Cassie returned to her cubicle and sat down. By this time, the virus had had plenty of time to infiltrate her computer, and return it to apparent normal. Before Cassie could do anything, her phone rang. She put on her headset, and the earpieces began to emit of pulsating tones. Before Cassie understood what was happening, she had fallen into a deep hypnotic trance. At that point, the tones altered, using advanced sonic technology to alter her brain chemistry, replicating the virus inside Cassie's own brain. The virus planted a series of post-hypnotic suggestions in her mind. It then woke Cassie up, with no memory of what had happened.
At that moment, Cassie's best friend in the company, Jimmy Carlson, came racing up to her desk.
"Cassie", he said. "Please tell me you open that e-mail that came to you from me!"
"Why, no", Cassie replied. "I haven't"
"Well, don't", said Jimmy. "I think there was some kind of a virus in it."
Cassie reached out and deleted the e-mail. "There", she said., "It's no longer in my computer."
"Great", said Jimmy. "I gotta go talk to Phil about this. Hopefully, he won't find it necessary to murder me."
After Jimmy ran off, Cassie felt a wave of hunger wash over her. She'd had breakfast only an hour ago, but now she was starving. She ran to the break room and got her lunch out of the refrigerator. Then she went to the snack machine and emptied her wallet into it, buying as much junk food as she could. Someone had left a box of doughnuts on the break room table, so she grabbed that, too. She took all of this back to her cubicle and began mechanically chowing down while she worked, until it was all gone. Then she did her best to hide the wrappers in her trash, after which she promptly forgot what she had just done.
Most of what Cassie had just eaten was nutritionally useless to a human, but it was acceptable raw material for the virus. It caused some of Cassie's cells to mutate into nanites - microscopic robots. The nanites processed what she had eaten, converting some of it into more nanites, and the remainder into a network of fibers which they then infiltrated into Cassie's brain and nervous system. Now the virus had direct, unshakable control over Cassie, body and mind. It would no longer have to rely on simple hypnotism.
Now it could move on to Phase Two. Phase Two would include... indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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