Secrets

Mark could feel the wires and machines attached to his body or, in some cases, replacing entire body parts. He couldn’t remember what had happened to him, but he was sure these machines were keeping him alive -- which meant whatever misfortune had fallen apart him must have been pretty bad. A woman was beside him, whom he had barely noticed as he tried to wrap his head around his now half-mechanical self.

“What’s your deal?” He asked her, “Are you my mechanic or something? Keeping me all tuned up or whatever?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She replied.

“Try me.”

She took a deep breath before saying, “I’m you.”

“What?” It was the best Mark could respond with.

She continued, “I’m not sure if I’m the original, or if you are, or if we’re both copies. But we’re both technically Mark Cooper. I think they put me in this woman’s body to torture me. I think they put me in your robotic body so they can keep reseting you; I’m pretty sure you have no idea that this is the sixth time we’ve had this conversation. I’m pretty sure they want the secrets in our head. It’s why they killed Lexi and Trevor, but we’re still here.”

“But if they have our brain, or at least a copy of it, why can’t they just extract the information.”

“Because what we know is tied intrinsically to who we are. They can’t pull out a thought at random. They need a living, thinking brain to spill the secrets...”

Not Your Husband

Darcie was shocked seeing her friend in the kitchen wearing one of her dresses. “What are you doing, Susan!?” Darcie asked, “You can’t wear something like that! That’s my husband’s body! If you go out like that, it will humiliate him! We agreed that until he comes back - - ”

“He’s not coming back.” Susan interrupted. “Maybe his plan was to steal my body all along or maybe something happened to him. But we haven’t heard from him for a week. Wherever he had disappeared to with my body, I don’t think we’ll ever see him again. That means I have to get used to being in his body. But just because I’m in a man’s body now doesn’t mean I have to act like a man! So I’m done pretending for you or for him or whoever. I’m going to wear dresses and skirts! I’m going to buy a wig! Maybe I’ll even start going on hormones! I didn’t ask to be stuck in his body; I don’t want to be a man; and I’m not your husband no matter what I might look like!”

Times Square

“Somebody stop her...or...him! They stole my body!” Zach shouted.

It hadn’t taken Zach long to realize his body had been stolen, that he was now in a woman’s body, but it was long enough that his original body had gotten a good distance away. It also didn’t help that he was in Times Square -- which was not only particularly crowded that evening, but few people cared much when a woman started screaming about a body swap. Most people just saw her as just another weirdo in Times Square; no one moved a muscle to help.

Zach tried to run after his original body, but it was no use. His original body simply slipped into the crowd never to be seen again. From there, he had to start figuring out whose body he was in now. He guessed that there had to be something bad about this woman’s life that she would steal someone else’s body to escape it. Whatever that secret was, he was now stuck with it.

Reality Changing Game

“My turn again,” Aileen said as she tried to take the remote back.

“But I haven’t guessed yet! It’s supposed to be a game! I used this reality-changing remote to change something about your body; you had to guess what I changed. Then it was your turn, and I had to guess what you changed about me. I get that I lost a few times, so you were about to go again, but I haven’t guessed this round yet!” David protested.

“Well, your time is up, so it’s my turn again.”

“There’s no rules about time limits!”

“Well, we need to set one, because you’ve taken about 30 minutes on this round. I don’t think you’re going to get it.”

Aileen wasn’t sure where David had found this weird remote that could change things about people’s personalities and bodies without them even noticing, but she was loving this game he had asked her to play. He had used the first round to make Aileen bisexual. He thought he was being subtle, but she figured it out almost instantly.

Aileen had played the game a little smarter. The first round she simply made David really, really dumb. This made it impossible for him to reason out any changes to him. Since she won the round, she got to go again. Going for an extreme, she turned him into a woman. She was completely amused that he was still too dumb to figure it out. Getting to go yet again, she made sure he wasn’t just physically a woman, but that he would dress and act like one too! There was no way he was going to figure it out. She only wanted to get control of the remote back for one final change: To convince David to give up this game and retreat to the bedroom.

Not in Trouble

The agents approached the park bench slowly, not wanting to spook their mark.

The bald headed man spoke first with a slow southern accent. “We’re from the FBI, and we’d very much like to speak with you for a minute, Mr. Reingold.”

The woman appeared nervous and seemed ready to dash off; the only thing keeping her there was likely the heels on her feet which she wasn’t used to walking in, let alone running.

“No need to panic; you’re not in trouble,” The other agent said with a refreshingly crisp voice, “We’re fully aware of your experiments and we’ve been following you. In fact, we’re very interested in the technology you’ve created.”

“We don’t mind the fun little routs you’ve gone on in various women’s bodies. Our biggest concern is bad actors,” The bald agent resumed without skipping a beat, “North Korea, Russia, Iran -- if they got a hold of this technology, it’d be bad news for everyone.”

“So we’d like to work with you, Mr. Reingold. We’ll set you up with a proper lab down in Stafford. Officially, you’ll be listed as an adjunct professor, but in reality, you’ll be able to do just about anything you want -- as long as it’s on Uncle Sam’s side, of course.”

“Of course,” The woman (who was actually Herman Reingold) said, realizing there wasn’t much of an actual choice here...