Sarah looked up at Paul as he entered the room. “What’ve you done?” she demanded.
“I’ve done nothing. You, on the other hand…”
“I didn’t think it would really work!” Sarah protested. Behind Sarah, Megan lay on the floor, gazing up at her phone, giggling to herself.
“Nonsense. You knew what I was researching, you authorized the funding yourself. This is exactly what you wanted, a tool to undermine your enemies, create corporate spies, contain whistleblowers.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” said Sarah. “She discovered the hole in the budget. She was going to report me! I could’ve been arrested!”
“I know. So you chose to send her the file.”
“YOUR file!” Sarah retorted, but she was clearly trying to persuade herself as much as him.
“Which you chose to send her, and then chose to activate. Knowing what it would do.”
Sarah sighed. “Yes,” she admitted. “And it worked. But… this is too much. I can’t condone using this again.” Behind her, Megan was still giggling as she tapped at her phone.
“I thought you might wimp out. Good thing I set this up, then.”
“Set up wha–” Sarah’s phone buzzed. Instinctively, she glanced at it, and then the screen filled with an explosion of color and light. She couldn’t tear her eyes away as it filled her vision. “Paul, what have you…”
“I knew you had me blocked, just in case I ever tried to activate the file on your phone. That’s why I included instructions for anyone who received an activation code from you to reply back with the same code. I mean, with this kind of power, you didn’t really expect me to let you stay the boss forever, did you?”
Sarah tried to fight, but it was so hard to tear her eyes off her phone, and it felt so good to just look, look and learn… and later, it felt so good to kneel next to Megan and chant their loyalty together, the first slaves of the Master… and she would help make sure it was the first of many, starting with her entire list of cell phone contacts.
Request for @deeperinmypower