Countess Conquest had done some serious thinking after her previous scheme had literally blown up in her face.

She’d decided to abandon her old goal. Trying to take over the world was more trouble than it was worth. It attracted too much attention. Even if she eventually succeeded, it would only mean endless work to hold on to her empire. Owning everything and ruling everyone weren’t such great benefits, really. She already had enough wealth to live in opulent luxury with all the servants and attendants and lovers she wanted.

There was just one problem. She could have as many lovers as she wanted, but not the lovers she wanted. That, she decided, was not good enough.

She had devised a solution to that problem.

Operating under the radar, allowing her enemies to believe that perhaps this time she really was gone for good, she’d acquired the necessary resources and made her preparations.

Earlier this evening, she’d acquired her target, who had predictably stopped to interrupt a staged back-alley mugging on her way out of a goody-two-shoes fundraising appearance. She hadn’t had a chance to alert her teammates, who would have no reason to suspect that anything was wrong for a day or two.

Now, there was just one final step.

Countess Conquest reviewed the neural inducer protocols for uprooting existing thoughts and memories and replacing them with ones more conducive to her purpose. She tested and retested the subroutines to detect, deflect, and dampen attempts to resist the process.

Everything was ready to go. She proceeded to the conditioning chamber to claim her prize.