; ; "It's not good news--for you. But I'll get to that." She frowned.
; ; "Go on," I said.
; ; "It seems that the I-toy," Gennaro said, pointing deep inside the ; projection of schematics and wireframes of a female that was floating ; over my desk, "first sends about fifteen probes up into the subject's ; body and 'digs in.' That takes only about five seconds and is fairly ; painful."
; ; Gennaro looked across the desk at me.
; ; "Then," she said, "it sends a series of finer probes out through the ; main ones, chemically cauterizing as it goes. Maybe two hundred of ; them. No wider than a human hair. These seek and find nerve ; endings--just like you'd predicted--and they lock in. That takes about ; five or six minutes. In the meanwhile the subject is pleasured by ; external stimulus--the girls you mentioned--and also by the I-toy ; itself. The I-toy locks onto and surrounds the clit here," she pointed ; through the projection to a small ring, "and then injects it with ; about fifty dedicated probes, which connect to the nervous system ; also."
; ; "A distraction." I said. "A fuck from inside your clit--like Stim."
; ; "Yes," Gennaro replied, "but about five times more powerful than any ; Stim high. But--as you guessed looking at the schematics--the I-toy is ; designed not only to pleasure the subject, but also to extend these ; probes up through the spinal column to the CAT. They interface with ; the CAT through the maintenance ports and," she pointed through the ; schematic to the CAT, "as it were, 'turn' the CAT. They open it up and ; hardwire, biomechanically, new protocols."
; ; "Hardwiring?" I murmured, remembering the dark abyss of Susan's ; eyes. "So, they override--biomechanically reconfiguring the CAT--the ; existing protocols while the I-toy fucks you from the inside?"
; ; "Sure. It's like superpowerful Stim, grafted into you. And it's like ; the last model of CAT tappers and hijackers. Only this Meatmaker is ; permanent. It actually does microaugmentation on the CAT itself--and ; then the CAT alters the brain function here, here, and," she pointed ; deep inside the floating green brain, "here."
; ; "Modifies the CAT." I said, inwardly shuddering, thinking what a great ; new perverted trick that was. No overlays here. Complete ; reprotocoling.
; ; "Yes," Gennaro said, "I haven't seen that either--and that's the ; dangerous part of all this. No reoverlaying of CAT protocols. The CAT, ; I guess, will be a new piece of hardware when the I-toy is done."
; ; "So it's permanent?"
; ; "For all intensive purposes, yes. The wiring 'harness' that's inserted ; into the body and the CAT by the I-toy can't be removed, I think. We'd ; just link with the I-toy and override it, but the I-toy probably has ; interlocks to prevent that. When it's done with the CAT the CAT ; probably has different interlocks, too. . . ."
; ; I gave Gennaro my "this is really bad" look.
; ; ". . . . And the nervous system's an issue. The I-toy doesn't damage ; it, per se, but I'm fairly sure that it in combination with the ; microaugmented CAT 'burns in' new neural pathways--that's permanent."
; ; "I see. So we can't undo this really bad fucking invasive thing," I ; said, "and neither can the CDC or the CDF."
; ; "No," Gennaro said, "not yet--probably not ever. I mean, somebody's ; really moved to study and evolve the CAT technology way beyond its ; next version. I'd say this is at least three generations removed from ; anything we have now. The I-toy, really, is brand new--even though it ; looks like it's a second generation piece of hardware."
; ; "Three generations?" My voice said, cracking.
; ; "For the CAT? At least," Gennaro said, "and let me say this, Hommard."
; ; She paused.
; ; "Your Neuron shouldn't have worked on those girls," Gennaro said ; quietly but firmly.
; ; "I see what you mean," I said grimly, thinking about it for the first ; time. Really thinking about the situation.
; ; I said, "My Neuron is designed to interface with existing CATs. To ; stop perps in the act. But the I-toy and its mods are something brand ; new."
; ; "That's exactly right." Gennaro said, "and you can bet that the ; designers of the I-toy made sure that they couldn't be overridden by a ; year-old Neuron--like yours."
; ; "That's for sure." I said, knowing now that I was at the bottom of a ; very deep well, looking up and running out of air.
; ; "Watch your back," Gennaro said, rising from her chair, her back to ; the floating schematic, "they knew you were coming. I'm surprised ; you're not wearing an I-toy and smoking away on some mean, mean cock ; or clit right now. Again."
; ; "Yeah," I said. "Yeah."
; ; End of Part 2 ; [1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4 ; 5 ; 6 ; 7 ; 8 ; 9 ; 10 ; 11 ; 12 ; 13] ; ;