I nervously looked at my watch. Fifteen seconds left. I usually get nervous around this time. I'm far enough away from the blast zone, but my partner is the one defusing the bomb. She's always succedeed, but boy it's come close a few times. It's what she's good at though.
With so few seconds left, one would think that anybody near the bomb would start running if they could. Not Carissa. Every second counts on these missions. When we're called in to defuse a bomb, it's usually a bomb that would cause a large amount of damage, lives lost, and chaos. Making sure the bomb doesn't explode is a higher priority for Carissa then her safety.
The 15 seconds passed. My watch beeped, but nothing else happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. All that needed to be done now was to remove the bomb, analyze it to figure out where it came from and who built it, then find those people as soon as possible. Luckily, the press hadn't gotten any whiff of what was going on, so we didn't have to worry about them. It was alot better then having a disaster on our hands.
Time bombs aren't the only bombs we handle. However, they're the most common bomb we find. Usually it's a group wanting money. Sometimes it's a terrorist cell, and every now and then it's one crazed radical with a grudge. They range from cheaply constructed and easy to defuse, to elaborately constructed and nearly impossible to defuse. This latest bomb was one of the elaborate jobs. The data on it was already showing up on the laptop I had with me. It wasn't the first of its type. Last week we had another one similar to it.
Carissa soon joined me in the limousine we had commandeered. She looked at me and smiled.
"Well done Flower Girl..." I said.
"Yeah..." was her reply.
We both wern't exactly in a celebratory mood. There had been less then four seconds left on the timer when she deacivated the last backup detonator. The bomb had turned out to be even more elaborate then the one from last week. Five seperate triggers, including a trip wire, three backup detonaters, and a backup timer. Whoever had designed it really didn't want it to be defused... It almost wasn't...
Our next stop was the plane to fly us back to headquarters. We're usually flown directly from headquarters to whereever bombs are located by helicopter, even if they're only 10-15 miles away. Afterwards, we either drive, or take a private plane back, depending on the distance. It may seem like overkill, but the quicker we can get to the bomb, the quicker we can defuse it.. There have been times where it's come down to a few seconds, just like today...
We arrived at the plane and boarded it. Within a few minutes, we were in the air and on our way back to headquarters.
Throughout the world, we have more agents trained in bomb disposal then anything else. If everybody who could build or get their hands on a bomb had their way, the world's capital cities would probably be smoking craters by now. It's not as bad as I make it sound though. Attempted bombings have actually decreased in the past 10 years, in spite of what the news might otherwise say.
The plane landed at a small private airport. The helicopter that had taken us to where the bomb was, just an hour before, was now sitting on its landing pad. Wetworks agents disguised as workers were busy fueling it up and performing some routine maintainence on it. Me and Carissa entered an airplane hangar that's normally kept locked. Like our secret enterences, there was a hidden elevator that went down into the earth. This elevator was hidden inside a large shipping crate.
We rotate which enterences we use, to prevent us from being noticed at one location too many times. There are more then a few subterrainian elevators that lead to the same headquarters. Exactly how many there are, I won't say.
After we arrived at headquarters, Carissa went to her quarters on the 9th floor, while I headed to one of the meeting rooms. Me and two of my fellow agents are partners in a very new experiment. Carissa and her two friends are part of this experiment. They're former sex slaves that we rescued and reprogrammed into operatives. We've never used programmed operatives before. Carissa, Chloe, and Zana are the first of their kind: Prototypes if you will.
I met Michael and Jennifer, my two partners, in a small meeting room. We try to do this every week if possible. We talk about the day to day activities that the girl's get up to. They're monitored constantly while inside the complex. The project is less then a year old, but so far most of the signs are promising. However, it may be decades before programmed agents become commonplace, if they become commonplace at all...
"Today Carissa was in probably the most stressful situation she's ever been in. She kept a cool head though and did her job. On missions at least, she's very focused and dedicated to her job. On her own time however, she's been displaying a desire to be sexually intimate with me." I said.
"You should consider it." Michael replied.
"I don't want to risk uncovering any memories that may be lurking inside her head." I said.
"Chloe doesn't remember anything. We've been having sex for months, and she loves it." he replied.
"Yeah I know, but I'm not sure about Carissa. She seems to be more aware then the others are. I see her glancing at things, and paying more attention to her surroundings then the others do. I look at her eyes, and they seem to be more lively and inquisitive then the others are." I said.
"Me and Zana have sex, and Carissa's much more stable then Zana." Jennifer said.
"Zana's come a long way. She doesn't cut herself anymore." I said.
"No, but she's started playing with needles when I'm not there. No matter what, i can't get her to stop hurting herself. The fact that she enjoys it still bothers me." Jennifer replied.
"I think it's hard wired behavior. All three girls got similar programming, and all three have different personalties and things that they're good at. Chloe is good with languages, Carissa can handle the pressures of defusing a bomb, and Zana can hack into damn near any computer. All the programming did was ensure their loyalty to us and to the agency." Michael said.
"It might be. I've had Zana reprogrammed, but she still hurts herself." Jennifer said.
"That's another reason why I don't want to form a sexual relationship with Carissa. I think it would encourage her hard wiring to remember her past. Who knows what would happen if she did." I said.
"I wouldn't be too worried. She likes you. Chloe and I both know that. I think even if she did remember, she'd know that you wouldn't do those things to her." Michael said.
"On another subject: I think we should start thinking about ways to socialize the girls a bit better. I think they're ready for it, and it would benefit them." I said.
"Chloe's pretty social already. She talks to other agents and greets people when she's in the city." Michael replied.
"Zana hates socializing with others, though she's slowly making progress." Jennifer said.
We ended the meeting and went about our business. Hard wired behavior wasn't the only factor in why the girls behaved like they did. It almost certainly wasn't why each of them were something akin to nymphomaniacs. The slavery ring we had taken them from had only recently switched to programming their slaves. Before that, each girl was fed a steady diet of drugs and sex hormones. This went on long enough to produce some subtle changes in their brains, resulting in their increased sex drives.
Before the girls became operatives, it was debated on just what would be done to them. Brain surgery would have been the only way to reverse the girl's sexual appetites. This was decided against, for fear of causing permanent brain damage. Very strong programming, like the type we use to reform terrorists would also work fairly well, but it would have some side effects that we didn't want. It was decided early on that any issues that cropped up would be handled by us in the least invasive way that we could manage. We took the position that their minds had been fucked with enough.
On my way to Carissa's quarters, I went back and forth in my head about how I'd deal with her sexual advances. I was the one who brought her in. I was one of the people who listened to her story. Upon the discovery of various "movies" that the sex slave ring had made, I was one of the very few who watched them all. I must be a sucker for punishment, as those movies were brutal...
I weighed that with the knowledge that Carissa was frustrated sexually. Her frustration would build up over time, and she'd masturbate to relieve the tension, then end up going into one of those weird trances that was a side effect of the programming. She couldn't help her sexual appitite, and compared to Zana, she was far more restrained.
Eventually the two opposing desires in my head reached a compromise. I'd start off slow, show her a bit of affection. Then over time I'd gradually increase my affection towards her, but back off at the first sign of trouble. If something went wrong, she could probably be reprogrammed again.