned, don't you think?" Linda shifted easily from her uncomfortable, off-balance posture in the chair. She leaned back slightly, and stretched her legs out in an almost indolent show of relaxation. In the symbolic battle of status, her move was risky but effective.

"Posture, girl. I know you were raised better than that, despite your recent history of disrespect for authority."

"Oh, I'm sorry," with a clear lack of remorse. "I thought we were here to be frank, not to play pointless games." One side of her mouth quirked upward in an almost-smile. "You have some things you want to say to me. Why don't you just sit down and say them?"

"I am still headmistress of this institution, and you will address me with due respect." She glowered down at the girl.

"You are in danger of losing that title and finding yourself in another role at a related institution. How long do you intend to try fencing for advantage before you get to the point?"

"This is the kind of disrespectful misbehaviour that brought you here. Do you understand that?" Her voice deepened slightly, and became more resonant. "And do you understand that you will remain here, under my authority, until I say otherwise? And that, should I choose to expel you, you will find yourself again before the judge and in all probability be remanded to a much more disagreeable institution?"

"Oh, I would doubt that." she replied casually. "There are some things the judge takes much more seriously than my petty misdeeds. Especially after the events of the last year or so." The woman did not respond visibly to the last part, so she pressed on. "Rape, for one. Abuse under colour of authority is also high on his list." She reacted to that, but only to the apparent reference to the day's events and the inferred threat. From the reactions chasing each other briefly across her face, Linda suspected she was taping the discussion.

Miss James' next gambit seemed to confirm it. "I thought it would come to that. Next, I suppose, you will be telling me your demands. Alright, what would it take to ensure your cooperation in keeping this scandal from damaging this school?" She sank to her chair, in a feigned show of defeat.

"You do realize that even asking that question is probably a felony, don't you?" Linda countered. Before the headmistress could respond, she pressed on. "I have to wonder just how serious you are about this. You act like you are not aware of half the trouble you are facing. For instance, what do you think those ambulance people do when they are not on duty?"

With a puzzled look, "I would not venture to guess. But you somehow know? And their hobbies are germane to this discussion how?"

"The ambulanceman was wearing some discreet but expensive jewellery, and his shoes were custom made. You don't get that kind of money manning an ambulance. He is almost certainly an independent source for one or more publications. Probably the tabloids. I can see the headlines now: 'Exclusive School Hunting Preserve for Sexual Predators!' Hardly the sort of thing your supporters will want to be associated with."

Her face paled a little. "And the other, the woman?"

"From what she said, and how she said it, she probably spends at least twenty hours a week as an advocate or counsellor for rape victims. Maybe beaten women as well." Actually, Linda knew this to be the case. "For you, she is the dangerous one. You might be able to buy off the man, with money or access to other profitable stories. But she is an idealist, with a solid history of acting on those ideals. If anything were to happen to me, she would be the one leading the charge on your gates. There is only one way you could possibly buy her off, and I seriously doubt you would be willing to pay the price."

"And just what would that price be?"

"You would have to fire the rapist, and proclaim that she was acting on her own authority."

"She has a name, girl."

"Not to me. She lost that when she attacked me. You would have to actively aid in her prosecution, and renounce any use of forced nudity or other humiliation by the teachers and staff of the school. Would you really be willing to throw her to the lions like that, just to save yourself and your school?"

"To save the school? Absolutely."

"And would you do the same to Matron?"

"Matron? Why?"

"She made the mistake of showing her hostility and abusiveness in front of the ambulance crew. In the eyes of a rape advocate, ordering a rape victim not to report the crime is almost as bad as the rape itself. And she would always wonder how many other rapes and abuses Matron had acted to cover up. Of course, you could handle it a little more gently, announcing her resignation or retirement and then distancing yourself and the school from her. So, would you be willing to throw Matron to the lions as well?"

"If I thought it was necessary to do so to save the school, yes. I would. Now let me ask you something: even if the story were to get out, what makes you think anyone would take it seriously?"

"The ambulance crew already do. And when her hands are examined, they will find traces of my skin, my very tender skin," She shifted a bit in the chair, "and my blood under some of her nails. And probably some threads from my panties. But as a practical matter, they wouldn't have to. Just a hint of it would be a complete disaster for one of your more prominent supporters. Well, formerly prominent. And that, in turn, would be very bad for your other supporters and the school."

"What on Earth are you talking about, child?"

"I'm sure you know who I mean. Are you trying to tell me that you don't know why he suddenly left that conference and announced his immediate retirement from public life? And why he then ceased his overt support for this school?"

"Yes, I am saying that I do not know those reasons. And I suppose you do?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. He was a serial rapist, who drove at least one of his victims to suicide. He kept souvenirs of his victims. Those souvenirs were found while he was at that conference, and the forensics people tied them to several unsolved rapes. It was not necessarily enough to convict him in court, but the trial would have ruined him and the politically powerful people he associated with. They used their influence to keep it out of the courts, with several conditions. He resigned, and renounced public life. His victims, or their families, were compensated. He is undergoing intensive psychotherapy. And he must avoid any possibility of any related scandal. There are those who would literally kill him to avoid that last bit."

"And you know all this how?"

"One of his attacks was seen. A group of people were hiding in the alley he chose. I was one of them. I was the only one who recognized him, in fact."

"Did you report it?"

"Yes, but very quietly. I knew he had the money and power to buy his way out of it, and to possibly destroy my parents if he chose. The policemen I spoke with agreed that the case would have been weak at best, and helped me hide my involvement." She didn't feel the need to mention that one of them was the brother of one of her friends. "I didn't even tell my parents. When he fell, the police quietly let me know some of the details. When his associates learned of my role, and my discretion, my parents got certain advantageous business opportunities without knowing why. All I got was a little peace of mind. Very little."

The silence seem to stretch for a lifetime. Finally, "Very well. The situation is more serious than I had imagined, and you have it within your power to cause this school serious harm. What do you want?"

"For starters, some honest answers. It is perfectly clear that you deliberately engineered my humiliating experiences in the changing room and Matron's office, including that Victorian era physical exam..." Miss James gathered herself, as though she was going to object. Linda cut her off. "Please don't try to insult my intelligence. The only reason any girl would fall for that little pantomime of yours would be that she was already off balance from her trip here and was not thinking clearly. Nobody with a brain in her head would doubt that you knew my anticipated arrival time before I even left the court. Nor would anyone of your position and experience fail to know that class schedule, or to have the necessary clothes ready. And the attack rang false as well. My underclothes were quite ordinary and modest by current standards. But to hear her talk, you would have thought I was wearing a thong and a black lace peekaboo bra. And the whole scene didn't surprise any of the other girls. No, you had to have deliberately engineered the whole thing."

"And why would I do that?"

"And here I thought you were going to be honest. How disappointing. Clearly, you did so as a demonstration of the power of the teachers, as well as a way to further disorient, humiliate, and demoralize your newest victim. Pardon me, student. And it probably works, most of the time. But my first question, and you would do well to answer it honestly, is this: Was the rape attempt part of the plan, or was she adding to the script?"

"I am still not convinced there was a rape attempt. The normal pattern would have been to goad you into the confrontation, strip you, and then spank you in front of the other girls. I was not able to ask her, but I suspect that she was preparing to spank you when something shifted unexpectedly. Either way, rape was not any part of the 'script' as you choose to call it."

"And the whole business of sending the girl through the hall naked, and Matron's barbaric so-called physical?"

"Some of it is a real physical, as required by law. The rest, as you surmised, is to increase her humiliation and disorientation."

"What do you do with the girls it doesn't break?"

"That depends. Most are put into special groups and subjected to more experiences until they do break. Some reason is found to send the others back as unsuitable. I do not track what happens to them after that."

"And they don't tell anybody about your perverse little games?"

"They do or they do not. Most do not. They are aware that we have friends in high places. If they do, it merely sounds like the rantings of a spoiled child who is trying to blame us for her problems."

"So nobody believes them?"

"Only the people who already know. And they help us keep our proper image."

"And so you keep on turning out mixed batches of dispirited little sheep, sexual sadists with protective colouring, and broken toys."

She bristled at that, but thought better of it. "Perhaps. But we also take rebellious, unmotivated, disrespectful academic failures and create well behaved, academically superior students." The passion was rising in her voice. "If not for this school, many of those girls would have been dead, or in prison, or worse."

Linda was not impressed. "So you are saying there is something about this place that is worth saving." She shook her head. "I'll have to see that for myself. I haven't seen any signs of that so far."

"You are not in a position to judge. You have not attended a single class. You have not seen the older girls study. Or spoken with them. And you disposed of the only teacher you met."

"The rapist? If I had the power you seem to think, I would have killed her and called it self defence. I had her there, alone. Even I have seen enough television and taken enough first aid to know that I could have pushed her broken ribs through her lungs and maybe even her heart. She would have been dead before the ambulance could get here. No, I had the chance to dispose of her. I didn't. I sent for help, and did what I could to make her comfortable. She disposed of herself."

"I will reserve judgement on that." Her tone softened, to a semblance of reason. "So what happens now, child? Will you destroy this place, without having seen any of the positive? And what of the other girls? What do you suppose will happen to them? Some sort of fairy tale happy ending? No, you are too old, too intelligent for that. Or do you have that planned, as well?"

"Yeah, right. I somehow have this large organization of people in key positions, monitoring your phone lines and computers, using super spy gadgets to watch and record your every move, and just waiting for my signal to swoop down on this place. Sure I do. I am a fifteen year old girl who just survived a rape attempt in the first half hour I was here. I am figuring this out as I go along. But you are right about one thing. It is time to deal with a few things. If I don't call my parents before they get the reports, there will be hell to pay. They will take steps to cover themselves, and they won't care what happens to you or to the other girls. You know who they are, and more importantly, what they are."

She paused a moment to let it sink in. Then, "But first, I need some more specific tokens of good faith from you. I will need complete access to this place and the grounds. That means a set of keys. The ones Matron took from the rapist should do fine. More immediately, I need access to your monitoring facility."

"What are you talking about, child?"

"Since I arrived, I have seen at least three security cameras and a large number of microphones. There is a room here which allows one or more people to monitor those things. It probably also records them. I need access to that place right now. I need to be able to assure my parents that I have secured all such records of my day here, before someone thinks to erase them and claim they do not exist. It is only a matter of time before the police return with a warrant for them. You can keep the recording you have been making of our conversation here." She stood. "We should go now. If you don't have my keys here, we can pick them up after we visit that facility."

The headmistress looked at her for a moment. With a sigh, she pulled herself to her feet and moved to the door. She methodically unlocked and opened the door, followed Linda through it, then closed and locked it again. With Linda following close behind, she moved deliberately down the hall. As they ascended a rear staircase, Linda lost all doubt that she was stalling. She couldn't help the brief flicker of a smile at the thought. They were the off balance ones now. That recording might have helped them refute her charges if they had preserved it.

As they approached a door with signs which indicated a utility cupboard, she thought she heard a humming noise. It stopped just before they reached the door. Miss James carefully unlocked and opened the door. They stepped inside, facing a wall-sized panel covered with pegs and wires. She turned on a light, then closed the door behind them. The panel opened, revealing a room with several television-like monitors, and a variety of electronic equipment. With a glance, Linda decided that the equipment was not the newest or best, but probably more than adequate. They seemed to have both videotape and disk drives for their recording. She also noticed the high powered server computers in the corner. While that made her think of streaming video and audio, she decided against mentioning that suspicion just yet. The equipment in there might be generating too much interference for her poor little bug, anyway.

She told the woman at the controls to teach her how to operate the controls. Miss James nodded her agreement, and they went through the video, audio, and recording controls. She was a quick learner, and very little of it was really new to her. She also noticed that the technician made no mention of the computers. Nor did she mention the feed to Miss James' office. Linda flipped through the the feeds, noting the locations of some of the cameras.

She then demanded the recordings of the attack. As predicted, the technician claimed there were no such recordings. She claimed that a hardware failure had prevented it, and indicated a drive set tagged for repair. She offered to let Linda pop the tape and watch it from another drive. She went through the motions, knowing that she would find nothing.

She gave up and they left, returning to the headmistress' office. She remained standing as Miss James went around her desk, then "Now I will need the keys, and then we both have rather urgent phone calls to make."

The headmistress paused a moment, then shook her head and pulled a ring of keys from her desk and handed them to Linda. "There is a conference room next door. You may use the telephone there. As you correctly pointed out, I have some rather urgent business myself. Press 9 to get the trunk." With that, she sank in her chair, lifted the handset, and looked pointedly at the door.

Linda turned and left. She let herself into the conference room with only a little fumbling to find the right key. She locked the door behind herself, then sat and made her calls.

The first was to her father. She warned him the phone was not secure, told him about the rape and injuries, and mentioned that he should be receiving two sets of relevant documents any time now. Then she mentioned that the whole thing was quite volatile and could have a significant impact on some very prominent people, and suggested he get there as soon as he had the documents. She asked him to bring his confidential briefcase, a client cell, and her blue bunny and pink bear. She said they were her equivalents of the briefcase. She also suggested he have someone else drive, so he could study the documents.

Then her mother. She repeated the warning and description. She then told her that the situation could become another Harriman, referring to a time her mother engineered the takeover and restructuring of a company that was facing ruin due to an imminent scandal. She suggested that she have someone bring her as soon as she had the information she needed.

While she was talking on the phone, she dropped her free hand to her lap, dug a small object from her pocket, and stuck it to the underside of the table.

After the call, she returned to the door of Miss James' office and knocked, thinking the politeness would confuse her more. She waited until she heard "Enter," and went in. The headmistress was just finishing a call.

"Yes. I see. Thank you for your help in this matter. Yes. Goodbye." She put the handset down and looked up at Linda. "It would seem that you and that ambulancewoman were largely correct. Now, I have more calls to make. Here is the packet you would have received at the end of your classes today. It has your schedule, room assignment, and orientation materials. For obvious reasons, it stresses rules and discipline. You should find the information useful. Now please go and let me do my job."

"You should be receiving calls from one or both of my parents soon. And they will arrive here before the day is over. Try not to underestimate them. Even with your backers, either of them could eat this place for tea. Both, together, are much more formidable. Camera girl should have no trouble finding me when they come." The older woman bristled at the impertinent description, but said nothing as Linda left.

Linda opened the packet and looked at the schedule. She noticed that her group would be getting out of their last class of the day soon, and headed for that classroom. She had won the opening skirmishes, but she knew she was a long way yet from winning the war.