Live each life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

  ~ Tecumseh

  The following day, Sarah again repeated the same test, finishing the quest early. Everything ran just like the past couple days until she tried to apply the free points to her body stats. That was when things got weird.

  The first stat she tried to increase was Strength, but instead of increasing from F9 to F10, a message box appeared.

  Strength has reached the upper limit allowed for an F-ranked body. Evolve your Body rank to unlock additional growth in Strength.

  “What?” she wondered. An upper limit?

  She tried applying another point to each of her other body stats, but got variations of the same message.

  “So what do I do with free points I can’t spend? And how do I evolve my Body rank?”

  She got no response.

  With available time, she headed for the gym to do some more testing. She’d set her baselines over the past couple days. It was still early, but if the trends continued, every point in Strength seemed to result in approximately 10% more power.

  Some combination of the stats were also increasing her speed, but she had no idea if it was based only on Strength, or if Agility and Toughness added anything. She’d need to test upgrading each of the stats individually to try to quantify the gains.

  She’d tested Strength pretty extensively, but hadn’t tried to isolate any of the other stats yet. Despite getting blocked from adding her free points that morning, she could still set a baseline for Agility in the meantime.

  So Sarah entered a secondary room at the gym with padded floors, used mostly for yoga classes and some martial arts classes. She'd never been much of a tumbler or gymnast, but tried kicking up into a handstand.

  Usually her laughable attempts at handstands lasted about a quarter of a second and resulted in her crashing onto her back. This time it came easy. Riding that high, she threw herself into a cartwheel.

  She hadn't done a cartwheel since she was eight years old, but again the movement came easy and she had no trouble landing it. One of the female trainers at the gym taught basic gymnastic classes for kids, and Sarah tracked her down.

  The woman had some time between classes and was happy to teach Sarah how to do a backflip after Sarah demonstrated her newfound cartwheel ability.

  She landed the backflip on her third attempt, and was honestly shocked. She'd done backflips into a pool before, but had never tried one from a standing position.

  It wasn't exactly easy, but she'd always thought backflipping was beyond her abilities. It was a heady thing to see such fast progression.

  “You really never tried tumbling before?” the trainer asked.

  “Not really.”

  “Too bad. You’re a natural. Come by any time, and I’d be happy to teach you some more.”

  “Thanks,” Sarah said, and was happy to agree to a selfie with the woman for her Instagram account.

  The trainer was thrilled. She gushed that she never had posted a photo with a famous person before, and expected to get tons more hits than usual.

  Sarah was happy to make her day, especially because the woman had helped her verify that her Agility stat was definitely having a noticeable benefit already.

  Unfortunately, that was all the time she had for testing. Three news vans appeared outside of her apartment after lunch and set up shop, looking like they planned to stay there all day. They knocked on her door enough times that she finally relented and answered.

  They wanted to set up interviews to discuss the disaster at Alterego and her involvement in saving Marilyn and Mr Fleischer. Video showed her among the group that had escaped at the last second. Tomas, disguised as Mr Fleischer, had lauded both Sarah and Jill as heroes of the day.

  She declined, suggesting that they talk with Jill, who was thoroughly enjoying all of the attention, but they did not relent. She finally had to say she would consider it and get back to them. Then she shut the door, closed her curtains, and pretended she was not home.

  The next morning, she was awakened early by a phone call from Jill.

  “How can you still be in bed, sleepyhead? We have that press conference today.”

  “Is that today already?” Sarah asked as she willed away the ever-present good morning daily quest screen.

  “Yeah, and they want us there earlier for a team meeting. Apparently there's going to be a zoom call with one of the congressional committees investigating the company too. It's going to be a full day. Can you pick me up?”

  “Seriously? Don't you have like twenty of the most expensive cars of all time?” Sarah teased.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “I don't drive them,” Jill laughed. “At least not without scheduling them in advance. I have them stored at a secure, climate controlled garage about 45 minutes from my house.”

  Sarah sighed. She'd never understand Jill's hunger for those crazy expensive sports cars, especially if she did not hardly drive them.

  Sarah liked a good car, and she'd purchased a sporty red BMW Z4. She loved it, the car was fun to drive, and it only cost a fraction of the ridiculous cars that Jill liked to purchase.

  “I'll be over in an hour.”

  “Don’t dawdle, girl.”

  Jill's apartment was only about fifteen minutes away, which gave Sarah precious little time to get ready. She pumped out the required push-ups and sit-ups, but would have to deal with the run later.

  Since she was heading for a series of meetings, which would no doubt be televised and heavily covered by the media, she chose to dress up more than she had in the past few days. She chose an elegant asymmetrical white blazer with black contrast lapels over a white satin blouse, and a black skirt that allowed her to show off her legs in a tasteful way.

  Jill was ready and waiting in a belted crimson sheath dress with mandarin collar, cut to highlight her famous figure.

  “You look fabulous, Sarah,” Jill said as she slipped into the passenger seat.

  “You too,” Sarah responded as she accelerated away from the two news vans that had filmed her arrival to Jill's apartment. Jill always dressed to impress, and no doubt she would steal the show again, which was fine with Sarah.

  As Sarah drove, pushing the car enough to enjoy the experience, Jill asked, “Where have you been hiding all week, Sarah? I haven’t seen you appear on the news.”

  “Just trying to take it easy.”

  Jill chuckled. “You can't waste this golden opportunity, Sarah. The world will forget all about us all too soon, so you have to strike while the iron is hot.”

  Sarah grunted noncommittally and focused on driving. The winding roads down from the Maryland hills to the conference center where the meaning would take place passed quickly.

  The team meeting prior to the press conference turned out to include all of the top 100 male and female donors. It was a delight to see everyone again.

  It had only been a few days since Alterego's fiery destruction, but these people had been her family for the last few years. She’d been so distracted by the path taking over her life that she hadn't realized how much she'd missed them.

  Almost everyone was there, and most of them had returned to their own bodies, thankfully. Tawnya was still bandaged and recovering from the injuries her body had suffered from that renter who had crashed it last week, but seemed in good spirits.

  Unfortunately, not everyone had managed to get their home bodies back. Christine, the original owner of the ‘Soccer Star’ body that Eirene had disappeared in, was wearing a much taller convict body with a more voluptuous frame. She was doing her best to maintain her good spirits, but Sarah could read the worry hidden behind her eyes.

  Would she ever get home? Eirene had promised to return her body, but when?

  Every time Sarah looked at Christine, she felt guilty. She’d gotten her body back, but let Eirene run off with Christine’s. She never should have let Eirene go.

  Could she have stopped her? Maybe not, but she should have at least gotten a more concrete promise. She didn’t even have Eirene’s phone number to follow up. Maybe she could get it from Tomas.

  “I can't stand it,” Jill exclaimed as she and Sarah were chatting with Mark, the owner of the famous ‘Conan’ body, and Ryan, the owner of the 3rd-ranked ‘007’ body. “We need a social hour tonight. We can't just hang out during meetings. We're family, and our house was destroyed.”

  She was right, and the idea spread like wildfire. Before the official meeting was even called to order, they had all agreed to meet at a favorite Italian restaurant nearby. Mark sent one of the Alterego staffers to reserve the entire restaurant for them for the evening.

  Then the meetings got started. Tomas, still wearing Mr Fleischer's body, his face half-covered in bandages, led the meeting. It was surprisingly inspirational, despite the difficult circumstances the company found itself in.

  He confirmed that the machines and the marvelous body transfer technology had been lost with Dr Maerwynn and her assistants in the explosion. The company faced many lawsuits, congressional investigations, and a catastrophic collapse of their stock price. In the near term, they were preparing to file for bankruptcy.

  He fielded blistering waves of questions regarding every aspect of Alterego’s program. Some of the most heated questions regarded the convict loaner body program, and Tomas admitted that the convicts had never actually volunteered to act as body donors.

  That admission triggered a wave of surprise through the donor ranks. Sarah had witnessed that one poor convict woman whose body Alterego stole for her get locked in a soul coffin. Few others knew the truth about how the convicts were being used, and the revelations triggered a lot of reactions, from disbelief to anger.

  Tomas weathered the storm, promising full disclosure and full cooperation. He also promised to use a large portion of the company’s available funds, the insurance payout from the explosion, as well as most of his personal fortune to cover severance packages and award every staff member and donor handsomely.

  Those generous payouts would not include the company executives and some of the senior staff, who had all been fired and were under investigation by various governmental agencies for collusion with Dr Maerwynn. As much as his generous promised pleased many, representatives of the convicts believed killed in the explosion clamored for more.

  Those convicts’ bodies were now worn by staffers, renters, and a few unfortunate donors like poor Christine. Some considered that the worst kind of sacrilege, others an insult to the dead, but the legal ramifications seemed to grow ever more complex.

  “Poor Christine,” Jill muttered as an argument raged about how to determine legal ownership of the bodies.

  “I know. It’s insane.”

  Tomas tread a delicate balancing act in his role as Mr Fleischer. It was an impressive performance. By the time Mr Fleischer got back to his body, the man would be a pauper, captain of a sinking company, targeted by lawsuits and congress. Served him right.

  The press conference was long and mostly boring. Sarah and most of the donors had little to do but sit in their chairs and pretend to be interested.

  Jill played a larger role, again capturing most of the spotlight in the few donor interviews that got squeezed in, which was fine by Sarah.

  Next came the Congressional Oversight Committee, which was mostly interested in interrogating Tomas as Mr Fleischer, but Sarah and the other top-ten male and female donors were asked to attend again.

  All of the meetings, interviews with news media, and the whole circus took the bulk of the day. By the time Sarah entered the restaurant to join everyone for a delicious buffet style Italian feast that evening, she was tired and ready for a break.

  The restaurant had pulled out all the stops, cooking all of their best dishes by the dozen, making it easy for everyone to select their favorite, spread out around the large dining room, and enjoy some downtime together.

  Sitting at a table near the glass double doors leading to an outside patio that was closed for the event, Sarah enjoyed what might have been the best lasagna she'd ever eaten. Jill sat beside her, while Mark and Ryan sat across from them. They spent a fun hour chatting and swapping tales of the worst renters.

  Then, without warning, the nearby doors exploded off their hinges in a blast of splinters and broken glass. Five hooded men dressed in black outfits and military bulletproof vests, carrying rifles, burst through the door even before the debris finished falling.

  Two steps into the room, they opened fire.