Saving Face Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Acknowledgements

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Whipsaw Press

  SAVING FACE

  (Prequel to The Facetakers)

  Frank Morin

  Whipsaw Press

  Copyright Frank Morin 2013

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Cover art by Christopher Guerra

  (http://seegenerateartist.com/)

  Chapter 1

  With a rattle and a bang, the restraining gate dropped away and released four modified go-karts. Marilyn cheered as gravity dragged her kart down the ramp and onto the road in a smooth acceleration toward the first of many curves in the steep, winding two mile track.

  Marilyn’s young boyfriend Bill somehow managed to pull ahead, followed close behind by long-time friends, Walter and Gladys. The couple rode close together, laughing and looking spectacular. Walter’s chiseled good looks and gymnast physique drew every eye not already glued to Gladys’ beautiful oval face or her waist-length, silky black hair that blew behind her like a sable cape. They looked fantastic, as they should. Marilyn knew exactly how much they’d paid for those looks.

  Marilyn grinned as she followed the others around the first turn in her kart that was little more than a seat on wheels with a plastic body, steering wheel, and brakes. Gravity did the work of the engine on the steep track, dragging them forward, faster and faster until they barreled down the slope at reckless speed.

  Dense forest of oak and maple lined both sides of the mountain track, their summer foliage forming a vivid green corridor through which the group raced. The warm breeze against her skin felt delicious, and Marilyn grinned wider at the long-forgotten sensation. It felt great to be outdoors and active again.

  In the second curve, Marilyn’s kart skidded in some loose sand, sending a thrill of fear rippling through her. She hadn’t done anything so wild since she was a foolish girl.

  I’m acting like an old lady, she chided herself and forced the worries away. I need to act my appearance, not my age.

  She spared a glance down at her recently acquired figure and drew confidence from its youthful strength. Described as ‘The All-American Girl’, she had perfectly proportioned curves and light brown hair that fell in bouncy waves past her shoulders when not crushed down by the racing helmet.

  The men pulled ahead and skidded around the third curve with loud whoops. Gladys tried to follow, but over-steered and nearly lost control. She braked hard and barely avoided plowing into the safety rail.

  Marilyn took the curve more slowly and called out, “Are you all right?”

  “Of course,” Gladys laughed. “You worry too much. You know I can’t get permanently damaged.”

  “Just don’t die.”

  “You’re such an old maid. Enjoy the youth you’ve been given.”

  “I wasn’t given anything. This youth cost a fortune.”

  “So enjoy it!”

  Gladys took the next curve without slowing. Marilyn followed close behind, repeating Gladys’ words in her mind, trying to ignore the cautionary voice of experience telling her to slow down.

  They raced another half mile that way, pushing the little karts as fast as they dared, skidding around corners and laughing until Marilyn’s cheeks hurt. Fear and adrenaline coursed through her like she hadn’t dared feel for decades.

  Bill maintained a slender lead despite Walter’s efforts to pass, and Marilyn smiled at the rivalry. Although only in his twenties, Bill reminded her so much of Charlie, god rest his soul, that she felt she’d known him far more than two months. He made her feel as young as she looked, and he’d begun hinting his interest in taking the relationship to a more intimate level.

  The thought set her heart fluttering like a young maid, a feeling she never expected to experience again. Could she risk telling him the truth?

  As they swept around the next long curve, they found the road ahead blocked by three karts clustered together near a fourth, overturned. Several teen-agers were kneeling around a companion who sat in the road holding a bloody head.

  Walter and Bill stopped nearby and climbed out to help. Marilyn braked hard behind them, and her kart shuddered as it skidded to a stop.

  Gladys didn’t slow. She screamed as she barreled down on the group in the road, managed to swerve around them, but over-steered on the far side. Her kart skidded, slid sideways across the road, and struck the guardrail still moving way too fast. It rolled up and over the barrier and Gladys disappeared beyond the steep edge of the road, still strapped in to the wildly tumbling kart.

  “Brakes failed,” Walter said as he entered the hospital room where Marilyn sat watching the unconscious and heavily bandaged Gladys. “Police are interviewing the owners of the track.”

  “Did you hear from Alterego?”

  “That’s the only good news. They’re going to transfer her to their facility later today.”

  “Does she have comprehensive coverage?”

  “Yes, thank the lord. Full face value.”

  Chapter 2

  Alterego proved efficient as ever and Gladys returned home the very next day. As soon as Marilyn received word, she rushed over to the large, craftsman style home her friends had custom-built four decades earlier in the Maryland countryside.

  Walter answered the door, and Marilyn stared at his altered features. “When did that happen?”

  “Last night while I waited.”

  “Is this really a good time?”

  “Come on back. She’s by the pool. You’ll see.”

  Marilyn followed him through the richly appointed home to the spacious back patio. Gladys lay on a padded pool chair, enjoying the summer sun in a swimsuit cut to accentuate her lovely new figure.

  “Marilyn,” Gladys said and rose to greet her. She stood at least four inches taller than she had the day before, with a full-bodied, voluptuous figure with thick blonde hair and long, perfectly shaped legs.

  Marilyn stared. “That’s not ‘Athlete’s Dream’. That’s …”

  “You got it,” Gladys said with a grin, “‘Every Man’s Dream’. Number one rental this year.”

  “How did you get it? The wait list is forever.”

  Walter removed his shirt to better show off his new, heavily muscled body. “Like I said, full face value coverage. Insurance replacements trump new rentals. Every other top fifty model was already out. This one just came back in yesterday from a three month lease.”

  Gladys laughed, “I couldn’t have planned it better.” She ran a hand across Walter’s bulging pecks. “When Walter found out what I was getting, he just had to upgrade too.”

  Marilyn smiled, “I’m so glad things worked out so well. You look fabulous.”

  “What about you?”


  Marilyn glanced down at the young, beautiful body she’d grown to love over the past three months, and made her choice. She could not pass up this singular opportunity at a second chance at life.

  “I’m going in today to tell them I want to keep it.”

  “Good luck, dear. You’ll be the first.”

  Chapter 3

  “I hate feeling old,” Sarah said as she moved her sagging, wrinkled old body through the pool in time with the water aerobics instructor.

  “Just think about this month’s bonus,” Jill said from where she exercised close by in the warm pool.

  “Is that really all you think about?”

  Jill smiled, showing perfect white dentures. Today she was a short, wrinkled old lady with wispy gray hair, although her face didn’t fit the shape of the head very well. “Why not? It’s better than whining about how miserable it is exercising these old bones.”

  “I’d think you’d be furious,” Sarah said as she started a set of lunges that pushed her aching frame to its limits.

  “Why? The payout’s going to be awesome.”

  “I’d still be ticked. Instead of enjoying a little home time, you’re stuck exercising that old relic.”

  Jill shrugged. “It’s what we do, remember? We’re donors. Why are you so surprised when renters come knocking?”

  “It’s not that,” Sarah said with a frown. “It’s … I’m just frustrated that old biddy got rewarded with your body after wrecking poor Tawnya.”

  “She’s a top ten renter. It’s in the contract.” Jill stopped and faced Sarah. “What’s really bothering you?”

  Sarah blew out an old lady smelling breath. “I’m just anxious. I get my body back today and I’m suddenly worried what this old crone,” she jabbed a finger at herself, “has been doing to it.”

  Jill shrugged. “If she damages it, you get the insurance payout.”

  “I know. It’s just, I miss being myself.”

  “Who you are doesn’t depend on what you look like,” Jill said with a smile, quoting the poster hanging over the door in the cafeteria.

  Sarah splashed her and focused on pushing the old body through the exercise routine, but her mind wasn’t in it. Since voicing her concerns, she realized she’d been feeling that way more and more over the past few weeks.

  Something needed to change.

  Chapter 4

  While they showered and dressed after class, Jill pulled a magazine out of her locker and tossed it onto the bench beside Sarah. “Check it out.” She pointed to a cherry red sports car whose name was a mix of numbers and letters. “That’s my new baby.”

  “Another one?”

  Jill lifted the magazine and kissed the hot car with her wrinkled old lips. “Oh yeah. With this latest bonus, I can get a pre-production model.”

  “Why? You never drive the other ones.”

  “I know, but this one is the hottest new model. My collection is worthless without it.”

  Sarah toweled her hair, careful not to dislodge the wig. “You’ll never buy out your contract if you keep blowing your bonuses.”

  “Why would I want to do that? There’s no other job in the whole world like this one. Can you see me getting a normal job?”

  “Fat chance. You’re the number one rated donor. You’d have rich guys lined up to ask you out.”

  Jill shrugged. “They’d get rid of me as soon as they saw next year’s top model, just like they did Irina.”

  “That’s completely different, unless you decide to go nuts.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Once I moved into her spot and she dropped out of the top ten, it’s like she fell off the face of the earth.”

  “Still, it’s worth a try at least, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t see why.” Jill looked genuinely puzzled. “I’ve got it easy here. Why change things?”

  They made their slow way down the plush carpeted halls of Alterego’s corporate facility toward the Corporal Transfer Lab where they would turn in the old bodies. They entered their normal transfer station, a plain white hospital-like room complete with beeping equipment, antiseptic smell, and four standard hospital gurneys.

  The two beds in the center were empty while the beds to either side held the bodies they would inhabit after the transfer. A shiver tickled Sarah’s spine at the sight of the waiting bodies, their heads and necks encased in sterile life-support units. The shining aluminum boxes with their rounded edges, beeping lights, and opaque faceplates always made her a little uncomfortable.

  So instead she focused on the rest of the body, clearly visible beneath the thin sheet. It looked like she’d been assigned the same young body she’d worn for the past week. The consistency helped. She didn’t like trying on too many different models. Every new one only made her miss her own that much more.

  Not Jill. She loved the jumps.

  “Hello, ladies,” Tomas said with a grin. He motioned them toward the beds and helped first Jill and then Sarah lie down.

  He was not a young man, but not old either. Sarah had asked him his age a couple of times, but he always deflected the question, usually with a joke about how her own age changed so much it didn’t really matter. Wearing the old crone, she wouldn’t give him the chance to tease her again.

  He lingered beside her as she settled onto the gurney, watching her with his serious brown eyes. “And how are you doing today, Miss Sarah?”

  “The mind is willing …” Jill quipped from her bed.

  “But the body has arthritis,” Sarah finished.

  Tomas smiled. “Well, soon it won’t be your problem any more.”

  He was a rather plain looking man, but he always looked her in the eye, and sometimes she felt she could see his solid, dependable soul. He’d grown on her over the past months until she looked forward to his teasing.

  While he busied himself preparing the injections, she asked Jill, “Don’t you ever get tired of other people using your body all the time? Don’t you want it back?”

  Jill shrugged. “They keep it in good shape. I get paid a lot. I can do what I want and don’t have any responsibilities.”

  “You’re hopeless.”

  The growing feeling of discontent sharpened into a resolution in Sarah’s heart. When she had first signed up as a donor, dazzled by the incredible salary and potential for fame, she’d felt much like Jill. Over the past couple of years, even as she broke into the top ten and her pay skyrocketed to obscene levels, she found herself less and less content with the situation.

  “When I get my body back tomorrow, I’m done.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m taking the early out option.”

  Jill gaped. “That’ll cost a fortune!”

  “I don’t care. I don’t want to do this any more. I just want to be myself.”

  “Are you crazy? You’ll kill your career.” Jill rolled up onto one elbow. “You’re number five. A couple more years and you’ll be so rich you’ll never have to work again.”

  “It’s not worth it.” The truth of her words seemed so obvious she couldn’t believe Jill didn’t agree. “I’m leaving. I’ll just take the jet down to the Caymans and spend some time in my beach cottage.”

  Jill frowned. “You don’t have a beach cottage in the Caymans.”

  Sarah frowned in turn. Of course she didn’t. Why did she just say that? For a second, she’d been convinced that she not only owned that cottage, but recalled vivid memories of visiting there with her family.

  She didn’t have a family.

  Sarah managed a weak laugh. “Just kidding.”

  “Don’t worry about it. These old ladies are rubbing off on us.” Jill jabbed her sagging flesh. “Just the other day, I caught myself shopping for birthday cards for my grandkids! How weird is that?”

  “I’ll take the house in the Cayman’s,” Sarah replied. Jill’s comment disturbed her more than she wanted to admit. One more reason to get out. The technology was so new, she didn’t doubt there were risks the com
pany had never revealed. After tomorrow, she’d be gone and wouldn’t have to worry about inhabiting creaky old bones again for decades.

  “You wish,” Jill said as she settled back onto the bed.

  “Maybe I will take a vacation down to the Caymans. Wouldn’t that be great?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Tomas said, breaking into the conversation. “Want some company?”

  Sarah started to smile. He’d been hinting in recent weeks that he was interested, and now that she’d decided to leave, she was suddenly tempted to take him up on the offer. But when she met his gaze, her smile faded.

  His normal open expression was missing. He looked preoccupied, as if he’d made the offer because it was expected, as if he was playing a part.

  From her gurney, Jill said with a wicked little grin, “Maybe Tomas should upgrade you to a sexy little number and the two of you can sneak away somewhere private.”

  Sarah would normally have blushed, but Tomas’ odd behavior had rattled her and the jibe didn’t dig like it should. She glanced at Tomas to see how he reacted. He smiled at Jill, but his expression darkened momentarily.

  In the next instant his normal, open smile returned. The change came so fast if Sarah hadn’t been watching, she never would have noticed.

  Tomas said, “Or maybe I’ll find a pretty little model for you, Jill.”

  Jill laughed. “You can’t play me, Tomas. I know you’re just hoping to get me alone when my own body gets back.”

  Sarah forced herself to smile along with the others, but she wondered at Tomas’ sudden change. Despite Jill’s number one rating, he’d always paid more attention to Sarah. Why the change? Why now of all days?

  Tomas moved to Jill’s side, slid a needle smoothly into her arm and injected the pre-transfer tranquilizer. “See you on the other side.”

  “Can’t wait …” Jill’s voice faded away as the fast acting drug knocked her out.

  Tomas moved to Sarah and prepared the second needle. He met her gaze for a moment, and he looked troubled. As the needle slid into her arm, an odd chill shivered down Sarah’s spine.