Chapter One

Dr. Helen Kraft pressed the button on her remote to advance the slide. The projector displayed a cross-section of the human brain on the wall. A tiny silver chip appeared on the screen next to a standard dime for scale. She adjusted her glasses and looked at the five members of the Arizona State Corrections Board seated across the table.

Helen stood tall in her tailored gray pencil skirt and conservative white blouse, the professional attire modestly framing her slim figure and C-cup breasts. At thirty-two, she was a recognized genius in the field of neuroscience. She kept her long brunette hair pulled back in a strict bun and wore minimal makeup, relying on her intellect to command attention rather than her appearance. Her green eyes scanned the room, assessing the men and women who held the fate of her project in their hands.

“This is the prototype,” Helen said, walking toward the front of the table. “It targets the neural pathways responsible for aggression and impulsive violence. It bridges the gap between intention and action, redirecting volatile impulses.”

Chairman Brunswick leaned back in his leather chair and crossed his arms. He was an older man with graying temples and a skeptical expression.

“You’re asking us to put a computer inside the heads of our inmates,” Brunswick said. “Are you crazy?”

“I’m offering you a solution to a broken system,” Helen replied. “Arizona has one of the highest recidivism rates in the country. You spend millions of taxpayer dollars trying to rehabilitate violent offenders, and the traditional methods fail. This implant overrides the choice to commit violence. It makes convicts docile. It allows them to function as constructive members of society.”

Jack Brunswick scoffed and shook his head. “You make it sound like you’re prescribing aspirin. You’re talking about taking an adult male and stripping away his basic human functions. Political activists will have a field day with this.”

“We’re not removing his basic human functions,” Helen corrected. “Just the unconstructive ones. The subject will retain his memories, his personality, and his cognitive skills. He just loses the ability to act on malice.”

“I don’t agree,” Director Hayes interjected. She sat to the right of Brunswick and tapped a plastic pen against her notepad. “You want to strip away their free will.”

“I want to strip away their capacity to hurt people,” Helen countered, keeping her posture rigid. “Free will is a philosophical debate. I am a scientist. We have offenders sitting in maximum security who will never see the outside world because they cannot control their impulses. This chip offers them a chance at a functional life.”

“At the cost of their autonomy,” Hayes said.

“They lost their autonomy the moment a judge sentenced them,” Helen stated. “We dictate when they eat, when they sleep, and when they exercise. The state already controls their physical environment. I’m proposing we manage their neurological environment. The results are quantifiable.”

Brunswick flipped through the printed report folder in front of him. He stopped on a page filled with charts and graphs.

“You’ve not gone further than animal testing,” Brunswick noted. “You have no idea how this chip will react to the far more complex human brains. Our inmates are not guinea pigs.”

“The animal trials yielded terrific results,” Helen said. “The primate subjects transitioned from baseline hostility to compliance in minutes. They followed basic commands without resistance.”

“Monkeys aren’t men,” Brunswick replied. “And there is a difference between dampening hostile tendencies and making them fully compliant with instructions.”

Helen bristled at his dismissal. She planted her hands flat on the polished conference table and leaned forward. “The transition to a human subject is the logical next step, and the core biology translates perfectly without any convoluted side effects. Give me five inmates, give me the worst cases you have, and I will show you results that will change the penal system overnight.”

Shaking her head, Director Hayes tossed her pen onto her notepad. “We cannot authorize this. You’re asking the state of Arizona to supply human subjects for an untested device.”

“It isn’t untested,” she argued, struggling to keep the mounting frustration out of her voice. “We ran hundreds of simulations alongside the live primate tests, and the subjects showed zero adverse side effects while their cognitive functions remained intact. The only difference was their sudden willingness to obey.”

“This is still too risky, Doctor,” Brunswick countered, tapping a thick finger against the closed folder. “You have no human data. We cannot sign off on an experimental implant without a documented human trial showing safety and efficacy.”

A familiar flare of anger ignited in Helen’s chest as she stared at the panel of bureaucrats standing in the way of her life’s work. “You want human data, but you refuse to give me the subjects I need to gather that data. How am I supposed to prove the chip works on humans if you block the trial?”

“That isn’t our concern,” the chairman replied smoothly. “Our mandate is the welfare and legal management of the state’s prison population, not providing for private medical trials. You need iron-clad human trial data before you ever set foot inside a state penitentiary. Do you understand?”

“Do you have any idea what paid clinical volunteers cost?” she asked, her voice tight with exasperated disbelief. “I run a small biomedical startup, not a pharmaceutical conglomerate. I have a working prototype that solves your biggest problems, yet you sit here stonewalling me over red tape.”

“We are adhering to the law, Doctor Kraft,” Hayes noted, crossing her arms. “You cannot bypass ethical standards just because you believe your invention is a miracle cure.”

“It is a cure,” Helen shot back, making no effort to hide her disdain for their short-sightedness. “I figured out how to override violent intent, and you sit here managing a failing system while flinching at the actual solution.”

A third board member at the far end of the table cleared his throat. “Doctor Kraft, we recognize the crisis in our corrections system, but we are a government body subject to public oversight. If we allow a private researcher to put experimental tech into our inmates without a foundation of human testing, the public backlash would dismantle this board. I am sure your invention is groundbreaking, but we can’t risk anything going wrong.”

Helen straightened her posture, refusing to back down. “It’s a simple injection at the base of the neck. The results will start to show in less than a minute.”

“It still looks like mind control,” the older man replied with a weary sigh. “That is exactly how the press will frame it. We need evidence from willing, paid participants who underwent the procedure in a clinical setting with informed consent. Even if the inmates give their consent, the press will frame it as consent under duress.”

Staring at the row of unyielding faces, Helen wanted to scream. They lacked the vision to see the potential of her work, but she realized arguing further would be a waste of breath.

“Fine,” she spat out, turning on her heel to stride back to the projector.

She snatched the remote off the table and clicked the machine off, grabbing her briefcase to shove her documents inside without bothering to organize them.

“We appreciate your time, Doctor,” Hayes offered with a dismissive smile.

“Save it,” Helen retorted as she snapped the briefcase shut.

Pushing the door open, she stepped out into the hallway and let the solid wood click shut behind her, cutting off the low murmur of the board members. She marched down the corridor with angry strides, her mind racing. Without human results, the board would not authorize inmate testing, leaving her project dead in the water. Gripping the handle of her briefcase, she silently vowed to find another way to get the data she needed. She wouldn’t let a panel of small-minded bureaucrats destroy her breakthrough discovery. Next time she was here, she wouldn’t be taking no for an answer.

❖

The glass doors of Kraft Medical slid open, and Helen marched past the reception desk without offering her usual greeting. The biomedical startup occupied a modest single-story building on the outskirts of Phoenix. Through the interior windows, a handful of technicians and junior scientists moved around the main floor, working on their own research projects. Some of those projects were bearing fruit, but they were not going to keep the company afloat forever. Her father had financed the entire operation with his hedge fund wealth before he passed away two years ago, and that initial capital was draining fast. She needed a breakthrough to secure new streams of income before she started accumulating debt that could destroy everything.

Reaching her private office at the end of the hall, she pushed the door open. Dropping her briefcase onto the desk, she let out a long sigh and slumped into her chair. She rubbed her temples, trying to massage away the tension headache building behind her eyes.

“That bad?” a familiar voice asked from the doorway.

The neuroscientist looked up and found Leo Brennan leaning against the doorframe. At thirty years old, Leo possessed a scrawny build and a wiry goatee that framed his mouth. His shaggy black hair looked like it hadn’t seen a comb all week. He held two mugs of coffee, offering one to her with a sympathetic smile.

“They killed it,” the brunette answered, accepting the mug as he stepped into the office. “I knew Brunswick was a coward, but the bastards didn’t even entertain the idea.”

Leo pulled up a visitor chair and sat across from her. He placed his own mug on the edge of the desk, his brown eyes studying her face with an intensity she usually brushed off as professional concern. They had grown up in the same neighborhood in Phoenix, surviving high school and college side by side. When Helen founded the startup, bringing Leo on as her lead assistant was a natural choice. He understood her research methods and anticipated her needs, making himself an indispensable part of her daily life. She viewed him as a trusted equal and a reliable friend.

She knew the man had deeper feelings for her. He made that known in college. However, she sharply shut the nerdy man down. Other than one other drunken attempt a couple of years ago, Leo had respected her firm rejection and acted as though it didn’t bother him.

“Did they give a reason, or did they just shut you down?” the assistant asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“They want human data,” Helen explained, taking a sip of the bitter coffee. “They refused to let us near one of their sites without documented trials from paid volunteers. I tried to explain that the animal testing yielded the best results we could have hoped for, but they wouldn’t budge. They want human-based results without giving me the humans to test on.”

“I mean, we knew they’d play it safe,” the shaggy-haired man pointed out, keeping his tone casual. “Messing with people’s brains is a tough sell for a bunch of politicians.”

“It overrides violent impulses,” she snapped back, directing her anger at the situation rather than her colleague. “I mapped the exact neural pathways responsible for aggression. The chip just stops them from acting on it. It works, Leo. We both know it works.”

“You don’t have to convince me,” Leo said, his voice remaining steady. “I’ve seen the data, and I trust your science. But the corrections board doesn’t care about our primate studies. If they want human volunteers, we have to find a way to pay for a clinical phase.”

Helen let out a bitter laugh, gesturing toward the interior windows of her office to encompass the bustling technicians outside.

“Pay for it with what?” she asked. “We don’t have the budget for a human trial. Paid clinical subjects cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the insurance premiums. My dad’s money is running dry. If we don’t start bringing in real cash soon, Kraft Medical will go under. I put everything into the prototype because it was supposed to be our flagship product.”

“We could pitch other projects to some investors,” Leo suggested. “The cellular regeneration study is showing some promise. We drum up some capital, and then we circle back to the neural implant next year.”

“We can’t wait until next year,” the scientist insisted as she gripped her coffee mug. “The implant is ready right now, and it is a generational breakthrough. If I put it on a shelf, some massive pharmaceutical company will steal the idea and beat us to the patent. I won’t let that happen.”

Leo watched her with quiet admiration, drawn to her drive and the way she refused to accept defeat, even when the odds stacked up against her. He knew she had rejected his romantic advances in the past, but he remained steadfast by her side, waiting for an opportunity to prove his worth to her.

“Then we need a workaround,” the assistant offered, leaning forward in his chair. “If we can’t afford a trial, we have to think outside the box.”

“Like what?” Helen asked rhetorically, leaning back and staring at the ceiling tiles. “I need a willing participant to sit in that chair and let me stick an experimental chip into their neck. Who the hell is going to do that without the offer of a boatload of cash?”

“Maybe we don’t need a pile of cash,” Leo whispered.

The scientist lowered her gaze and frowned at him in confusion. “What is that supposed to mean? Do you know a billionaire looking to throw money away?”

“I’m just saying we should look at all our options,” Leo replied with a reassuring smile. “We hit walls before, and you always figure a way over them. You’ll figure this out.”

“I appreciate the blind faith, but brains don’t print money,” the brunette said, rubbing her eyes to ease her headache. “I need a test subject, and I have no way to get one. The project is paralyzed.”

Leo stood up and grabbed his coffee mug. “Let’s get out of here for a bit. You have been spinning your wheels all day, and sitting in this office is only going to drive you crazy. Let’s head down to the bar on Fourth Street and grab a drink. We can strategize after you decompress.”

Helen glanced at her cluttered desk, considering staying late to crunch numbers, but she knew Leo was right. She needed to decompress and clear her mind if they were going to come up with a solution. She had always rejected his offer of a drink, not wanting him to get the wrong idea, but this time, she’d surprise him.

“Fine,” Helen agreed, pushing her chair back and grabbing her purse from the bottom drawer. “But I am not in a celebratory mood. You’re buying.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Leo chuckled. He managed to mask his surprise at her unexpected acceptance and stepped back to hold the office door open for her.

Helen slung her purse over her shoulder and stepped out into the hallway. She failed to notice the lingering gaze he cast over her figure as she walked past him. Her mind remained consumed by the disastrous rejection at the state capitol and the threat of bankruptcy. She treated her assistant as a sounding board and a loyal friend, blind to the obsession festering beneath his supportive exterior.

“We can take my car,” Leo offered, falling into step beside her. “I parked near the front.”

Helen nodded, and they walked out through the glass doors together, leaving the small laboratory complex behind. The lead scientist braced herself for the dry desert heat, determined to figure out a way to save her life’s work. Leo walked beside her with a subtle smile, wondering what he could do to finally make his boss notice him.

❖

“I’m just saying,” Leo began, tapping his index finger against the wooden table. “You have sixteen employees, and any one of them could volunteer for free.”

Leo had driven them from their workplace on the outskirts of Phoenix down to Fourth Street. Cocktail Jacks was a standard dive bar situated in the downtown district, offering cheap drinks and a place to sit without shouting over loud music. Helen and her assistant occupied a booth in the back corner. They were already two drinks into the evening, with a pair of empty glasses pushed to the edge of the table. Helen nursed a fresh vodka martini, while Leo held a tumbler of bourbon.

“I can’t just ask one of our people to take a needle to the neck,” Helen said, taking a sip of her martini. “If I pressure an employee into a medical trial, I’d be strung up by the media if it got out.”

“It isn’t pressure if they offer,” Leo countered. “Everyone at the lab knows the stakes. They know if we go under, they lose their jobs. Someone might step up. What about Sarah? She complains about her student loans every day. We could offer to pay off her debt.”

“Do you have any idea how much those student loans will cost us? I’m not doing that,” Helen pointed out, setting her glass down on a cardboard coaster. “Besides, what happens when a reporter asks her why she agreed to it? Suddenly, we are bribing our staff to trial an untested chip.”

“Or Marcus,” Leo continued, unfazed by her rejection. “He’s always up for taking a risk...”

“No!” the scientist bit back. Her patience had been well and truly tested. “It’s too risky, Leo. I love my team, but they have too many contacts with big pharma, and I don’t know who to trust.”

“We’re running out of ideas here. We could always partner with a bigger firm,” the shaggy-haired man suggested. “We take the prototype to one of the major pharmaceutical companies. We let them pay for the clinical phase. They have the budget for independent oversight, legal protection, and insurance.”

“If we bring this to a major firm, they will swallow us whole,” Helen said, her tone dripping with disdain. “I know how those corporate boards operate. They will tie us up in litigation, bury the patent under a dozen shell companies, and push me out of my own project. I’m not prepared to let that happen.”

“I get it,” Leo said, watching the frustration tightening the corners of her mouth. “You built Kraft Medical from the ground up. You don’t want to watch a bunch of suits tear it apart for spare parts.”

“Exactly,” Helen said. “They don’t care about the good it can do. They just want to make money. I’d rather see the company go bankrupt than hand my research over to a pharmaceutical giant.”

“We aren’t going bankrupt,” Leo assured her.

He reached across the small table, resting his hand over hers and brushing his thumb against her knuckles.

Helen stopped. She looked down at his fingers covering her hand, then raised a sharp eyebrow. She pulled her hand back and slid it off the table, letting it rest in her lap.

“Leo, we’ve been over this,” she warned, keeping her tone flat. She didn’t want to rehash her previous rejections in a dive bar after the day she’d had.

A flush of red crept up the thirty-year-old’s neck. He quickly retreated to his side of the booth and picked up his tumbler.

“N-no, it wasn’t like that,” he lied, offering a tight smile to mask the embarrassment. “I’m just trying to help. I think I have a solution.”

“A solution?” Helen asked cautiously.

“I’ll do it,” Leo said. He set his whiskey down and looked her in the eyes. “I’ll volunteer. I can take the chip.”

Helen paused with her own glass halfway to her lips. She stared at him, waiting for a punchline that didn’t come. She set the drink back onto the coaster. “Don’t be stupid,” she said.

“I’m serious,” the scrawny man insisted, leaning forward. “I’ve worked with you on this. Who better to test it out than someone in your inner circle?”

“You’re my lead assistant,” she countered. “You belong on the other side of the glass. I need your expertise.”

“You need a human subject,” Leo argued. “I’m volunteering right here.”

“I can’t give you the injection and monitor your vitals on the screen at the same time,” Helen said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I need you at the console. If something goes sideways, I need you watching.”

“Please, it’s all automated these days anyway,” Leo replied dismissively, refusing to back down. “If anything goes wrong, you’ll definitely hear about it.”

“I need someone watching the feed,” she maintained.

“Why?” Leo challenged, tilting his head. “You spent all afternoon telling the state board the prototype is ready to go. You said the biology translates perfectly. If you are sure the chip works, nothing will go wrong. You just administer the injection and let the hardware do its job.”

Helen opened her mouth to argue, but the words caught in her throat. She stared across the table; he was using her own arguments against her. She trusted her science. The animal trials proved the efficacy of the implant. Her hesitation was just a defense mechanism to avoid the prospect of being wrong.

She knew that using her own assistant entered a massive ethical gray area. The FDA might outright reject the results altogether. But Leo was right. If the science was sound, the risk was negligible. And he was offering her the only lifeline she had left.

She looked at his face. He sat there looking eager, waiting for her to accept the offer. He believed in her work. “I don’t know,” the scientist said, her voice dropping closer to a whisper.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to answer right now,” Leo replied, sensing her hesitation. “Just think about it.”

The scientist stared at her half-empty martini glass. The threat of bankruptcy hung over her head, making the offer dangerously tempting. She picked up a small paper napkin from the table and dabbed her mouth, stalling for time as she gathered her thoughts.

“I’ll think about it,” she finally conceded, tossing the crumpled napkin onto the table.

She grabbed her purse and slid out of the booth, needing to escape the bar and get home. She had to be alone to weigh the consequences against the survival of her startup.

“Goodnight, Leo,” she said.

“Goodnight, Doctor.”

Helen turned toward the exit and walked out of Cocktail Jacks, leaving Leo alone as she headed home to make the biggest decision of her career.

❖

Helen unlocked the door to her apartment, pushing it open and stepping inside before tossing her keys onto the kitchen counter. Kicking off her shoes, she walked into the living room, grateful for the silence after spending the evening in a crowded dive bar. The quiet space gave her room to breathe, allowing her to process the insane proposal her assistant had made over drinks. Running an unsanctioned medical trial on a colleague violated every ethical boundary she had ever learned, but the alternative meant watching her startup collapse into bankruptcy.

Walking over to the refrigerator, she grabbed a bottle of water and twisted the cap off as she leaned against the granite counter. She took a long drink, trying to quiet the anxiety building in her chest, knowing she had to make a definitive choice before morning. Carrying the water into the living room, she sat down on the sofa and opened her laptop on the coffee table. She spent the next hour reviewing the primate data, looking for any reason to reject Leo’s offer. The files showed a smooth connection between the chip and the brain, with the monkeys stopping all violent impulses while retaining their normal behaviors otherwise. There were no strokes, no brain bleeds, and no adverse reactions across dozens of test subjects. The biology worked, and the device did exactly what she built it to do.

The problem was the significant leap from animals to humans. A human mind had complex emotions, and she had no way to guarantee the receiver wouldn’t cause unintended cognitive damage. If she made a mistake during the injection, she could ruin Leo’s life, and she would have to live with that guilt forever. But if she did nothing, her staff would lose their jobs, and her life’s work would end up being taken over by some company with deep pockets. She had spent years perfecting the chip, and she needed human results to prove its worth to the corrections board. The desperation outweighed her concerns, and she decided she could not pass up the only lifeline available to her.

She thought about the mechanics of the procedure itself, visualizing the steps she would have to take in the morning. She would have to secure him in the testing chair, administer the local anesthetic, and fire the injector directly into the base of his neck. The chip would then travel to the brain stem, where it would embed itself and start the magic. There was so much that could go wrong, but the probabilities told her that everything would be fine, and Leo had offered himself willingly.

Helen picked up her cell phone from the table and dialed his number, bringing the device to her ear as she paced across the rug.

“Hello?” Leo answered after the second ring.

“It’s me,” the woman said, stopping near the window to look out at the dark street. “I need to know if you were serious back at the bar.”

“I was serious,” her assistant replied, his voice calm and steady over the speaker. “I told you I’d volunteer, and I meant it.”

Helen paused for a moment as her stomach dropped. If Leo was on board with it, then why shouldn’t she grab the opportunity?

“I need you to be certain about this,” she insisted, gripping the phone tighter. “Once I give you the injection, we can’t take it back.”

“I’m certain, Doc,” Leo answered.

“Okay,” the scientist agreed, her head dropping as she resolved to make her decision. “We’ll do it tomorrow morning before the rest of the staff arrives. Meet me at the lab at six o’clock.”

“I’ll be there,” the shaggy-haired man said.

“Get some sleep,” Helen instructed. “We have a long day ahead of us.”

She ended the call and tossed the phone onto the couch, letting out a long breath. She had committed to a path that broke every rule she had sworn to uphold, but she felt a surge of adrenaline replace her exhaustion. She was going to save her company, and she was going to get the data she needed to force that chip into every prison in the damn state.

❖

Helen parked her car in the empty lot outside Kraft Medical, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves as she stepped out into the cool morning air. Unlocking the front entrance, she made her way down the hallway toward the testing chamber, keeping her posture straight and her mind focused on the task ahead. She had made her decision last night and remained steadfast in her new approach, determined to start the trial before the rest of her staff arrived.

Leo waited for her outside the chamber doors, dressed in his usual jeans and a faded t-shirt, offering her a nervous smile as she approached him. He held a blue medical gown over his arm, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as she reached for the lock.

“Good morning,” Helen said, swiping her security badge over the keypad, listening for the familiar click as the lock disengaged. “I brought the paperwork for you to sign, and we can get started as soon as you change into the gown.”

Leo nodded and stepped into the room, pulling the blue gown over his head and tying the strings behind his back. Helen walked over to the main console and turned on the monitor, waiting for the screen to boot up before she turned her attention back to her assistant. Stepping over to him, she offered a sympathetic smile as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him toward the large leather testing chair positioned in the center of the room.

“Have a seat and try to relax,” Helen instructed, keeping her voice soft to put him at ease as he settled into the chair and leaned his head back against the padded rest. “I know this is intimidating, but you’re doing the right thing, and I appreciate you stepping up for us.”

Leo murmured his agreement, gripping the armrests as he braced himself for the next step. Helen grabbed the adhesive sensors attached to the monitor, pressing them against his chest and his pulse points to hook him up to the machine. The vitals appeared on the screen immediately, showing a steady heartbeat alongside a rising pulse rate, while Helen reached for the thick velcro straps on the sides of the chair. Pulling them over his forearms, she secured his wrists in place to prevent any sudden movements during the injection process. She fastened the left side first, pressing the velcro down firmly, before moving to his right arm to repeat the process, making sure he was snug but comfortable.

“I need to grab the injector,” the attractive doctor explained, patting his shoulder one last time before taking a step back toward the door. “I’ll be right back, and then we can get this over with.”

Leo nodded, offering a tight smile as he watched her leave the room and listened to her footsteps fade down the hallway. Taking a deep breath, he rested his head back against the leather chair while he tried to focus on the positives. He had offered to sit in this seat because he wanted to be the hero, hoping this grand gesture would force his boss to see him as something more, something brave. Having spent endless nights alone masturbating to the thought of her, desiring her affection for years, he figured saving the company would finally break down the walls she kept between them.

Shifting his wrists against the straps, he felt the rough material bite into his skin as he tested his limited mobility. The restraints held him firmly in place, and a sudden wave of unease washed over his chest. Looking at the heart monitor displaying his vitals, he watched the steady green line blip across the screen, tracking the slight elevation in his pulse. He swallowed hard, thinking about the actual function of the hardware he was about to accept into his body. The chip suppressed impulses, forcing the subject into a state of compliance, and he began to wonder what that actually meant for his own mind.

His thoughts raced as he stared at the ceiling tiles, realizing he was volunteering to potentially surrender his free will just to impress a woman who continually kept him at a distance. If the implant worked as intended, he might lose the very drive that pushed him to take this risk in the first place, leaving him trapped as a permanent test subject without a voice of his own. The attraction he felt for his boss was strong, but it wasn’t worth trading his own personality away.

The unease blossomed into genuine terror, causing his chest to tighten as he pulled harder against the cuffs. The machine next to him beeped at a faster pace, matching the rapid hammering of his heart as claustrophobia set in. He realized he was making a massive mistake, knowing he couldn’t go through with any of it.

The door pushed open, and Helen walked back into the room, holding the silver injector in her right hand, keeping her expression focused as she stepped closer.

“Helen, wait,” Leo said, his voice shaking as he strained against the Velcro, desperately trying to put some distance between himself and the metal device. “I can’t do this.”

The brunette paused, freezing in place as she stared down at him, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked, lowering the injector slightly, refusing to believe what she was hearing. “Are you serious right now?”

“I’m sorry,” Leo apologized, his brown eyes wide with fear as he shook his head, avoiding her direct gaze. “I just can’t go through with it. I thought I could, but I don’t want to do it.”

Helen stared at him, feeling a sharp spike of anger pierce through her chest, realizing that her best chance at getting the data she needed was backing out at the last possible second. Lowering her head, she let out a frustrated sigh, stepping closer to the armrest as it looked as though she was going to reach down and pull the Velcro tabs apart to let him out. Instead of releasing him, she grabbed the end of the right strap and yanked it tighter, pulling the fabric taut before pressing it down with a vicious slap of her palm. Moving to the left side, she did the same, pinning his arms flat against the chair, ignoring her assistant’s shocked expression.

“A lot of work and money went into this chip, and we can’t back out now because you’re getting cold feet,” Helen said, her voice dropping to a harsh, unforgiving tone as she glared down at him.

“What are you doing?” Leo asked, his voice rising in panic as he struggled against the tightened cuffs, his heels kicking against the footrest. “Helen, stop, let me go!”

“I’m doing what needs to be done,” the scientist hissed, taking a step behind the chair, lifting the injector up as she aimed the tip toward the base of his neck.

“Stop!” the man yelled, struggling hard against the restraints, twisting his torso back and forth as he tried to throw off her aim, thrashing in the leather seat.

Helen leaned in, pressing her left hand against his shoulder to hold him still, bringing the device closer to his skin, determined to finish the procedure no matter how hard he fought. Just as the metal tip was about to reach the back of his neck, Leo wrenched his right arm upward with a violent surge of adrenaline, ripping the Velcro strap open with a loud tearing sound. He immediately swung his freed arm backward, catching Helen in the chest and shoving her away with enough force to send her stumbling backward.

The scientist gasped, catching her balance against the edge of the desk, her green eyes flashing with rage as she gripped the injector tight in her fist.

“Stop being a baby and sit still!” Helen demanded, marching right back toward him, raising the device again as she approached to finish the job, blinded by her own determination.

Leo reached over with his free hand, tearing the left cuff open, and launched himself out of the chair just as she lunged toward him. He crashed into her, grabbing her wrists to stop her from bringing the needle down, initiating a desperate scuffle as they fought for control of the silver device. Helen pushed back against him, gritting her teeth as she tried to twist her arm free, throwing all her weight forward to force him against the side of the chair. Leo slipped on the smooth floor, losing his footing for a split second, dragging her down with him as they grappled in the center of the room.

They slammed into the side of the testing chair, a tangle of limbs and frantic movements, neither of them willing to let go of the device as they wrestled for dominance. Helen pinned his arm against the armrest, raising the injector with a fierce cry, bringing it down toward his shoulder in a blind panic. Leo shoved her elbow upward, deflecting her strike, wrapping his hands around the device as he twisted it back toward her to keep the needle away from his own body.

A sharp mechanical click echoed through the chamber, followed instantly by the hiss of compressed air.

Helen gasped, freezing in place as her eyes widened in shock, her fingers going numb as the injector slipped out of her grasp and clattered onto the floor. She felt a sudden pressure at the base of her skull, a burning sensation that radiated down her neck as the tiny silver chip embedded itself into her flesh.

“I-I didn’t want this,” Leo stammered, pulling his hands back, dropping to his knees as he stared at her in horror.

Helen tried to speak, tried to curse at him, but the world tilted on its axis, her vision blurring as the chip took hold. The burning sensation faded into a cold numbness, spreading through her limbs like ice water, stealing her strength as her body gave out beneath her. She slumped fully against the floor, her mind shutting down rapidly, the last thing she saw being the terrified look on Leo’s face before she fell into unconsciousness.

❖

Helen groaned as consciousness clawed its way back into her mind, bringing a dull, throbbing thud to the base of her skull that made her wince in pain. She blinked a few times, her vision swimming for a moment before the familiar details of the testing room came into focus, and she realized she was sitting in the exact same chair she had strapped Leo into just a short time ago. The events of the morning rushed back in a violent flood of fragmented memories, ending with the mechanical click of the injector firing right beside her ear.

Reaching her hand up to the back of her neck, she traced the line of her spine until her fingertips brushed against a small, raised bump hidden beneath her brunette hairline. The truth hit her hard. The chip was inside her flesh, embedded deep into her nervous system, leaving her paralyzed by a sudden wave of panic.

Snapping her gaze forward, she found Leo standing a few feet away near the main console, his chest heaving as he watched her wake up. He had taken off the blue medical gown, leaving him in his t-shirt and jeans, and he looked like a cornered animal waiting for a predator to strike.

“You motherfucker,” Helen spat out, her voice raspy and thick with venom as she gripped the armrests of the chair. “What the fuck did you do to me?”

“I-I didn’t do anything, Doc,” Leo stuttered, taking a cautious step backward as she glared at him with murder in her eyes. “It was an accident. I was just trying to keep the needle away from my neck, and you slipped. I swear to god I didn’t want this to happen.”

“You attacked me, you worthless piece of shit,” the scientist hissed, her anger boiling over the initial shock of the situation as she evaluated the betrayal. “You volunteered for the procedure, and you assaulted me in my own lab.”

“It was self-defense!” the scrawny assistant argued, raising his hands in a placating gesture while his voice cracked under the pressure of her fury. “You strapped me down, and you were going to inject me after I told you I wanted out. I panicked, and I tried to push you away, but you wouldn’t stop coming at me.”

“I’ll fucking kill you,” Helen roared, her temper snapping as she launched herself out of the leather chair to exact her revenge against her perceived attacker.

She crossed the short distance between them in a fraction of a second, bringing her right hand back to strike him across the face, fueled by a blinding, unapologetic rage. Leo shrieked and threw his arms up over his head, cowering as he braced himself for the physical impact of her blow, waiting for her hand to connect.

“Stop!” the assistant shouted, squeezing his eyes shut as he flinched away from her incoming assault.

The impact never came, leaving Leo to keep his arms raised for a few moments, trembling as the silence stretched out in the room, before he slowly lowered his hands and opened his eyes. He found Helen standing mere inches away from him, her arm raised and her open palm frozen in mid-air, unable to move a single muscle despite the clear, murderous intent plastered across her face.

Helen stared at her own hand in mounting horror, her mind screaming at her muscles to complete the swing and slap the coward across the mouth, but her body refused to obey her commands. The chip was functioning perfectly, listening to the man’s direct command and turning it into action, severing the connection between her brain and her limbs. She felt like a prisoner trapped inside her own skin, fighting against an invisible barrier that held her arm locked in place, unable to twitch a finger. The pure desire to hurt him raged inside her mind, but the tiny silver receiver at the base of her skull enforced a state of passive compliance, rendering her powerless to follow through on her own intentions.

“Sit back down,” Leo commanded, his voice shaking as he realized what was happening right in front of him.

Helen let out a sharp gasp as her raised arm lowered itself to her side without her permission, her muscles moving with a smooth, fluid grace that terrified her. Her legs stepped backward on their own, walking her in reverse until the back of her knees hit the edge of the leather cushion, dropping her down into the testing chair. Her posture went rigid, and her hands rested flat against her thighs, complying with his instruction in an instant, leaving her trapped as a passenger inside her own body.

“What is going on?” Helen said in confusion, her chest heaving as she tried to project an authority she no longer possessed. She knew exactly how the chip functioned, yet the raw reality of experiencing the effects firsthand destroyed her.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Leo,” the brunette warned. “You’re already in a lot of trouble. Don’t make things worse.”

“Shut that pretty mouth,” Leo snapped back, his fear morphing into something else as the dynamic between them flipped on its head.

Helen opened her mouth to spit another string of crude curses at him, but her jaw clamped shut with a sudden snap that made her teeth click together. Her lips sealed tight against her will, trapping the insults inside her throat, and she tried to pry her mouth open, fighting the unnatural tension gripping her facial muscles. The chip enforced the verbal command, denying her the ability to part her lips and reducing her furious threats to muffled noises.

“Mmph! Mmmph!” she grunted while she stared up at the man standing over her, her eyes begging him to release her from the invisible hold.

Leo exhaled a long breath, his brown eyes sweeping over her frozen form as he took in the magnitude of the situation. He watched the fierce woman who had rejected his advances time and time again sit in silence, her body yielding to his every word, unable to lift a finger against him. The realization of his newfound power washed over him, erasing the last traces of his earlier panic and replacing it with a dangerous thrill that settled in his gut.

He had spent years harboring a desperate attraction for her, dreaming of ways to make her submit to him, and now her own invention had handed her over to him.

He stepped closer to the chair, looking down at her wide eyes with a devious smile spreading across his face, knowing she could not run away or fight back.

“That’s better,” Leo whispered, the nervous stutter gone from his voice as he admired the results of her work, basking in the control he now held over her body. “I think it is time we had a little chat, Doctor.”

End of Chapter One