They both jumped upon hearing a loud voice over an intercom. "Yes, you certainly should expect the unexpected," it repeated.
"Who the hell is that?" asked Nicole.
"Professor, that was highly unprofessional conduct," said the voice. "There will be repercussions."
"Damn...they have listening devices everywhere," said the Professor. "That's the Chief Executive of the company, he must have been alerted we escaped and set the audio systems in the building to detect any sounds."
Moments later, they heard the security officers rattling the locked door to the storage room in which they were hiding.
Security guards made quick work of busting down the door, and despite the couple's efforts to elude capture, Nicole and the Professor were restrained, injected with sedatives and taken to different rooms within the same facility.
When Nicole woke up she was laying on a bench, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. She realized she was back in the same room where she had undergone the first experiments with the mind probe and the augmented reality goggles. She was furious at the situation. She wasn't going to allow herself to be controlled in this way!
Hovering over her was a person she didn't recognize. An older man - perhaps in his sixties. He introduced himself as the Chief Executive of the company - and the person for whom the Professor worked. His face belied a sinister character, and Nicole immediately took a dislike to him.
"Are you feeling any better?" he sneered.
"Let me go!" demanded Nicole
"Now, now, Nicole," he said. "The Professor evidently let his feelings for you get in the way of doing his job and he will face the consequences for those actions."
"Where is he? What's going to happen to him?" asked Nicole, looking around the room with genuine concern.
"Appropriate remediation," said the Executive.
"Please don't hurt him," said Nicole, "He was just trying to help me."
"Help You?" Her captor laughed... "That's an interesting perspective. When we found you, it appeared to us that you two had been fucking each other's brains out. I'm not sure who seduced who, but it was clearly a violation of the Professor's contract with our company, to say nothing of a gross violation of ethical conduct."
"But listen, we're not tyrants here," continued the Executive. "You have a choice. You can choose to stay here with us for a little while longer, continue with these experiments until we can get the device up and running, and then you can depart with a little extra money than you had before."
"Or alternatively," the Executive let those words rest for a few seconds, "you can just walk out the door. We'll of course need to administer a drug that inhibits your short-term memory so there's no recollection of your time here with us. Proprietary reasons you understand."
"What will happen to the Professor?" asked Nicole.
"Do you really care, honestly? Fine, if you choose to stay and you cooperate, we may be able to overlook his transgressions."
---------
A short time later, the Professor awoke in an adjoining room, but because of the thick walls had no way of knowing Nicole was so close. He was tied to a chair with his arms and legs bound.
Although he was groggy, he immediately grasped the situation: "Where's Nicole? What did you do to her?" The Professor demanded of the guard watching him: "Release me! You have no right to hold me."
The company Executive had made his way into the room and greeted the Professor with a creepy smile: "Oh, Nicole was having so much fun with the earlier experiments that she's decided to stay with us indefinitely."
"What? She wouldn't do that! You're holding her here against her will!" shouted the Professor.
"You think so, do you? What do you think you can possibly offer her that's so special? Your affection?" He laughed. "Get real, Professor, you are twice her age. You were just a diversion for her. That's all."
His captor continued: "I never thought of you as a romantic. But as you scientists say, 'provide an unstable element into an experiment, and things go awry.'" The Executive snorted: "You really think Nicole would walk away from the most captivating and arousing sexual experiences of her life? As a matter of fact, she's already deeply engaged with the latest experiment. For this one we've procured the talents of another streaming performer - a young male, to help Nicole realize her desires. And it's the first of many more experiments to come."
An attendant flipped a switch, and a very large monitor was projected into the room. It was a video stream of Nicole laying down in the same facility room where she had started the experiments. Once again she had the virtual reality headpiece on, but this time there was somebody else in the room with her.
The Executive smirked.
"So Professor, how does it feel to want to be with somebody so badly you yearn for them, but knowing others are there to satisfy her when you can't be?"
The Professor gritted through his teeth. "Nicole is free to be with whomever she wants. It doesn't change how I feel about her." he acknowledged.
"Oh doesn't it?" asked the Executive. "We'll see."
The Executive pulled out his mobile phone and seemed to be giving instructions to somebody in the other room.
The Professor looked at the screen. The adult performer, an attractive male in his early 20s glided over to Nicole who was laying on the medical bench. He removed Nicole's virtual reality headset. From the looks of it, Nicole was already in a state - feeling the full effects of the brain scanner that had sexually stimulated her so effectively earlier.
She seemed to already be aroused but now came the crescendo. The young male performer began kissing Nicole voraciously along her exquisite neck. The Performer's breath on her skin made Nicole shiver. The Professor could see Nicole writhing on the medical bench, evidently enjoying the experience. The Performer then leaned close to her, cradled the back of her head and began passionately kissing her on the lips.
The Professor averted his eyes and looked down.