Meanwhile, at an unknown location...

In a plush corporate office located in a tall skyscraper Sid nervously wait in his seat for someone to arrive. As the door cracks, his blood run slightly cold. He’s always hated meetings with those in the organization who were above him. A man in a tailored suit takes a seat across the desk in front of him.

"Sid. It’s been too long. I am really impressed with this infiltrator of yours. I believe her name is Celeste, yes?" comes the smooth voice of his superior. "She is very good at her job. I have to ask you, Sid… Why is it she isn’t part of the stable and still working as a freelancer instead? Lost your charm, perhaps?"

Leaning back in his chair, Sid took a puff from his cigar. Damn did he hate this son-of-a-bitch. He couldn’t wait for the day he could put him in his place.

"It is not because I haven’t tried," he responds matter-of-factly. "Celeste is very strong-willed and independent. These qualities that are ideal for an infiltrator, but not good for the organization as a whole."

His boss leans forward, his expression souring as frustration clearly begins to paint across his face.

"Well Sid, you know how it is with these things. We use mercenaries, freelancers, whatever you want to call them, as backup or for simple missions only. This Celeste has been doing some major missions for some key clients resulting in some rather numerous and undesired expenditures due to her rates. We need her as part of the stable so we can pay her less," he says with a scowl. "This is the organizations profit margins, //my// profit margins, we are talking about here. It would be a shame if I had to cut costs elsewhere if this problem doesn’t solve itself soon, Sid."

"I know that," Sid says, clenching his fist and chewing his cigar. "I'm working on it as we speak. I am certain she has strong potential as an assassin and an infiltrator. She will make the perfect femme fatale who strikes and disappears without a single trace."

Sid's boss eases his shoulders, relaxing himself a bit as he considers what he’s being told.

"What is your plan then, Sid?" he asks with a glint in his eye and a small upward curl to the edge of his lip. "I know you always have one."

Sid smiles, relieved his boss seems to be open to hearing more.

"I have gotten Celeste some implants with the best technology money can buy," he explains, causing his boss to raise an eyebrow. "Let me finish. I had the manufacturer make some custom modifications to the CPU regulating her implant’s neural interface which allows me to access it remotely. I can make changes to her brain chemistry and influence her emotions as I desire."

"For example, I tweaked her neurotransmitters to heighten her sexual desire when Hugo was flirting with her and look what one of the hangar camera managed to pick up. There were definite signs of increased physical arousal in her," he says pointing to some readouts showing an increase in her internal temperature in places indicating heavy arousal. "Basically, it worked, but she decided not to have a threesome with Hugo or do anything else sexual, most likely due to her focus on the mission at hand."

"So if we can control that pleasure then we can eventually control her?" the boss asks with a grin.

Sid takes another puff of his half burnt cigar and nods enthusiastically.

"Exactly! I've been experimenting with her for some time now and she's already showing signs of liking things beyond her previous interests such as bondage. It helps that she's a bit of an exhibitionist and also the occasional party girl. She already finds vanilla relationships to be a bit boring and doesn’t seem interested in a committed relationship, so that should never get in the way. Although I can control the pleasure she receives, we can't actually **** her to do anything," Sid admits, a bit disgruntled. "She has to convince herself that it's what she wants and to give in to her body's feelings."

"Is that why Camilla pretty much orgasms every time she kills someone?" the boss asks, in reference to one of Sid's previous projects.

"Yes," he acknowledges with a nod. "I've been training Camilla to be an assassin who gains **** sexual pleasure from sleeping with and then eliminating her targets; she’s the definition of a black widow. Celeste's skills as a whole I’d estimate as five times greater than hers, only being bested in hand-to-hand and close combat capabilities. Even then Celeste’s combat experience would likely give her the edge and she is also capable of infiltrating a target's location since her implants aren’t metallic like Camilla’s. She could sneak past bodyguards and then discretely eliminate a target in their sleep and no one would be the wiser.

"The plan is to make sure Celeste needs to make an unreasonable amount of money fast. She won't have many opportunities on the planet and dirty missions always pay well, especially on planets like Evindium. I'll use every opportunity to influence her mind I can afford and once she's off planet we'll bring her into the fold for good."

"I like it," his boss responded approvingly. "Just don't fail me, Sid. I'd rather not have another unstable psycho who is only situationally reliable like Camilla. Speaking of screw ups, wasn’t that mercenary you hired, Hugo, well… Didn’t he turn out to be a traitor?"

Sid's worried expression snaps back.

"Camilla is very useful to the organization in her limited fashion. I just overdosed her with too many chemicals and now she is an addict. Hugo," he says with a hint of anger in his voice, "I'm unfortunately not so sure about. I've sent a team to try and find him and I hope whoever our competition is didn't make any alterations to his cybernetics to get to him before we do.

"I've put together a dossier detailing the plan to train Celeste; a more advanced, subtler, loyal, Celeste. She will not be another Camilla. I promise you that, sir."

"Ok, Sid," his boss responds as he looks to his computer screen. "I will read the dossier you left me. Don’t disappoint me. You may take your leave now."

Sid bows his head, stands, and nervously walks out of the room knowing that he could lose his best infiltrator if he isn't careful.

END OF PROLOGUE