Despite the fun she was having playing with the little gene crafter's paramour, De'Shak was bored.

Her monster refused to talk with her, no matter how high she dialed his pain settings. He obeyed her commands, and only her commands. Her troops, reinforced by the mass she'd captured from her sisters and the energy the Cat's Paw project siphoned for her, held her borders, but without Magnus' genius leading them, they could do no more than that. She couldn't understand his petulance. She'd kept her word. She'd even returned his wife to him, which went well beyond what she'd offered. Some things were never grateful. Still, she kept him functional, because his cries of rage created pleasant background noise while she administered her lands, and his weeping carried her gently to sleep at night.

She even missed her old Prime Researcher. It was rude of him to deprive her of his company. The new Prime, elected by his brothers by virtue of being the least personable of them, brought her messages and scuttled away, never stopping for conversation. She thought she might throw him into the gateway to see whether he fried or exploded, but even that thought didn't cheer her up.

She leaned on the railing of her laboratory balcony, moping, considering whether she should go log in and play with whatever of Kent's female toys remained. Before she could decide, her new Prime rolled up the ramp, squeaking the annoying squawk it used when it had an urgent communication.

"Mistress! Mistress! My brothers and I have detected a threat!"

This might at least prove interesting. "Which of my sisters is attacking?"

"None, my mistress! The threat is to and from the Cat's Paw project. One of the connectors has in his possession all of the data needed to deduce the existence of our plans."

"Really? Well, that is interesting. I shall connect at once and see to correcting this oversight. What is the name of this over informed connector?"

"His name?" The annoying whine of Researcher communication sounded through the air, after which her new Prime continued. "Her character name is Kittul. Her account is under the name Karin Padgett."

"Well, well, well... My little genecrafter. I suppose I shall have to finish your work myself. Pity. I'd looked forward to breaking you." Still musing, she addressed her Prime before he could scuttle off. "Prime?"

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Scream for me."

***

Kittul looked around the room, at least as much as she could with her body still paralyzed from the neck down. Two more people had joined the brunette. One, a severe younger woman in a black suit, her jet hair coiled into a tight bun, called the brunette Agent Silver. The other agent, an older, slightly overweight, balding man, called the brunette Agnes. It seemed incredibly coincidental that two Agents would have the same name, but Kittul didn't want to get Zed in trouble, so she'd kept her mouth shut about that. Instead, she'd simply repeated her request to talk to a game administrator.

That led her to the discussion she was having now.

"So, you're playing a video game." When the black-haired Agent arrived, Agnes' entire demeanor switched, going from an angry young woman to a concerned friend. Kittul still wasn't sure why, but she preferred talking with Agnes to talking with the other female Agent.

"Yes. I would log out, but whatever you're doing to me is keeping me from doing so. I want to talk with a game administrator."

"And you're actually from a," the brunette glanced at her notes, "post-Singularity world, where you're employed as a genetic engineer?"

"Yes. I told you this already. I want to talk to a game administrator."

Agnes laid a supposedly comforting hand over Kittul's, which was propped on the small table Agnes had dragged over between them. "You really believe all this, don't you?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yes. I want to talk to a game administrator."

The Agent just shook her head. "You've said that before, but no matter how many times you say it, angels aren't going to appear out of midair and whisk you away. You see how what you're saying is just hard to believe, right Kitten?"

Sudden rage gripped Kittul, and her hand twitched once before it went still. "Don't call me that! Don't you dare!"

"But... I'm sure Zed calls you that, right?"

"You. Are. Not. Him." With every word, her fury mounted, shocking her as much as it seemed to surprise the Agent.

"I'm sorry, Kittul. I won't do it again. Why don't you tell me a little about this 'Singularity'? I looked it up, it's supposed to be some kind of mass ascension, where computers turn everyone into gods, right? It seems a little odd that gods would need to play video games."

Kittul sighed, the rage flowing out of her, replaced with frustration at how deliberately stupid the other woman was being. She found it interesting that she could still do things like sighing; her body could move, but it wouldn't respond when she tried to make it happen deliberately. She filed that away for later reference and tried to explain things to the condescending woman in front of her. It took an effort of will to force things from Karin's memory that had never been in Kittul's.

"Look, I'm not a historian, but my... my ex was a comp sci major in college, so I took a class on this as an elective. About sixty years ago, artificial computing power outstripped organic computing power." Kittul thought about the computers she'd seen within the Cat's Paw framework and backpedaled a bit mentally. "Do you understand what that means?"

"You have AI?"

Kittul shook her head, annoyed. "No. It's a common misconception, but no. We've got some really good expert systems, and a lot of people think we have AI, but there's no evidence of sapient self-awareness. It's just... a really fast computer that can anticipate what you want a bit."

"So... What does that mean then?"

"Well, right around that time we hit a level of processing power where we could model complete organisms in real time. Processing power became so ubiquitous it was, well, free. We also mapped out human sensory apparatus, which let us create immersive VR. Nanomachine manufacturing dropped the prices on hard goods, but energy got kinda pricey as power needs went up. Um, land got expensive because the population kept growing, and between the computing power and the nano manufacturing, gene tailoring became possible.

"It's still pretty difficult, though. Which is why I get paid big bucks. When I can get work, at least."

Agnes looked at her, fake sympathy covering her face. "That's really kind of... unspecific."

"I'm really not a... historian." Kittul didn't want to annoy the Agents, but she couldn't help herself; her words came out in a sarcastic imitation of Agnes'.

"You did say that. I'm sorry," Agnes lied, "So if you're from another world, where you have super computers and genetic engineering, how did you manage to wind up here?"

"You mean in an immersive VR video game, talking to one of those expert systems I told you about?"

Agnes looked over her shoulder, where the black-haired agent and her heavyset partner lurked just out of Kittul's field of view. "I'm not sure whether I should be insulted by that or not. What do you think, 'Lissa?"

Lissa's voice was as toneless and plain as her suit. "I think that is an entirely inappropriate manner of address for this situation. I also think this may be relevant to another issue we've been tracking."

"Whassat?"

The heavyset guy heaved a sigh, his words coming out almost as an afterthought. "All these possession cases we been dealing with."

"Thank you, Agent Winston. I'm certain Agent Silver is thirsty after speaking for so long. Please go get her a drink."

"I'm not supposed to leave you in here with a unknown, possibly possessed Shifter. Regs."

"Ah, yes. The regulation that states that Shifters will be escorted by at least three Agents, one of whom must be, themselves, a Shifter. A regulation I helped write, and Agent Silver proved the need for."

"Hey!"

Lissa ignored Agnes' cry of outrage, "Much like the regulation about not talking about compartmentalized information in front of subjects in interrogation. Go wait in the observation room, Agent Winston."

"Damn cocky Special Agent Mages." Kittul heard Winston's mutter head for the door she'd heard her captors enter by. When she heard it open, she pushed with all her might against whatever was holding her frozen, trying to shift to cat so she could slip the bungee cords and run. For the barest sliver of a second, she felt something. The next moment the door slammed shut, removing any hope she had of escape.

Agnes leaned on the table, smiling down at Kittul. "So, Kittul, you got a demon in there?"

Before she could reply, the image of Kent's new project sprang to her mind. She could almost see it hovering there in front of her. For a long moment, it seemed like it was solidifying.

"Hey, Kittul, are you still in there?"

The Agent's voice banished the image of Kent's demon. Kittul stared, frustrated, at the feeling she got when a new piece of code was almost coming together. She stared up at the brunette, wishing she could reach out and shake her, just to express her frustration. Her subconscious told her something was wrong, but she'd lost it again.

"Look, if the code for summoning an admin doesn't work, can you at least get me a lawyer?"