Triggered

“Emma.”

“Scott.”

“Are you going to make me ask for an explanation?”

“Well, as you know, the unpleasant gentlemen responsible for cloning dear Laura conditioned her to go into a homicidal range when smells a certain pheromone, a ‘trigger scent.’ The equally unpleasant gentlemen we ran into on our last mission managed to splash me with some of it.”

“And that led to this because…”

“I didn’t have much time to work, or much to work with. She’s very single-minded when she’s homicidal. Much like her father, really. And the conditioning is too deep, she would have killed me before I could cancel it. But I could…redirect it.”

“Redirect?”

“I know you’re not a telepath, but you must have read some psychology. Sex and violence are not so far apart.”

“And then when the emergency was over…”

“Oh, there’s no need to tamper with her poor brain again. The scent will wear off eventually.”

“The mission was three days ago, Emma.”

“But Scott, she is…ah, yes, right there..quite good at this…”