The hills are shadows, and they flow

  From form to form, and nothing stands.

  ~ Canto CXXIII, In Memoriam,1850

  From Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  Outside, chaos still reigned. More fire trucks had arrived, along with several news helicopters. It looked like dozens of police cars had responded to the disaster, and uniformed officers were trying to gain control of the bedlam.

  Mr. Fleischer’s booming voice drew Sarah to the area where the rows of life support encased bodies lay on gurneys. Staffers formed a barrier between those bodies and the crowds of desperate renters.

  Between the two groups, flanked by his security staff and a dozen police officers, Mr. Fleischer was calling for calm. Since Sarah had last seen him, his head had been wrapped with bandages that concealed half his face, while dirt marred his cheeks.

  It was not until he turned that Sarah realized the truth.

  Tomas.

  Eirene must have swapped his face for Mr. Fleischer’s moments earlier in the ambulance. Probably Mr. Fleischer had been drugged and concealed while Tomas assumed his identity.

  Tomas looked enough like Mr. Fleischer that no one would notice, not with the bandages and the dirt, and with the panic and chaos engulfing the ruins of Alterego.

  Tomas had acquired a bullhorn and used it to restore a semblance of order. Some of the worried renters looked relieved to learn it would be possible to return to their own bodies, and lined up eagerly for the transfer.

  Police and medical personnel tried in vain to gain access to the operating room, but Tomas refused to allow it. He claimed that under the circumstances Alterego’s primary objective was the safety of their people.

  A staffer appeared at Tomas’s side to inform him the makeshift operating room was ready. Sarah and Jill, assisted by some of the other staffers, tried to figure out how to order the transfers. The challenge proved daunting.

  Some of the renters’ bodies had already been returned to their suites prior to the implosion of the complex, and no one pretended they would find any survivors in the destroyed corporate facility. That left some renters without a body to return to.

  At the same time, there were dozens of convict bodies available, either being worn by staffers, or on stretchers as spares. They would never be reincorporated, since the souls of those convicts had been destroyed in the vault.

  Most did not realize that the bodies on the gurneys, with their heads concealed by the fake life support units, lacked faces, and that their owners had died.

  Despite that, other questions of identity and ownership sparked dozens of arguments, threats of legal action, and three separate fist-fights.

  Sarah focused all of her energy on the challenge, happy for something to do other than worry about what might be happening to her mind. Near-death experiences, magical explosions, women who could shrug off fatal wounds, and bizarre pop-up game screens that she controlled with her mind were all things she was not ready to deal with.

  Tomas, acting as Mr. Fleischer, made several executive orders to push the process forward. Pitched as a temporary solution, he ordered renters to be returned to their bodies whenever possible. If their bodies were suspected destroyed in the fire, they were to transfer to available convict bodies so the donors could also be restored.

  “That’s not good enough,” shouted one red-faced elderly gentleman who tried vainly to push his walker closer through the crowd. “You’re guilty of criminal negligence, if not outright manslaughter. I refuse to trust you or your company after what you did to my wife.”

  His wife, a woman wearing Natalie’s ‘Southern Belle’ body, who hovered close beside him, crossed her arms defiantly and added, “You killed my body, so I’m not transferring anywhere.”

  Several other donors echoed those cries, and Sarah began to worry. Renters under normal circumstances were often reluctant to return to their old, decrepit bodies.

  Despite the shock of the disaster, they had a perfect opportunity to try to hold onto the youth they spent so much money renting. Led by the woman trying to steal Natalie’s body, a large percentage of them appeared ready to fight to do so.

  Tomas responded without hesitation. Gesturing at his heavily-bandaged face, he cried, “Guilty you say? I am guilty! Guilty of caring too much for all of you!”

  Despite a chorus of angry words, he added, “As soon as I learned of the potential risks this week, I’ve worked day and night to learn the truth. Only hours ago, I finally gained access to Dr. Maerwynn’s secret files and discovered that she’s been lying to us all. She and one of her assistants, a deceitful woman named Mai Luan, deceived Alterego and buried evidence of the health risks.”

  “I confronted them today, and when they learned I planned to reveal the truth, despite the risks to my company, they attacked me and set off the chain reaction that destroyed this complex.” As he spoke, an actual tear glistened in his one visible eye.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The crowd’s angry muttering faded away under his masterful performance. Sarah whispered, “Who are you?”

  Tomas added more quietly, “I barely escaped that firetrap with my life, thanks to the bravery of some of my staff.” Pointing to the angry old gentleman, Tomas added, “So save your anger for those who perpetrated this crime.”

  The old fellow frowned, “You’re the president. You’re responsible.”

  “Yes I am,” Tomas added loudly. “I take full responsibility for the safety of my people, and for your safety. But the legal wrangling and finger pointing can wait.” To the stubborn woman wearing Natalie’s body he added, “First, we need to save your life.”

  The woman gasped, as did many others. “What do you mean?”

  Tomas paused to ensure he had everyone’s attention. “I learned today that the reason rental time limits were capped at three months was to avoid serious psychological risks. Dr. Maerwynn’s secret experiments had confirmed that without a costly new set of safety protocols, people living in other bodies faced a ninety-nine percent chance of catastrophic mental collapse, resulting in a permanent vegetative state or death.”

  Sarah wished she could speak with Tomas privately. She doubted those risks were true, but he spoke with such passion she could not be sure.

  Even as a new wave of panic rippled through the crowd, he held up his hands and spoke over them.

  “Thankfully, a single transfer unit, our most recent prototype, installed with those vital safety protocols, has survived the catastrophe. It was the only unit not in the main building as it underwent a minor repair. My staff has already prepared a functional operating room to enable return to your original bodies, or transfer to temporary replacements safe from those longterm risks.”

  Renters began clamoring for immediate transfer, and the previously-obstinate woman wearing Natalie’s ‘Southern Belle’ was one of the loudest.

  They worked straight through until almost midnight before the last transfer was complete, while police and medical examiners waited impatiently to interrogate Almeda and Tereza. As Dr. Maerwynn’s only available assistants who understood the full process, they were people of interest in the investigation.

  After the last patient was released and the security officer manning the door allowed them to enter, officials swarmed into the building.

  Sarah had been resting on a nearby folding chair, enjoying the blissful feeling of being herself. But she sat forward to listen as cries of alarm rang from the building and more police raced to respond.

  White-coated doctors pushed two gurneys out through the crowd, followed by uniformed officers carrying a pair of opened life support units. On the gurneys lay the bodies of Almeda and Tereza.

  Their faces were missing.

  So exhausted was Sarah that it took her a moment to understand everyone’s excitement. She’d grown numb to the horror of the faceless bodies, to the shock and revulsion that everyone else was experiencing only for the first time.

  “I should have expected this.” Eirene seated herself in a nearby chair, her expression sour. “I thought I had them contained, that I’d have time to interrogate them once the transfers completed, but I underestimated their resourcefulness.”

  “How’d they escape?”

  Eirene considered the question a moment before responding. “Most likely they double stacked like I did with Jill. If I’d been paying proper attention, I might have realized what they were doing.”

  “What did you want to ask them about?”

  Eirene gave her a surprised look. “Haven’t you been paying attention, my dear? I need to know about that machine they developed, and why they were harvesting souls in the vault. How long have they been working with the cui dashi and . . . well, many other things.”

  “But Mai Luan is dead.”

  Eirene chuckled and patted Sarah’s knee. “Your optimism is so refreshing.”

  “But she blew up a building around herself.” Sarah gestured at the still-smoldering ruins.

  “With so many souls to draw upon, there was no way Mai Luan committed suicide. No, she escaped somehow and destroyed the building behind her to conceal the evidence.”

  “How is that possible?”

  Fresh shouting interrupted Eirene. Angry voices rose in volume from the small building where the transfers had been taking place.

  “No doubt they finally overcame their shock at finding those bodies,” Eirene observed. “They’re realizing there is no transfer machine in the building.”

  Sarah said, “I feel sorry for them. They’re trying to investigate things they can’t hope to understand.”

  “No, they cannot. I’m the one who has to get to the bottom of this.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll start with the last people they transferred. That may produce some leads.”

  “Wait, you didn’t change out of Christine’s body.”

  “I don’t have time for that, I’m afraid. I’ll have to keep this one for a while yet.”

  “But what about—?”

  “I transferred her to an available body. She will be fine.”

  “But it’s her body,” Sarah protested as all of the fears and worries that had plagued her around the possible loss of her own body flared up again, but this time focused on poor Christine. She did not deserve to lose her body. No one did.”

  “My need trumps her for the moment,” Eirene said simply. “Mai Luan is too dangerous a threat for me to accept a suboptimal form.”

  “But—“

  “I applaud your concern for your friend. It’s a refreshing reminder that not everyone views their current suit the way I do.” She nodded to herself. “Never fear, Sarah. You helped Tomas free me, and you helped us escape Mai Luan. For that debt, I swear to return Christine’s body to her soon.”

  It wasn’t great, but it was something. Sarah wanted to protest further, but it was clear Eirene wasn’t about to concede more, at least on that subject. The memory of her burning eyes, magic fire encased body as she fought Dr Maerwynn with superhuman reflexes, flashed through her mind.

  Sarah definitely did not want Eirene angry with her. Eirene rose just as Jill arrived and flopped down into a nearby chair.

  “Wait, I have so many questions still,” Sarah said.

  “Another time, I’m afraid.” Eirene shook her hand solemnly. “It was a pleasure, Sarah. You did well in there.”

  “We’d have been lost without you.”

  Jill snorted. “What world have you been living in, Sarah? Psycho lady’s not our friend.”

  “You have no idea,” Sarah said.

  With a final wave, Eirene slipped away into the crowd. Sarah watched her go, still torn. Should she have told her about the screens popping up in her mind, or about the near-death experience in the vault, or pressed her harder to give Christine’s body back sooner?

  Jill frowned at her back. “We should sick the cops on her.”

  “Don’t you dare. She saved our lives.” Besides, Sarah did not want to see what Eirene might do to simple cops.

  Jill waved a hand across the devastated landscape. “Sarah, our lives are a mess. Look around.”

  How could she explain that despite the chaos surrounding them, she finally felt her life was back where it needed to be?

  Instead she pulled Jill into a hug. “Thanks for your help today.”

  “I’m just glad we didn’t go nuts.” Jill sighed. “What are we going to do next?”

  Hopefully they hadn't gone nuts. Sarah again pushed those worries aside and instead nodded toward the swarms of media personnel. “Like they say, when one door closes . . .”

  Jill barked a laugh and finished for her. “Don’t get your fingers caught.”

  Together they moved toward the news cameras. Within minutes, every camera was focused on Jill, who gave a masterful performance expressing condolences to staff, donors and renters alike who suffered from the tragedy.

  As reporters peppered Jill with questions and she warmed to the attention, Sarah slipped back into the crowd. Jill was going to be all right.