Apparently, not all the security guards took the night off

“What the hell? Why are these machines running?” a male voice asked. Miranda would have cursed if she had the ability to move. Damn it! The security guards weren’t supposed to be here! She could do nothing as two men entered the factory, waving their flashlights around.

It didn’t take them long to find her. “Looks like someone was planning to modify this one,” one said looking down at her. She was helpless to stop him from reaching down and squeezing her breasts. “Don’t know why; she looks hot enough to me.”

“People like all kinds of different stuff,” the other said dismissively. “I’m gonna disable the machine. Lift her off the belt?”

The guard carefully lifted the frozen woman, while the other turned off the machine. Miranda, meanwhile, was panicking. Her plan to become April hinged on her going through the machine. If she couldn’t get her physical appearance changed, all of her new paperwork would be useless. At best, she’d have to make a new life with no paperwork and no ability to access her stolen money. At worst, they’d discover that she had faked her , and she’d end up going to jail for a very long time.

The only positive thing about this situation was that the guards clearly didn’t recognize her. They seemed to be discussing the possibility that someone had been making a custom doll off-the-books. If she could bluff her way through this encounter, she might still have a chance of pulling off her plan.

“I didn’t see anyone pull up on the cameras, Jim,” the one called Rick said thoughtfully. “Actually, I’m pretty sure they’re all down. Our chances of catching whoever did this is pretty slim.”

“Well, it’s not hopeless,” Jim said, studying Miranda. “She does have the basic neural packaging already installed. After the paralysis wears off, she might be able to tell us something.”

“If they didn’t tell her to blank it,” Rick said with a snort. “Which they would, if they had any brains at all.”

“We’ll see,” Jim said firmly. “She should be coming out of it in a minute.”

Indeed, Miranda could feel her body becoming less stiff. Carefully, she rose to her feet, doing her best to mimic the doll she had made once it had left the growth tank.

“Tell us everything that you remember, from the time you were released from the tank,” Jim said brusquely.

“I remember nothing,” Miranda said, doing her best to sound flat and unemotional. It was difficult, standing in front of two strange men absolutely naked, but she did her best to be as robotic as she could.

“There you go,” Rick said, gesturing to her. “Useless.”

“Alright,” Jim said with a sigh. “Let’s put her back in the growth tank, and report this in the morning.”

Miranda cheered internally. The growth tanks could be opened from the inside. All she had to do was wait for these two to go home, and she could get out and use the machine. They hadn’t noticed her bag of April’s things yet. She could still salvage this.

“Hang on,” Rick said with a grin. “Jim, think about it. This is a golden opportunity! This doll doesn’t have any of the standard recording features yet. It’s completely off-the-record! You’re telling me you don’t want to have some fun with it first?”

“Rick,” Jim said exasperatedly. “It’s company property. We’ll get caught.”

“The cameras are off. And we can just blank her memory afterwards,” Rick argued. “We can even use the machines and blame it on the guy who created her! It’s the perfect crime!”

Jim hesitated. “I mean...maybe. But still…”

“We just have to get her in the tank by morning,” Rick went on stubbornly. “Isn’t this the sort of thing we always dreamed of doing, back in high school? Isn’t this why we became scientists?”

"We're security guards."

“For now! Anyways, are you in?”

Jim bit his lip in thought, while Miranda panicked. If her plan was going to succeed, she needed these two to believe that she really was just a brainless doll, only capable of obeying orders. Which would mean she would have to do whatever they said, or she’d be found out. Being treated as a sex toy for an entire night by two bored security guards sounded like a nightmare. But it still beat prison.

“Fine,” Jim said reluctantly, reaching out to touch Miranda. She herself to stand stock still as he ran his hands over her. “What do you want to do?”