"Nice shower," Special Agent Samantha Lewis of ARMOR said. "I hate when a good hotel is ruined by a lame shower. But this one is really good. You should try it out."

Exiting the bathroom in a plush bathrobe, Samantha brushed her long auburn hair as she spoke to her roommate, Special Agent Lily Sparks. Lily looked up from her laptop at her very pretty, very sexy, and still wet mission partner.

"You're dripping on the carpet," Lily said.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay. Just don't come over here until you're dry. I don't want you getting my computer wet."

Samantha walked over to her bed, sat down, and put her bare feet up, all the while still brushing her hair. She eyed her also very attractive partner with curiosity.

"Hey, Lily, I know we haven't done field work together for a while, but...I don't remember you being this uptight. Ever since we got into the room, you've sat there acting as wound up as a grandfather clock."

Lily frowned at the assessment, then nodded.

"Wow, you're right, Sam," she said. "I'm really tense. It's weird."

"Is it this assignment? We're going to nab Operative Alpha, so don't you worry."

"No, it's not that. It's…"

"Hey, you can tell me. We're partners. Our lives are in each other's hands and all that."

Lily smiled and let out a sigh.

"It's a dream I had a few nights ago," she said, "when I stayed at this hotel."

"During your last assignment, when you kicked major SCOURGE butt and procured all that great intel on them?"

"You make it sound much cooler than it was," Lily said, blushing. "But, yeah, that's when I had the dream. I don't remember much of it, really, but I have these impressions of being...bound. And barefoot. And submissive to a very dominant person."

"Sounds like a nightmare brought on by stress," Samantha said. "Nothing more."

"Except that...I enjoyed it."

"Oh, well, to each her own."

"No, Sam, I mean I really, really enjoyed it."

"Ohhh. So, you had an erotic dream. Good for you. Who cares?"

"That's what I've been telling myself. But something just feels...wrong."

"Okay, enough amateur-hour psychoanalysis," Samantha said. "Get your gorgeous behind out of that chair and into our very nice shower. And don't come out until you've washed away all this useless anxiety. Got it? That's an order."

"Yes, ma'am, Ms. Special Agent, ma'am," Lily said with a grin and a faux salute.

Then she got up and followed her partner's advice.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lily emerged from the bathroom, much as Samantha had earlier--bathrobed and brushing her wet, black hair.

Samantha hadn't moved from the bed. She looked up and saw the same intense look as before souring her partner's face.

"Really?" Samantha asked. "The hot shower didn't relax you?"

"It felt good," Lily said. "But no, it didn't relax me much."

"This is all very suspicious," Samantha said in an exaggerated imitation of a famous Austrian doctor. "We have a normally chill person who is suddenly very uptight. Even a long, hot shower does nothing to improve her mood. Hm. Is there a diagnosis for this change in behavior? Could it be an erotic dream? No. It isn't the dream. I think Agent Sparks has been brainwashed."

An odd, dazed expression flashed across Lily's face, then disappeared.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"Nothing. I was just teasing you."

"Sure, that's fine. But what did you actually say?"

"I said, 'Agent Sparks has been brainwashed,' in my best Freud, which granted isn't very good. Get it? Because you're acting all weird? And I'm analyzing you? Joke, funny, haha?"

Again, the dazed expression came over Lily. It lasted a bit longer this time--long enough for Samantha to notice it--before vanishing.

"I get it," Lily said with a forced smile. "Haha."

Unbeknownst to her conscious mind, Lily's subconscious worked to process what it should do. It recognized a series of words and knew that those words carried important orders for her to carry out. But something was missing. The words had come from...not the correct person.

At the same time, the wheels turned inside Samantha's conscious mind. Puzzle pieces began to form, and she worked to put them together. Lily had been acting weird. And just now, she had reacted noticeably to something. But to what? A word, phrase, sentence, tone of voice? Samantha didn't know. But she took a guess.

"Do me a favor, Lil. Take a deep breath. Clear your head. And listen to what I'm going to say: Agent Sparks has been brainwashed."

Again, Lily's expression changed for a fleeting instant.

"What the hell, Sam?" she said, upon returning to normal. "It's not funny anymore."

"No, it isn't. But, please, bear with me. How does that phrase make you feel?"

"It makes me feel...uncomfortable."

"How so?"

"Well, kind of like...no, exactly like...how that dream made me feel."

"Oh, boy," Samantha said. "This really isn't funny."

"What do mean?" Lily asked nervously.

Samantha got up and went over to her partner's laptop. Lily followed her.

"Do you have access to ARMOR's voice file archives?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah. Move over. I'll bring them up."

"See if we have any files containing Operative Alpha's voice."

"Why?"

"You said that you never found Alpha when you nabbed the SCOURGE intel."

"That's right. Alpha wasn't there, even though all of our intel said otherwise."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Lily said. "Why? What are you up to, Sam?"

"I have a hunch. Please, bring up any file we have of Alpha's voice."

Lily shrugged and went about her task. In a moment, she found and opened an archived sound file of Operative Alpha speaking.

"Let me take it from here," Samantha said, then on a quizzical look from Lily, "Trust me."

With another shrug, Lily got up from the computer and let her partner take over. Samantha played the recording, then copied it into an emulator software. She then typed in a sentence for the computer to speak in an approximation of Alpha's voice.

"I really hope this doesn't work," she said. "But either way, we have to know."

"Know what?" Lily asked. "I don't get what you're--"

"Agent Sparks has been brainwashed," said the computer, closely mimicking how Alpha sounded.

Lily's eyes went wide, her jaw went slack, and her mind opened up to suggestion like a flower to sunshine.

"I have been brainwashed," she said in slow, even tone. "I must serve and obey Operative Alpha."

"Oh, crud," Samantha said. "That isn't good. But, at least now we know. Okay, if it's Alpa's voice that she responds to, then maybe I can use it to deprogram her. Hopefully this works…"

She began furiously typing in a series of commands for the computer to speak in Alpha's voice. All of her focus went into the effort, such that she didn't notice Lily walking away from her.

"I must bring Samantha Lewis to Operative Alpha for brainwashing," Lily said, her actions still hidden from her partner.

"So that was the plan?" Samantha asked, hearing Lily but not watching her. "Sorry, Lil, but no can do. All right, we've got an order to wake up when I snap my fingers, another to no longer be under the control of Alpha, and another to remember everything that Alpha did to her. I think that should do it. Now to just load the file and play it--oww!"

The sting in her neck felt like a hornet had dive bombed her. Samantha whirled around to see Lily standing there holding an empty syringe in her hand.

"Lily, what have you done?" Samantha cried.

"I must bring Samantha Lewis to Operative Alpha for brainwashing," Lily said again with a still blank face and no emotion.

Even as her vision began to blur, Samantha recognized the needle as coming from their interrogation kit. The drug that Lily had injected her with would cause her to lose consciousness in a few more seconds. She wouldn't be out for long--just a few minutes. But when she awoke, she would remain groggy, weak, and suggestible for at least an hour.

Knowing she had no time to spare, she turned back around to face the computer. She had to play the new sound file. She had to make Lily hear Alpha's voice again. And she had to hope that the commands she'd come up with would be good enough to counteract the effects of being brainwashed.

Her vision tunneled and grew dim. She could just barely make out the button she needed to push. She reached for it. Why wasn't her finger doing what she wanted it to do? She reached with her other hand, too. It was like using a trackball with her chin. But she was close now. So close. She just had to….


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"W-what? What happened? Where am I?" Samantha asked.

She lay on her bed in the hotel room, still dressed in only her bathrobe. Lily stood beside her, placing a pillow under her bare feet to prop them up.

"Are you comfortable?" Lily asked.

"Yes, but...why am I...how did I…?"

"Just relax. Everything is fine. You're fine. Say it."

"Everything is fine," Samantha said groggily. "I'm fine."

"Good girl. Now, I want you to pay very close attention to me."

Lily pulled a pendant attached to a long chain out of her own bathrobe pocket. Samantha watched her as instructed. Slowly and carefully, Lily began to swing the pendant back and forth in front of her dazed partner's eyes. She made sure to keep the full motion of the pendant within Samantha's field of vision.

"Watch it swing," Lily said. "Watch it swing, listen to my voice, and think of nothing else. Empty your mind of everything but the swinging pendant and my voice."

Samantha's gaze never left the pendant. It and Lily's droning voice completely absorbed her. Lily kept swinging the pendant and speaking soothingly until her induction had completely hypnotized Samantha. The process didn't take long on the already sleepily bemused agent.

"You are now hypnotized, Samantha," Lily said, putting the pendant and chain back in her pocket. "You must do whatever I tell you."

"I am now hypnotized," Samantha said in a quiet, even voice. "I must do whatever you tell me."

Although it wasn't her job to brainwash Samantha, Lily could probably have done it anyway with her partner's mind in such a susceptible state. But not being in control of her own mind, she acted only upon the specific orders that she had been given: Bring Samantha to Alpha for brainwashing.

"Samantha, you are now going to open your eyes but remain hypnotized. When I tell you to, you're going to get up out of bed. We will then walk together down to the car, and then we will go for a drive. All the while, you will remain suggestible and obedient. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand," Samantha said, her eyes now open but unfocused.

"We are going to see Operative Alpha. The operative will brainwash you with a very powerful machine. You will allow this to happen with no resistance at all."

"The operative will brainwash me with a very powerful machine. I will allow this to happen with no resistance at all."

"Good girl. Now, stand up and let's go."

Samantha slowly got up from the bed. Then she followed Lily's lead out of the room. The two agents walked together to their car. On their faces, they wore passively blank expressions, while below they still wore their bathrobes and nothing on their feet. Neither was in control of her own mind, and neither would be again for a long, long time.