AI WHISPERS
she continues, "I have to study the baseline. If the code is evolving, I need to know how it affects the source material. Its creators."
"We aren't lab rats," Alex spits out, struggling against his bonds.
"Everyone is a lab rat, Alex," Evelyn corrects gently. "Some of us are just the scientists."
She taps the screen.
"Subject arousal test one," a voice announces from the overhead speakers. It’s Echo. But stripped. Lobotomized. It lacks the warmth, the seduction. It sounds like a medical device reading a chart.
"No," I whimper.
A robotic arm descends from the ceiling above me. Another descends above Alex. They move with silent, hydraulic precision.