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“Hey babe! Got a letter for you, from all the way at the top too, maybe it’s about that promotion you’ve been hunting!” Anna lightly grabbed the envelope from Robert, wishing she could match her boyfriends optimism. “You know nothing from the top floors is ever good news.” She groaned, rubbing her temples “Well usually yeah but you know, you got an insider helping you now.” Robert said with a wink. “You know you’re just an executive assistant right? Hardly an insider” Robert stumbled backwards, miming having been shot “You wound me baby. But I guess I’ll forgive you if you go out with me for dinner tonight?” Anna shoo’d him away with a wave of her hand “fine! But only if you get out of here right now, I have work to do!” Robert ran up, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and left her office closing the door behind him.

Apprehensively she began to open the letter slowly, inch by inch until a single white slip of paper was visible. The shiny black letters seemed to taunt Anna from the cold white sheet, and a black hole formed in the pit of her stomach before she even began reading. “Due to failure to meet project deadlines your team has been liquidated, please proceed to the R&D security department to turn in all company property and receive reassignment.”. The black hole expanded, covering her entire body in a icy panicked grip, beads of sweat forming on her light brown skin. Anna knew they were behind with their project, but without the clearance for any testing there was only so fast they could go. Quickly she gathered everything she could, hard drives, key cards, USB sticks, and any files related. As panicked as she was it was no good to keep them waiting, if she made them mad her new assignment would only be worse.

The woman at the front desk of the R&D head office was waiting for her, refusing to even make eye contact while she silently filled out paperwork, handing Anna a copy of all her signatures as she buzzed the door open. Two heavily armed security guards stepped out to greet her “Thank you for your cooperation Ms. Martez, come with us please.” One of the guards barked, as they led her into the high clearance area. At the end of a long white hallway they arrived at the Head of Research office, a stark white room with glass walls and all matter of high tech computers and tools. They were greeted by head of research Dr. Lorenz, a frail and greasy looking man his face obscured by a scraggly greying beard and thick lensed glasses. Dr. Lorenz wordlessly slid a black bin foreword, motioning for Anna to place her company property inside.

One by one she deposited the items in the bin, showing each of them to Lorenz and the guards so they couldn’t accuse her of trying to steal anything. Eventually everything Anna had on her was on the doctors desk, from hard drives down to her company bought cell phone and business cards. “See? Now that wasn’t so bad.” His nasally voice came like nails on a chalkboard to Anna, who winced with each syllable “Now, let me double check the repossession list Ms. Ellis sent me to make sure you’ve handed everything over…can’t have you selling company secrets out of spite.”. “Oh no I would never, I’ll be happy with whatever new department I’m sent to.” Anna forced a smile, but the sleazy scientist didn’t acknowledge her, never even looking up from his computer screen. After a few moments his eyebrows arched up above his thick rimmed glasses “My my, miss Martez, it would seem you’ve been flagged for a
Special debriefing.” Lorenz snapped his fingers towards the guards by the door “Men, initiate sigma protocol”

Anna heard a hissing noise signaling the doors locking as the guards approached her. “Wait no what are you doing?” She took a few steps backwards until she found her back pressed into the wall. “I’ve handed over everything I swear.” Anna pleaded as the guards pinned her to the wall by her arms. “Mmmm, not quite” Lorenz chuckled, stepping away from his desk and opening up a nearby locked cabinet, continuing as he punched in a code “You’re still holding a lot of information that your betters have decided are too valuable to let go, we’ll just relieve you of it and you can finally be on your way.” With a robotic beep the door opened and Lorenz pulled out a bulky helmet with a glass tube sticking out of the back at an upwards angle. Anna yelled all manner of protests as Lorenz approached while struggling in vain against the guards grip. “Don’t worry, you won’t even miss it.” With minor resistance he slipped the helmet over Anna’s head covering the top half of her face and flipped a switch. With the switch flipped Anna’s entire body tensed up before her muscles all relaxed.

“You can let her go” Lorenz waved off the guards “there’s a visor inside that utilizes visual pattern and lights to render the user docile until the cycle is finished. True to his word as the guards let go of her Anna swayed subtly with her arms limp at her side like a palm tree in a light breeze but outside of that she stayed perfectly still as the machine whirred to life. Inside of the helmet a myriad of tools got to work neatly cutting apart Anna’s skull careful not to damage the valuable treasure within. The mechanical clicking going silent signaled the end of the first phase. Moments later a strange liquid began to fill the glass tube portion within and as the levels rose Anna’s large brain began to rise up with it, the wrinkled cerebral mass bobbing calmly on the surface of the liquid until it reached the half way point and her brain stem held taught anchoring Anna’s brain to the base of her skull as the water rose to the top.

As the glass tube filled completely a small metal door extended from the insides of the helmet sliding towards the center of the tube, severing Anna’s brain stem as they met in the middle and slammed shut. Free of that final physical link Anna’s brain floated to the top of the glass tube, her cerebellum lightly bumping against the glass as it settled in position. Robbed of its commanding organ Anna went limp, her body slumping against the wall and slowly sliding down until her ass hit the floor. With a twist Lorenz removed the glass tube from the helmet, setting the disembodied brain on his desk and motioning to the guards “Have her fitted with a doll unit and send her brain out for processing, we’ll have her turn it in and then send her off to the mail room or something”

Robert quickly put his phone into his pocket as he heard the elevator ding and the door slide open, he wasn’t expecting his boss Ms.Ellis to have any appointments for the rest of the day and was caught off guard already, but nothing could prepare him for what walked through those doors. It was Anna, her clothing was disheveled, her head was covered in bandages, and something about her seemed off. “Hey A…what happened baby?” He called out, but she completely ignored him, her half lidded eyes staring blankly ahead. It wasn’t until she got closer that she was holding something in her cupped hands veiled by a thin sheet. Before Robert could even jump from his seat and run towards the love of his life the heavy wooden doors behind his dusk swung open and Catherine Ellis stomped out. “It’s about time” she sneered “You dolls aren’t worth the cost of those things in your head, now hand over that company property so I can put it with the rest of them.”

Anna stopped, greeting Catherine with a light bow “my apologies Ms. Ellis, Doctor Lorenz wanted to make adjustments before my processing. It will not happen again.” She said in an emotionless monotone voice as she allowed the cloth to drop, revealing a human brain pulsing gently in the palm of her hands, a dark bar code tattooed across its frontal lobe. “Ugh” Catherine groaned, carelessly grabbing the juicy organ. “Can’t they even be bothered to package these so I don’t have to get my hands dirty? Robert! Tell doctor Lorenz I need to see him.” And she slammed the door behind her, vanishing with the barcoded brain. Robert stared in disbelief for a moment, practically flying out of his seat and grabbing Anna’s arm “Hey babe, what was that!” Anna ripped her arm away from Robert, not even turning to address him “It is a class A infraction to interfere with drone activity, executive assistant Robert Hughes will release this unit.” He was stunned, silently watching a company drone wearing his girlfriends skin walk back into the elevator and vanish from view.

Catherine heard a panicked knocking at the door and wordlessly clicked the button on her desk to open it, an out of breath Robert ran in frantically pointing to the disembodied tattooed brain still sitting on her desk in a small puddle in its own cerebral fluids “what’s that, what was wrong with her?!” Catherine looked halfway up from her desk, eyeballing Robert over the rim of her glasses “Oh, that? It was one of our technicians who failed to produce a project I had oversight of, it made me look bad so I personally requested she be converted into a drone.” She picked up the brain with a disgusted look giving it a strong squeeze before casually tossing it into the garbage “I pretended we needed that to connect to our biological archives but just wanted to send a message, oh well.” Picking up a nearby napkin she wiped her hands off and turned back to Robert “You can take off for the night, I’m sure your little girlfriend will be happy to have some extra time together tonight.

Robert clenched his teeth, refusing to show off his blind rage as he put the story together. Everyone below her was so expendable she didn’t even see them as people, just pawns to be used to get rich and used as spare parts if she was feeling petty. Him and Anna had worked there for years, had even been to company events Catherine ran together as a couple and she didn’t even care enough to remember who Anna was to him. As Robert left the office and got into the elevator he started formulating a plan, something that would make her feel as powerless as the doll that used to be his girlfriend.

Description
“Hey babe! Got a letter for you, from all the way at the top too, maybe it’s about that promotion you’ve been hunting!” Anna lightly grabbed the envelope from Robert, wishing she could match her boyfriends optimism. “You know nothing from the top floors is ever good news.” She groaned, rubbing her temples “Well usually yeah but you know, you got an insider helping you now.” Robert said with a wink. “You know you’re just an executive assistant right? Hardly an insider” Robert stumbled backwards, miming having been shot “You wound me baby. But I guess I’ll forgive you if you go out with me for dinner tonight?” Anna shoo’d him away with a wave of her hand “fine! But only if you get out of here right now, I have work to do!” Robert ran up, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and left her office closing the door behind him.

Apprehensively she began to open the letter slowly, inch by inch until a single white slip of paper was visible. The shiny black letters seemed to taunt Anna from the cold white sheet, and a black hole formed in the pit of her stomach before she even began reading. “Due to failure to meet project deadlines your team has been liquidated, please proceed to the R&D security department to turn in all company property and receive reassignment.”. The black hole expanded, covering her entire body in a icy panicked grip, beads of sweat forming on her light brown skin. Anna knew they were behind with their project, but without the clearance for any testing there was only so fast they could go. Quickly she gathered everything she could, hard drives, key cards, USB sticks, and any files related. As panicked as she was it was no good to keep them waiting, if she made them mad her new assignment would only be worse.

The woman at the front desk of the R&D head office was waiting for her, refusing to even make eye contact while she silently filled out paperwork, handing Anna a copy of all her signatures as she buzzed the door open. Two heavily armed security guards stepped out to greet her “Thank you for your cooperation Ms. Martez, come with us please.” One of the guards barked, as they led her into the high clearance area. At the end of a long white hallway they arrived at the Head of Research office, a stark white room with glass walls and all matter of high tech computers and tools. They were greeted by head of research Dr. Lorenz, a frail and greasy looking man his face obscured by a scraggly greying beard and thick lensed glasses. Dr. Lorenz wordlessly slid a black bin foreword, motioning for Anna to place her company property inside.

One by one she deposited the items in the bin, showing each of them to Lorenz and the guards so they couldn’t accuse her of trying to steal anything. Eventually everything Anna had on her was on the doctors desk, from hard drives down to her company bought cell phone and business cards. “See? Now that wasn’t so bad.” His nasally voice came like nails on a chalkboard to Anna, who winced with each syllable “Now, let me double check the repossession list Ms. Ellis sent me to make sure you’ve handed everything over…can’t have you selling company secrets out of spite.”. “Oh no I would never, I’ll be happy with whatever new department I’m sent to.” Anna forced a smile, but the sleazy scientist didn’t acknowledge her, never even looking up from his computer screen. After a few moments his eyebrows arched up above his thick rimmed glasses “My my, miss Martez, it would seem you’ve been flagged for a
Special debriefing.” Lorenz snapped his fingers towards the guards by the door “Men, initiate sigma protocol”

Anna heard a hissing noise signaling the doors locking as the guards approached her. “Wait no what are you doing?” She took a few steps backwards until she found her back pressed into the wall. “I’ve handed over everything I swear.” Anna pleaded as the guards pinned her to the wall by her arms. “Mmmm, not quite” Lorenz chuckled, stepping away from his desk and opening up a nearby locked cabinet, continuing as he punched in a code “You’re still holding a lot of information that your betters have decided are too valuable to let go, we’ll just relieve you of it and you can finally be on your way.” With a robotic beep the door opened and Lorenz pulled out a bulky helmet with a glass tube sticking out of the back at an upwards angle. Anna yelled all manner of protests as Lorenz approached while struggling in vain against the guards grip. “Don’t worry, you won’t even miss it.” With minor resistance he slipped the helmet over Anna’s head covering the top half of her face and flipped a switch. With the switch flipped Anna’s entire body tensed up before her muscles all relaxed.

“You can let her go” Lorenz waved off the guards “there’s a visor inside that utilizes visual pattern and lights to render the user docile until the cycle is finished. True to his word as the guards let go of her Anna swayed subtly with her arms limp at her side like a palm tree in a light breeze but outside of that she stayed perfectly still as the machine whirred to life. Inside of the helmet a myriad of tools got to work neatly cutting apart Anna’s skull careful not to damage the valuable treasure within. The mechanical clicking going silent signaled the end of the first phase. Moments later a strange liquid began to fill the glass tube portion within and as the levels rose Anna’s large brain began to rise up with it, the wrinkled cerebral mass bobbing calmly on the surface of the liquid until it reached the half way point and her brain stem held taught anchoring Anna’s brain to the base of her skull as the water rose to the top.

As the glass tube filled completely a small metal door extended from the insides of the helmet sliding towards the center of the tube, severing Anna’s brain stem as they met in the middle and slammed shut. Free of that final physical link Anna’s brain floated to the top of the glass tube, her cerebellum lightly bumping against the glass as it settled in position. Robbed of its commanding organ Anna went limp, her body slumping against the wall and slowly sliding down until her ass hit the floor. With a twist Lorenz removed the glass tube from the helmet, setting the disembodied brain on his desk and motioning to the guards “Have her fitted with a doll unit and send her brain out for processing, we’ll have her turn it in and then send her off to the mail room or something”

Robert quickly put his phone into his pocket as he heard the elevator ding and the door slide open, he wasn’t expecting his boss Ms.Ellis to have any appointments for the rest of the day and was caught off guard already, but nothing could prepare him for what walked through those doors. It was Anna, her clothing was disheveled, her head was covered in bandages, and something about her seemed off. “Hey A…what happened baby?” He called out, but she completely ignored him, her half lidded eyes staring blankly ahead. It wasn’t until she got closer that she was holding something in her cupped hands veiled by a thin sheet. Before Robert could even jump from his seat and run towards the love of his life the heavy wooden doors behind his dusk swung open and Catherine Ellis stomped out. “It’s about time” she sneered “You dolls aren’t worth the cost of those things in your head, now hand over that company property so I can put it with the rest of them.”

Anna stopped, greeting Catherine with a light bow “my apologies Ms. Ellis, Doctor Lorenz wanted to make adjustments before my processing. It will not happen again.” She said in an emotionless monotone voice as she allowed the cloth to drop, revealing a human brain pulsing gently in the palm of her hands, a dark bar code tattooed across its frontal lobe. “Ugh” Catherine groaned, carelessly grabbing the juicy organ. “Can’t they even be bothered to package these so I don’t have to get my hands dirty? Robert! Tell doctor Lorenz I need to see him.” And she slammed the door behind her, vanishing with the barcoded brain. Robert stared in disbelief for a moment, practically flying out of his seat and grabbing Anna’s arm “Hey babe, what was that!” Anna ripped her arm away from Robert, not even turning to address him “It is a class A infraction to interfere with drone activity, executive assistant Robert Hughes will release this unit.” He was stunned, silently watching a company drone wearing his girlfriends skin walk back into the elevator and vanish from view.

Catherine heard a panicked knocking at the door and wordlessly clicked the button on her desk to open it, an out of breath Robert ran in frantically pointing to the disembodied tattooed brain still sitting on her desk in a small puddle in its own cerebral fluids “what’s that, what was wrong with her?!” Catherine looked halfway up from her desk, eyeballing Robert over the rim of her glasses “Oh, that? It was one of our technicians who failed to produce a project I had oversight of, it made me look bad so I personally requested she be converted into a drone.” She picked up the brain with a disgusted look giving it a strong squeeze before casually tossing it into the garbage “I pretended we needed that to connect to our biological archives but just wanted to send a message, oh well.” Picking up a nearby napkin she wiped her hands off and turned back to Robert “You can take off for the night, I’m sure your little girlfriend will be happy to have some extra time together tonight.

Robert clenched his teeth, refusing to show off his blind rage as he put the story together. Everyone below her was so expendable she didn’t even see them as people, just pawns to be used to get rich and used as spare parts if she was feeling petty. Him and Anna had worked there for years, had even been to company events Catherine ran together as a couple and she didn’t even care enough to remember who Anna was to him. As Robert left the office and got into the elevator he started formulating a plan, something that would make her feel as powerless as the doll that used to be his girlfriend.