Chapter 1 - Kate's offer

It was a strange ambition for an eighteen year old, taking out a loan to begin rearing his own pigs; but it was all Steve had even wanted to do. He grew up on his family's farm, not too far away, but had now amassed his own larger complex, dedicated to the production of livestock, thanks to his own hard work and determination.

Steve found it fascinating, watching his pigs grow and fatten into huge, meaty mountains of pure profit. There really was a lot of money to be made in pig farming, if you knew what you were doing. Now in his late 20s, Steve was one of the biggest producers of pigs in the state. He had a fine, muscular body from all of his hard work and plenty of spare cash to spend as he liked. He had always been handsome; at 6'8, he towered over most men, with a pretty scruff of dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. People in the small town nearby kept on telling him he needed to settle down and find a good wife, but Steve was apathetic about that. Plus, he never really had much luck getting dates; he was handsome and built, but the stink and dirt of the pigs seemed to cling to him no matter how hard he scrubbed.

Today was going to be an interesting day. Steve had always tried to stay one-step ahead of the game and had invited a young start-up company up to his farm to chat about a new type of pig-feed they had been developing. Steve had read about the success of it in the labs, but now they wanted to see how well it worked on a real-life, everyday farm, and Steve wanted to make sure that it was his farm that they would be using.

A slick, dark-haired sales lady stepped out of her sports car and strode towards the farm house. She was young, slim and beautiful, wearing a pristine pin-stripe power suit and looked like she had never been on a farm in her life. Steve had heard her coming and was already standing on his porch to greet her. He puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips as he waited, but the sales lady hardly seemed as intimidated by his size as most people, holding out her hand and shaking his hand every bit as firmly as Steve shook hers.

"Nice to meet you," the lady said. "My name is Kate. I represent the research facility you've been in contact with. We've been looking at your set-up here and we're very interested in running our trial using some of your livestock," she nodded, looking around like she owned the place.

"And it would all be free?" Steve chipped in quickly, always thinking about his profits.

"Yeah, all free. A good six months' supply of pig feed, with regular visits from me to check on how they're doing."

Steve nodded. It was a good deal. He rolled up his sleeves and took Kate on a tour of his farm. It was a hot summer's day and the mud had all dried up; otherwise Steve would have relished getting Kate's pretty suit nice and muddy! The two chatted and Steve had to admit that Kate really did know her stuff when it came to pigs. Despite looking like she had never been on a farm, she certainly knew what she was talking about and seemed just as fascinated by the business as Steve was. "It's amazing how much fat you can put on them isn't it?" Kate asked, grinning.

"Oh yeah, you should have seen the size of some of the ones I've grown in the past..." boasted Steve, feeling like he had found a kindred spirit.

They chatted for hours as they walked around, then went back to the house to settle the finer details. Steve signed on the dotted line, agreed to make the provisions that would be required and watched as Kate drove off down the dirt track.