It was just the flip of a switch.

A big red mark in the bottom left said SAFETIES OFF in bold text.

The Alteration technician leaned back in his chair, drugged into unconsciousness. The spray was as effective as advertised.

The subject in the chair was already deep in trance, watching the light patterns and listening to the soft noises in their ears. It wouldn't be hard to just slip a little extra programming in there.

As the client had directed.

The keyboard clacked loudly in the quiet room. An attachment was introduced to the console. Servers whirred with new information being uploaded to and downloaded from the subject's mind.

The subject would never notice, they were too far gone. The technician would hopefully only remember being too tired for work and taking a little nap while routine Alterations were ongoing—a violation of protocol, but not a serious one.

And once the spy program was in place...

It was just the flip of a switch. The warning text vanished.

The operative left the room just as the technician groaned.