The Easy Way

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said the Captor, a sharply attractive woman dressed in a lab coat over professional attire.

“I already told you, I won’t cooperate,” said the Captive, a pretty young woman in inmate drabs and bare feet, who was held firmly in place by a burly guard.

“And I’ve told you, you will cooperate,” said the Captor. “The only question is whether your cooperation will be gained easily or with difficulty.”

The Captive said nothing and looked away defiantly.

“You leave me no choice then,” said the Captor.

“Do what you have to do,” said the Captive.

“Place her in the chamber and ready it for processing,” said the Captor to the guard.

The guard nodded. He marched the Captive to the other side of the room and pushed a button on a console in the wall. A large panel receded and then slid to the side, revealing a wide alcove.

Within the alcove stood a small cylindrical booth made of transparent material and connected by cables and conduits to a free-standing computer terminal. Still holding onto the Captive with one hand, the guard tapped out a command on the computer. In response, the door to the booth swung open.

The guard pushed the Captive through the door and then stepped back. The door immediately closed, locking the Captive in a tube-like bubble. With a good portion of her resolve now diminished, she looked nervously around her new prison and felt the clear, smooth walls of it.

“Is the chamber speaker on?” asked the Captor of the guard.

He nodded an affirmative. The Captor began walking slowly towards the Captive.

“Let me tell you what’s going to happen now,” said the Captor to the Captive, whose reaction to her voice did indeed indicate an ability to hear from within the booth. “The chamber that you stand in is set to process you. In technical terms, it will initiate an electro-chemical induction that will quickly render you semi-conscious and highly suggestible. Following that, it will engage in an intensive session of  simultaneous subliminal conditioning, pleasure center stimulation, and mnemonic realignment. In lay terms, it will brainwash you. The entire process will take approximately three minutes, after which time you will gladly cooperate with me in any and every way that I ask.”

The Captive bit her lip. Her complexion paled, and her forehead grew damp with sweat. She ran her eyes around the booth, searching for the mechanisms that would carry out her sentence, as well as any possible ways to avoid them. She found nothing.

“Before we begin,” said the Captor, “I want to thank you. I told you before that we could do this the easy way or the hard way. My instructions were to offer you that choice. Had you chosen to cooperate, the resulting interrogation and fact-checking procedures would have taken several hours. Instead, due to your resistance, I am able to process you and procure the information I need in just a few minutes. And that, my dear, constitutes the easy way.”

Upon a signal from the Captor, the guard tapped another command into the terminal. The Captive shook her head frantically and shouted a silent no! within the soundproofed cell. With a rising hum, the chamber sparked to life.

As the process began, the Captive initially stiffened, as if electrically shocked. But a moment later, her body relaxed, and she sagged drowsily. Soon she could no longer stand. She collapsed against the chamber wall and slid down it. By then, completely overwhelmed by the power of the machine, a sleepy smile had spread over her face.

The Captor smiled, too, as she watched the Captive’s brainwashing. She so preferred the easy way.