Prologue

Feb 22 2005:

Belial sipped his coffee and looked over the table at the woman sitting across from him. She was a younger if professional looking woman, the type of girl you would see running around those internet startups in San Francisco. She looked like them save the eyes, they were cold and calculating with no empathy in their depths.

"Keeping my research private will be expensive, especially if you expect me to help you with." He hesitated and tapped the folder in front of him that held the details of the operation that she was trying to put together. "The processing of the raw material."

She smiled, an expression that instead of being a comfort felt more like she was sizing one up for a meal.

"I understand that, and after the initial compensation for your work you will of course be paid for any additional work."

"You offered a million a year. My soul is not that cheap." Said Belial.

She frowned and tapped her cup before taking a small sip.

"Your soul? You didn't strike me as the superstitious type, are you afraid of hell Mr. Belial?" she asked.

Belial laughed. "Hardly, if anything my own research proves that only idiots believe in the soul. As for hell I've had a spot reserved for some time same as you." He said.

She nodded. "I suppose so, then would your soul be more amicable at the price of 2.5 million a year?" She asked.

"Including the initial payout of 20 million?" He asked.

"Of course." She said grinning.

"Then yes." Said Belial.

"Good."

The two leaned back in their chairs and looked out at the street.

"You know I'm curious, why did you peruse this technology? It hardly seems like the subject an ethical scientist would research." She asked.

Belial took another sip of his coffee. "I like control, everything in its place and predictable. Nothing out of order or chaotic. My tech leads to the perfect human being, something that can be programmed controlled and predicted."

"Control? That is your motivation?" She asked slightly bemused.

"That's not enough?" Asked Belial.

"The world is chaotic. Attempting to control even a significant portion of it leads to disaster." She said.

"I suppose so, but then why is this your line of work then?"

"Money." She said smiling slightly.

Belial chuckled. "That simple?"

"I never claimed to be different than any other businessman. I just have the balls to go for the more lucrative businesses, even if they are outside the law." She said.

Belial nodded, someone after money was simple enough to understand quantify and manipulate. Although he doubted she was giving him the whole truth, for a woman like her to have made it this far she would have had to be ruthless, and he had no doubt her hands were far dirtier than the common woman her age. Underestimating factors was the best way to lose control and in the game the both of them were about to enter that would mean death.

"Speaking of money, who's given you yours?" Belial asked.

"What do you mean?" She asked her eyes narrowing.

"Mrs. Adams, you might be successful but even you don't have 200 million plus to toss around. This has to be at least a billion dollar venture to hire me, create the facilities and hire the professional staff. Not to mention the money to pay for the silence needed." Said Belial.

Adams visibly stiffened at the mention of her name. She had kept it out of all the different negotiations to this point.

"Where did you find my name?" Asked Adams.

Belial grinned and pulling out his cellphone flipped it open showing her number.

"You might have gotten another phone to talk to me with, but your name is still on the account. It's amazing what you can get with that." Belial said.

She frowned but nodded. "I will keep that in mind. As for out benefactor, he wishes to remain anonymous for now. Will that be an issue?" She asked.

Belial shrugged. "No so long as I get paid and he doesn't try to steal my work. If he does his name is going to be plastered on the evening news for weeks."

"It will be considerably more difficult for you to figure out who he is then it was to find my name." Said Adams.

"I'm resourceful and I like the challenge. Besides you've already narrowed the pool from near 7 billion to just under 3.5 billion." Said Belial.

"Are you going to be this annoying when we are working?" Asked Adams.

"Probably." Said Belial.

The two of them took another sip of their respective drink and Adams stood. "Meet me here tomorrow at two. We have 6 months before our benefactor wants a demonstration of his investment."

Belial stood and offered his hand to the woman. "To a successful endeavor then!" he said.

Adams looked down at her hand and nodded. "To success." The two shook.

March 25 2005:

Caroline groaned and opened her eyes. Her head hurt worse than the time she let her friends take her drinking on her 28st birthday. It felt as if a hundred needles were punched into her skull. Moving to rub her head Caroline struggled for a moment, her brain dumped adrenaline into her system before she even realized what was happening. Her arms were restrained and she was lying on some metallic gurney in the middle of a large room. Turning her head she saw several other woman lying next to her on identical beds.

All of them were naked and had metallic helmets over their heads. Caroline stared at this for a moment her brain sluggishly trying to decipher what she was seeing.

"Well it seems we've found the resistant one of the group." Said a voice.

A man dressed head to toe in black and with extremely disheveled hair stepped into her limited point of view.

"Should she be awake?" Asked another voice feminine this time, she was outside of Caroline's view somewhere behind her.

"Won't hurt, it'll give me more brain scans to work with. Especially if she resists, I don't have a lot of data on combating that yet so someone resilient enough to fight off that amount of sedative in the first test group will be good." Said the man.

"We have 5 months left. We need to demonstrate the product at the deadline." Said the woman.

The man rolled his eyes. "This is the first test group. Some will be done in that time frame, others will not. As we get more data however and improve the process the time for each unit will drop." He said.

"How short do you think you could make it?" Asked the woman.

The man tapped his lips thinking.

"It takes a week to prime the brain for myelination and then training and reprogramming I could see that condensed down to two days maybe. Then another week for testing and adjustment. Plus any of the physical modifications you got that hack of a doctor doing. I would say two months two and a half maybe." He said.

"No shorter?" Asked the woman.

"You're asking me this and I don't even have the first test completed. I'm a genius not a fortune teller. You can give our benefactor the time frame of 3 months for now as a minimum. Give me ten years and I might be able to do it in a week. Point is I don't know right now." Said the man clearly frustrated.

Caroline moaned and the two looked back at her.

"She's lucid it seems. Interesting." Said the man.

"Call me when you have progress" Said the woman.

The man nodded and waved her away. Caroline tried vainly to get out of the straps as the man stepped towards her.

"Time to go back to sleep Caroline." Said the man. He tapped something on the panel at the side of her gurney and Caroline's eyes widened as she tried to fight off the feeling of drowsiness that was sweeping through her but it was futile attempt and she drifted back off into the darkness.

May 26 2005:

Slave opened her eyes and blinked. Something was different, off. It was the annoying feeling that crept up when you realized that your phone was missing. Not a bad feeling but not a particularly good one either. Slave sat up in the bed and looked around, she was in Slave's room where she was supposed to be at the beginning of the day.

In the back of Slave's mind a voice was shouting and for an instant slave saw a starved and beaten looking woman pounding away at a door in the back of Slave's mind. Slave knew this was bad though, that woman and what she was trying to do to Slave was bad. Concentrating Slave turned the lock on the door and with a final screech the woman faded away and Slave felt blissfully complete.

Standing up Slave went over to the wardrobe in her small room. It was full of clothes that her Master had picked out for her, the type of clothes that made her more enticing for her Master which was the only thought that held influence over her actions. Picking out a frilly lace outfit which barely hid her more private areas Slave slipped them on. Slave preferred to be naked but Master liked to have something to peel away from Slave.

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