Make plans to acquire new capabilities

You quirked a smile as you sat in your office, your consciousness already permeating Hideki's entire computer network. There was a lot more there than you'd anticipated.

For instance, you hadn't known that they'd already made a prototype of the Hideki Ascend, which allowed one person to control the actions of another at any distance. Extensively customizable, as so much Hideki tech was, already later models were being planned that would allow for mixing of consciousnesses, and there was one intriguing note about the potential for adding artificial intelligences to the mix, but for now it only allowed for full remote control and memory access.

That, of course, would have to go. With some small regrets, you left a few small bits of transparent nanite-slime sitting around the lab, making sure the tests would fail harmlessly but irreparably, leading, together with the mysterious disappearance of the single headset tomorrow evening, to the shelving of the project.

To make up for it, though, you did leave a few notes in the files for Hideki's overwhelmingly popular Snap game console about how it could be engineered to improve performance even while reducing power consumption and heat generation.

You also left the code for a game you'd written during the drive back to your office--you'd found it easy to use your nanite-slime as, effectively, an organic quantum computer, bolstered by a little surreptitious use of excess computing capacity in the military network--that, while it did need the extra capabilities of the new system you'd suggested, would almost certainly prove extremely popular and leave Hideki scrambling to keep up with demand for the new system whenever they actually made it, if the extensive psychological research kept behind a few dozen easily-broken firewalls in the military's systems was anything to go by.

You might not want Hideki making anything like you ever again, but you also had no reason to want them to go under, and given that profits on sales of the Snap, along with their games for it, already paid for all their other projects, this game, especially with the after-purchase monetization features you'd built into it, would keep them solvent for years to come.

More important, however, was that you also discovered how Hideki kept one step ahead of everyone else: they'd already infiltrated Yabusa, Shaw and King.

That brought on a sigh of relief, as you realized you wouldn't have to actually go to any of their locations. All the data you could want was being transmitted back to you as the most deeply-buried corporate secrets of every firm you wanted to neutralize permeated your mind.

As you'd suspected, there was nothing at Shaw. The most interesting thing there was that they'd actually come extremely close to purchasing Yabusa on at least two occasions, and only a little surreptitious help from Hideki had kept what was supposedly their main rival solvent enough to avoid the takeover. Apparently it was firm corporate policy at Hideki that, given their position at the top of the food chain in most of the sectors they competed in, it was in their interest to keep other firms from consolidating.

Yabusa, meanwhile, had at least managed to keep some of its secrets safe from Hideki--though not from you--which is why Hideki had no idea that they were on the brink of building their first real breakthrough into areas Hideki had henceforth mostly monopolized. You had no idea how their Phase Binder might interact with someone like you, but you sure as heck didn't want anyone else getting their hands on it once they'd built their prototype, which was apparently being worked on round-the-clock, also with tests planned for tomorrow.

Emilia King, meanwhile, had an extensive catalogue of what her financed expeditions had uncovered, but precious few details on what the objects actually did. This puzzled you until you found the security camera footage, which showed her writing in her personal diaries, expressing her **** to conduct tests with the artifacts given certain unfortunate events involving them in the past. Still, her personal fortune was extensive enough that she could keep going for years before actually needing to attempt to commercialize anything.

Meanwhile, as your worms breached the final barriers of the military's security, you discovered your final target: the site of a trove of extraterrestrial technology, all data about it other than its existence and location kept strictly off any computers connected to any network.

Leaving your lab, you walked down toward the garage for one of the projects you'd been assigned to oversee in its final stages: an anti-inertia, anti-friction motorcycle, which could, at least in theory, accelerate indefinitely if supplied with sufficient power and kept on a straightaway. You'd provided the insights on how to handle turning and braking, and the prototype had been built. Since nobody was quite sure if all of its claimed features would actually function to spec, though, it hadn't been tested yet, but you were reasonably confident that your exo-suit could protect you in case the momentum-negating aspect failed.

One of the lead engineers was himself a motorcycle fanatic, and even though the machine could run perfectly smoothly, he'd insisted on at least building in a way to turn on what he said was the proper "feel" of a bike, so that people could still feel it vibrate with power beneath them. That very vibration made you quirk another small smile as the small jolt of pleasure between your legs prompted another realization.

You'd never really thought of yourself as especially sexual. Oh, sure, Emily had fooled around in college, and Zoe and Chloe had both generally assumed the appearances of attractive women, and goodness knows you could remember any number of times they'd done things with--or to--each other! But as the bike's engine revved beneath you, your mind flashed back yet again to the look on Kelly Lancer's face as she told you that you didn't have to stop controlling her.

It was a look, not just of excitement, but of need. That Kelly in that moment had realized her life would be lesser without the knowledge that you could control her every action, that she hadn't wanted you to withdraw your nanite-slime from her, even if it meant, as she thought, brief periods of being controlled followed by hours of unconsciousness.

And you in turn realized that you liked the thought of being able to control someone so fully, so abruptly, so suddenly, without warning, regardless of the circumstances they were in. That you could simply take over someone's very being whenever you pleased, do as you would with them, leave them in whatever situation you desired with whatever memories you wished them to retain, if any.

Of course, no sooner had that thought crossed your mind than others did also, asking whether it was something you should do, but for now you decided that you had more important priorities anyway. Time enough to consider those sorts of things later.

Pulling onto the main street outside of Hideki's headquarters, you sped off in the direction of your first target.