Prototype Ch. 12

While that was running she opened up her voicemail on her phone- sliding down to select one recorded twelve days prior. Briefly dividing her attention, she reached out and double clicked on the only file revealed in the search results that would be large enough to be helpful. It opened just as her Master's voice came to life in her ears. "... with the developments at the firm."

Normally, her Master was very careful with his commands and his triggers- she knew what he must have done to her. She had seen him do it to others since. But he had made at least one... oversight. She couldn't think of it as a mistake- then her training would force her to tell him. No, he must have known what he was doing when he left her the message. "... I must say, I am quite pleased."

If he didn't want her to do it, he would have told her to delete it. It didn't matter that it seemed to cut off. If he had meant her to delete it, he would have called back- left another one. Or told her to delete it later. A part of her knew she really should tell him. And she would- eventually. But then all thoughts of telling him melted from her mind as her hand pulled up her shirt and dove back down to her pussy.

"... been a very Good Girl, Anna... now be sure to-" The message cut off. Anna was too far gone to care. Absently, she reached out to the phone to start the message over- her eyes trying in vain to focus on the lines of text now displayed on her screen. She knew she was more than likely going to be punished for this eventually- her productivity had slumped precipitously in the past week. And she was not appropriately reinforcing the devotion and loyalty of others within The Order as she knew she should.

But it was just sooo fff-fucking good....

Her Master's voice started again as her fingers dove even deeper inside her. "...with the developments at the firm."

Eventually, she would get around to reading the file now displayed on her screen. Her eyes scanning down the list of fragments, searching for answers. Her Master might be willing to live with an assumption- or worse, a lie. But that wasn't good enough for her. She wanted to know. Had it ever been real? It was pointless, really. Almost akin to harem gossip. But it had been eluding her for months, and the answer was now at her fingertips. The data recovery team had scoured the hard drive from Rachel's laptop for deleted files- all under the disguise of routine discovery for a client's defense.

The file was named simply "Maggie". The contents were arranged in a simple if disordered list.

"I envy Rachel. I want to be more like her." "I want to be more open and uninhibited about sex, like Rachel is." "I trust Rachel. Her opinion is important to me." "If it weren't for Rachel, I could have lost Benjamin forever." "It's best to keep my training sessions with Rachel just between us girls." "I owe Rachel so much. I will never be able to repay her." "I over-reacted to Rachel and Desirae offering to fuck Benjamin." "I feel close to Rachel. I'm attracted to her." "Rachel is sexy. Being around her turns me on." "I want to be with Benjamin and Rachel. I just don't know if I can make it work."

Anna would continue reading through the file, scouring it for clues or even the proverbial 'smoking gun'. She had a pretty good idea what she would find- Rachel wasn't as tough a nut to crack as she pretended to be. Anna had known other women cut from the same cloth before. She knew what made them tick. By the time she got to the end of the file, she had her answer.

She was so focused on her task, she could almost be forgiven for not noticing the erratic flashing of the hard drive access light or the briefest flicker of the screen. The specially coded virus had been patiently waiting on Brandi's laptop without her knowledge for over a month. It had turned her machine into a loyal zombie- but, thanks to the IT security policy, it had been severed from the internet the very first day of her internship at the firm. But then Brandi had used it to make a few last minute adjustments to the deposition before printing it out. An opportunity the virus had used to spread- attaching itself to a handful of documents on the jump drive. The malicious bit of code now rejoiced as it sensed vulnerable prey, reaching out to the open web for the first time in weeks. Acting fast, it created a new user account on Anna's desktop, forcing elevated privileges to open a back-door to the Firm's intranet. Next, it split itself into multiple threads, attaching copies of itself to other documents on Anna's machine while phoning home to leave a quick note about where it was hiding in a very specific corner of the dark web.

Her desktop might not look any different, but beneath the surface it had been given a new purpose in life. It would be patient. But when its Master replied, it would move immediately to carry out whatever command was received. It had no other choice. After all, just like Anna, it was now literally programmed to obey.