hissed Anna, her face going even redder with rage. “I’ll show you truth!” She hit the neural stimulation switch on the console and pain flooded through me. Pain I had never known before. Pain that lashed my nerve endings. They did not need to tell me what the neural stimulation switch was for. I could see it on the designs in the system. It was the failsafe to keep any test subject under control once they had connected successfully to the neural data net. Its unofficial name was the pain button. It was an electronic collar and leash. Its use was governed by legal clauses concerning reasonable neural displacement, commensurate to the anti-corporate activity of the test subject. Anna didn’t give a damn about reasonable neural displacement as she viciously spun the power dial next to the button and watched me writhe in agony. “Anna! For God’s sake, Anna!” shouted Andrew, running forward and releasing the button. The pain stopped. Anna glared at him and her colleagues. “What?”
