First, thanks to everyone who has commented, either positive or negative on the story. Everyone has been polite about it and I really appreciate that versus the nameless "You suck, quit" comments I sometimes get. Brandi's sage continues as she works with her powers and finds new abilities.
PART VII
THREE MONTHS LATER
Brandi chewed on a pencil as she reviewed the file on her desk. It was a doctor's report on Brad and Brandi was having mixed thoughts.
The client had been ecstatic over the information she had given him. They had fired the mole and their lawyers had ripped the case apart in court. Brandi had been paid $25 million plus a $1 million bonus. The bonus had been for Brad's court appearance Monday. He had been dopey, sleepy, had his nose bandaged, and was completely off his game. The client's lawyer had shredded him and since she had destroyed the documents he had been ready to present a major keystone of his case was now gone.
Brad though was having some real problems due to Brandi's powers. Brandi had read his evaluation and he was about ready to commit himself for full treatment. The memories she had shoved into his head had melded with his and he was suffering from a mental breakdown. He had memories of doing several things as different people on the same day in three different locations across the country, he had memories of being dozens of other people and doing everything from waitressing to washing cars to being an airline attendant to dating a college football player. He was to the point he was no longer sure who exactly he was and he was responding to being called Heather, Bob, Susan, and Joyce aside from Brad.
"Well, looks like shoving all of that into his head did have some bad side effects. Now we know." Brandi muttered as she leaned back. She felt a bit guilty, but after a bit she shrugged. "It's not like he ended up as Brenda did. Maybe they can get him fixed eventually. But I guess I need to be more careful how I dump my junk." Brandi said as she sipped from a water bottle.
Brandi spun in her chair and stretched. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt without a bra and was being a bit of a slug. She had worked out already and was waiting for the next job. After the last one, Mr. Case had put her on ice while they did some testing on her and waited to see how Brad worked out. He had let her enjoy the social scene of Miami but no vacations out of state while they worked on her "memory".
Brandi and Mr. Case had figured out that that her brain seemed to have several types of "memory", she thought of it as having different "drives". Her own personal memory was one drive, and seemed to have no issues, but she could not "store" anything other than her own experiences in it. This made for some odd situations where Brandi could remember taking a memory about something, but not the memory itself. A "hole" basically. Brandi didn't feel really bothered about it, but she knew why she had the hole and could fill in the blanks. She did see how this could be an issue for someone else though, especially if it was a big hole. And in the process, they had discovered that she could not download her own personal memory into someone else. Her memories were hers alone apparently.
She had another one for skills. This one was interesting. She had her own personal skills, which ranged from college classes to her work in chemistry, to stuff she had read and then practiced on, like lock-picking. It also included the skills she absorbed from others which sometimes overlapped. She had found that those skills would be kept in a temporary "file" until she either used them or were slowly transferred over. If she practiced them right away, even a little bit, they seemed to be absorbed fully at a much faster rate. Brandi felt that it was different as these things were skills, stuff she "knew", and not just a memory which while helpful, wasn't exactly the same as "knowing" it.
Her "Junk" file was the one that they were really concerned with. Brandi had discovered that there was a set limit of space in this file. Organizing it and being careful when she copied or fed would stretch the space available. But she eventually would need to download it if she wanted to keep being able to absorb new memories or information. Since she hadn't even been tracking this concept when she had started they really had no idea how fast she could fill up. And with Brad's mental breakdown, Brandi wasn't sure she wanted to go until full.
With Mr. Case's permission, Brandi had started experimenting. She would feed for a week and then download on someone they could watch. Not any of Mr. Case's employees, but Miami locals who Mr. Case could keep tabs on. So far it seemed to be working. Other than a couple of complaints about "strange dreams" to a close friend or a therapist, most of her test subjects seemed to be able to handle a week's worth of feed being shoved into their head.
While that took care of her random feeding, she was more concerned with the critical stuff. The key information she had been pulling. Not huge amounts so far, but that information was something that she just couldn't dump anywhere. Someone might be smart enough to use it or, worse, maybe try to track down some of the memories. Computer code, some business secrets, legal information, and some very kinky blackmail stuff; she had to be careful on that.
Brandi had some ideas on that but had not yet voiced them with Mr. Case as she was still wondering herself about it. As she saw it, they had two options based on her current abilities. One, she could go somewhere and get someone who could not possibly figure or use what she dumped in them. Her mental example would be some distant tribesman in the Amazon who wouldn't even know what a computer was much less coding for it, but it could easily be some inbred redneck in West Virginia too.
Two, they could dump the data in someone and then "neutralize" them. That was bit too cold blooded for Brandi and she was not sure she wanted to present that option to Mr. Case. She was not sure she really wanted to find out his feelings on that.
Aside from these concerns, Brandi was having a personal issue. She was concerned about her boyfriend, and she was curious about something she had found while delving into her own mind.
Brandi had been "seeing" a guy from her social club several times a week. He was a real estate shark, young, handsome, and fun in bed. Brandi had made it clear early on it was just for fun and the guy had been more than happy to agree. Brandi's social skills and her continually growing skills in being a hot and sexy woman had made her one of the most popular members of the after-hours club Brenda had introduced her too. Brandi had been very careful not to tread on anyone else's toes in-regards to significant others or potential others and had made it a point to be friendly with all the girls if she could.
While the social aspect of having a hot and rich boyfriend was fun, Brandi's main concern was using him to get to the level or excitement and arousal that let her work on her own mind. She would usually feed right before they met up and then she could easily get him into the bedroom and then "plug in". On the few times he had wanted to resist (very few), she had simply put a lot of milk into his drink and then kissed him and that was that.
She had not needed to wipe his memory. Being plugged into her was a non-stop orgasm and pleasure train for whomever she was using. Any memories of what had happened were so mixed up and confused by the level of pleasure that it didn't matter what she said or did, the person couldn't make heads or tails of it and usually drifted off into a haze of pleasant memory. Her boyfriend had early on tried to figure out what had happened, but after trying very hard with her help (she wanted to know if he could get his memory clear enough to be a possible issue), he simply gave up and said that all he knew was that it was the most intense and wonderful sex he had ever had.
Even though it was an "open" relationship and Brandi continually reminded him that this was all just for fun, Brandi could tell she was wrapping him around her finger easily. He was calling her and texting her daily, always wanting to take her to lunch or dinner, or go for a walk, or something. Brandi didn't want to hurt him, but she was worried about this being an issue. But right now, he was too useful to let go.
Due to his great shape, Brandi was able to use him for extended periods of time, even if he was doped beyond rational thought. This was enabling her to really look into her own mind and see exactly what was going on. Dr. Caines, for all his nastiness, was a brilliant doctor and geneticist and since Brandi had his skills she was finding some things out. How different parts of the brain worked, what they did normally, and what hers did now.
The other item Brandi was concerned about was the "other" desk she had found. While delving through her mind last weekend she had found something. Another desk so to speak, but it was much harder to get to and the things on it where VERY interesting. The files were labeled by name, but the material in them was very weird. The names were her own and then a file on everyone she had sex with. She had opened a couple and what was in there was a strange kind of code that at the time had been nothing but babble. It seemed very familiar though, but before she could delve deeper she had been roughly kicked out by a huge orgasm that had knocked her out cold. She woke up several hours later with Steve (her shark boyfriend) lying under her with a look of sheer rapture on his face. He had been a loss for the rest of the day, not even waking up until nearly eight hours after they had started and then being pretty much a mindless zombie all night and into the next day. He still hadn't quite fully recovered when she had left his beachfront condo that evening. He had kissed her passionately and looked like a smitten schoolboy.
"Lord, there is something about that weird code in those files, but I just can't place it. It seems so familiar. And that weird aura around my file. It felt really odd when I touched it. Almost like it was alive. No, not alive. Active. Like it was active and running."
Brandi pondered this a bit and drank some more water. She checked out the clock and sighed. "I've been at this all day and still can't figure it out. Maybe I need to plug back in?" Brandi thought about it and smiled. She had fed on a jogger earlier and was fully sated, so control shouldn't be an issue.
"And Steve is always asking to see more of me..." Brandi murmured and then she nodded.
She texted him and he responded fast.
