{"id":398,"date":"2024-04-30T23:51:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T03:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=398"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:51:47","slug":"identity-theft-chapter-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/identity-theft-chapter-25\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 25"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 25\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> TCOR AU<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> T<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> The difference between intentions and outcomes may just be catching up with Jack. What do you do when trying to do good does harm?<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6aabffbc664d42001033050' value='6aabffbc664d42001033050'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6aabffbc664d42001033050' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6aabffbc664d42001033050' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6aabffbc664d42001033050' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6aabffbc664d42001033050' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">25.<br \/>\n<u>Roses by Other Names<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The last time Jack had felt like this was when Riddick had revealed, to the other <i>Hunter-Gratzner<\/i> survivors, that she was actually a girl.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I really hate being put on the spot like this.<\/i> Fortunately, this time at least, she had more control over her composure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She could lie. She could obfuscate. She could demand to know why Tomlin thought they were those two people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Or she could <i>not<\/i> insult his intelligence and get back to business.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">All of that went through her head in under a second. She felt Kyra tensing next to her. \u201cYou\u2019re good,\u201d she said, resting her fingers on Kyra\u2019s wrist. \u201cNobody was supposed to know we were there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That got a small smile from Tomlin. He was a good-looking man, Jack found herself thinking. His dark hair and olive skin spoke to his Berber heritage. He had the square jaw, strong chin, high-bridged nose, and prominent cheekbones that she\u2019d seen among many of the people in Le Rif, speaking Berber\u2014or, at least, speaking a language she knew was neither Arabic nor French. His eyes were a light olive green. Her cousin Rachel had had posters on her walls of a late Twentieth Century movie star who looked much like him. Jack found herself wondering where his very non-Berber surname had come from.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s my job to keep track of things,\u201d He replied. \u201cBut you didn\u2019t exactly hide all that well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack tried not to let the knot forming in her stomach show on her face.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAfter all,\u201d Tomlin continued, his smile widening and transforming his face from handsome to dazzling, \u201cwhen the two people who worked harder than anyone else, and saved a <i>lot<\/i> of lives in the process, turn out <i>not<\/i> to be spaceport employees and disappear before debriefing\u2026 people notice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack sighed, unsure of whether or not to feel relief. He seemed to be obliquely thanking them. But it could still be trouble. She was going to have to do a deep dive into the systems when they were done here to find out who, exactly, was looking for them. In the meantime, she\u2019d have to stick with as much honesty as she could. She didn\u2019t know how good he\u2019d be at spotting a lie, but the fewer she told, the better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI wish nobody had noticed at all,\u201d she admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s better if nobody knows we exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She could see him wanting to ask why and then suppressing the urge. \u201cIt\u2019s an internal inquiry for now. I can tell the Human Resources department that it was a paperwork mix-up. Technicians on loan from an independent shipper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe Quintessa Corporation doesn\u2019t know?\u201d Jack found herself asking.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cBaraka,\u201d<\/i> he said, making a small, strangely familiar, gesture. \u201cGod, no. The fuss they would have raised\u2026\u201d His expression became shrewd. \u201cThey can\u2019t know about you, can they?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt would be very bad for all of us if they did,\u201d she answered, feeling relief.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He nodded, seeming to accept that. \u201cWhat should I call you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFinch and Houlot will do,\u201d Kyra said next to her, gesturing at each of them in turn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAll right. You have something to tell me about the <i>Scarlet Matador?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded. \u201cBy now you\u2019ve already figured out that there\u2019s a very high tide in U322A.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin\u2019s eyes widened, and she knew she had scored. He\u2019d seen the heavily-redacted Isomorph Drive log, then. \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThere are three moons in that \u2019verse that don\u2019t exist here. The biggest was full last night. That was the source of your fifty-meter wave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">His expression had grown somber while she talked. He had probably been asleep when it hit, she realized, believing that all the quarantined people would have to deal with was a twenty-meter wave that wasn\u2019t due for several more hours and would be far below them. How nightmarish must that terrible scramble have been for him, having to battle a mortal threat he couldn\u2019t even see?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMoving them here was good. Last night\u2019s wave was probably that moon\u2019s normal maximum. But it\u2019s not the only extra moon in Elsewhere\u2019s sky\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cElsewhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFinch likes to give things unofficial names,\u201d Kyra said. \u201cU322A is \u2018Elsewhere,\u2019 and she named that moon, too. \u2018Megaluna.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin\u2019s lips twitched as if he was suppressing laughter. \u201cUnderstood. So there\u2019s more?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">For a second, Jack found herself wanting to argue that Megaluna was a perfectly damn good name, thank you <i>very<\/i> much, but she suppressed the urge. She had to get back to business. \u201cThere are two moons behind it in the sky, in close conjunction. They\u2019re responsible for the twenty-meter tide you dealt with when the <i>Matador<\/i> landed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin nodded, his expression expectant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe problem is, they\u2019re going to have a conjunction with Megaluna five high tides from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA syzygy?\u201d Now he looked alarmed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAlmost one,\u201d Jack told him. The word had appeared in the forecast graph, and she\u2019d already looked its meaning up, so she didn\u2019t have to fake understanding of it. \u201cLike I said, last night was Megaluna\u2019s full moon, so the <i>sun<\/i> won\u2019t be in on the alignment. That\u2019d probably be even worse. But\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She walked over to Tomlin\u2019s side, aware that Kyra was staying protectively close to her the whole time, and offered him the tablet. He accepted it, glancing at her for a second before focusing on its screen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2026It\u2019s still going to be bad. Here\u2019s the landing of the <i>Matador,<\/i>\u201d she told him, pointing at the point on the graph when the falling tide had bumped upward again. \u201cAnd this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She pointed at the high tide that had followed it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2026is last night\u2019s King Tide.\u201d She gently tapped the \u201cForecast\u201d button on the screen, letting the waveform projection populate forward. \u201cAnd this is what\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cBaraka,\u201d<\/i> Tomlin murmured again, and for a second Jack thought he was going to drop the tablet. With his free hand, he made the gesture again, and she realized it was one she\u2019d seen the chatty food vendor use several hours earlier as a ward against evil. \u201cNinety meters? You\u2019re sure?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNot one hundred percent,\u201d Jack admitted. \u201cWe\u2019re working with a limited data set here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">In point of fact, that was the exact warning that had come up on the program after she had finished inputting the data. She had no way of being sure, not yet anyway, whether the two moons were going to start moving apart or come even closer to each other in the next few days.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut,\u201d she continued, \u201cthe risk is too big not to take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She had to resist the urge to add, <i>right?<\/i>, to defer to his considerably greater experience. It would make her sound like a kid. She had to keep projecting authority. It was hard, though. At any other time, she thought, he was the kind of person she\u2019d have turned to for reassurance and guidance, and part of her desperately wanted that now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">So she was trying to channel Shazza. The New Australian woman had exuded perfect confidence. She didn\u2019t try to pull off the accent, but she was trying to carry herself the way that Shazza had, to frame her assertions with the same aplomb that her wild-haired heroine had. If only that fearlessness hadn\u2019t broken at the wrong moment. If only Shazza had just <i>stayed down\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She forced herself back to the present. There was nothing she could accomplish by wallowing in her regrets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin was nodding. \u201cYou\u2019re absolutely right. Thank you. I will make sure that the passengers and crew are all moved above that altitude before then. I just\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">For a moment, <i>he<\/i> looked uncertain, some kind of battle playing out on his face. Then he met her eyes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIs there <i>anything<\/i> else you can tell me about U322A? The Quintessa Corporation hasn\u2019t been helpful at all, they demand information but won\u2019t <i>give<\/i> any, and these people\u2026\u201d He gestured helplessly, handing the tablet back to her as he did. \u201cAre they going to be trapped in a high tower on our world for the rest of their lives? How can I <i>help<\/i> them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">This, Jack realized, was what she needed to give him most of all, and <i>could.<\/i> He\u2019d just provided her the perfect segue into the other thing she needed to tell him. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to be. There\u2019s a way to survive existing in two universes. It takes some work, but they can learn to <i>pick<\/i> which universe they\u2019re aligned with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She handed the tablet to Kyra and stepped back from both of them. It was time for some genuine theatrics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey can learn to reject the water,\u201d She told him, \u201cor embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack closed her eyes and took a deep breath. <i>I am in both worlds,<\/i> she thought, deliberately and carefully. She didn\u2019t want to vanish from his sight altogether, after all. <i>The water is holding me\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She focused on keeping the connection with the water, with Elsewhere itself, at just the right level, not too strong, not strong enough that the full weight of forty meters of water above her would come crushing down. She\u2019d swum deep enough in the past, back on Deckard\u2019s World, to know how much deeper that would be, how much pressure the water would put on a body, and how painful that kind of pressure change could be if it came on too quickly. An instantaneous change, she knew, could be genuinely injurious, damaging soft tissue and even potentially rupturing her ear drums. No, she wanted the water to float her and buoy her, not beat her down\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She felt it flow in around her, gentle as a swimming pool, and kicked off, opening her eyes as she swam upward. She didn\u2019t want to bash her head against the garage\u2019s ceiling, either, after all. That\u2019d ruin the effect she was going for.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Below her, Tomlin was staring at her with his mouth agape as she swam through what was, to him, thin air. She did a slow flip in the water, coming back down to the floor level and hovering an inch or two above it, before pulling back from Elsewhere\u2019s hold on her and dropping lightly to the floor. Air, she thought, had never tasted so sweet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her hair was wet now, plastered to her head, but her clothes were perfectly dry. She suddenly wondered in alarm if, had she and Kyra been forced to cut and run and try to isomorph through a wall, their clothes would have been left behind in the process.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That would have been a big problem. She added it to her list of things she needed to figure out once they were safely back in Le Rif.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt takes work,\u201d she told Tomlin, who was still staring at her. \u201cThey have to think really hard about the difference between the conditions in each \u2019verse, and what they\u2019re aligning themselves with and what they\u2019re rejecting. And no matter what, they\u2019ll always see a little way into Elsewhere. They\u2019ll always be able to feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFinch came up with a mantra I like to use,\u201d Kyra added. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m not in the water. I\u2019m surrounded by air. No water is touching me. I\u2019m not where the water is. The water isn\u2019t where I am. I\u2019m here and the water is Elsewhere.\u2019 It\u2019s effective, but the first time I used it, it took a few tries before I got it to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack took the chip out of her pocket and offered it to Tomlin. \u201cThe wave forecast is on here. You can use it to help them. Next high tide, or even <i>this<\/i> one, take them down to a floor that\u2019s only partly submerged. Get them swimming in the water. Make sure they\u2019re floating over something soft and have them try it. Once they can control which \u2019verse they\u2019re aligned with, they won\u2019t need to be kept in a tower.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin took the chip from her hand with the look of someone receiving a gift from a god. \u201cThank you. This is\u2026 you\u2019re saving so many lives. The Quintessa Corporation has been no help at all, but this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDon\u2019t trust them,\u201d Jack heard herself saying. Tomlin\u2019s gaze moved sharply from the chip to her face. Kyra was staring at her too, she realized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He wanted to ask her why; she could see that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s not that they can\u2019t help,\u201d she went on, ignoring the tiny head-shake Kyra was giving her. \u201cThey <i>won\u2019t<\/i> help. Not really. Your ground crew was told that if anybody asked, they should say it was all just a quarantine, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin nodded. \u201cThere were non-disclosure agreements in exchange for the bonuses you two never collected. I\u2026 had to sign one, too.\u201d His expression twisted a little. <i>\u201cWhy?<\/i> Why was such a thing even necessary?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe don\u2019t know,\u201d Jack told him. \u201cWe just know that they\u2019ll do anything\u2014<i>anything<\/i>\u2014to cover up the existence of Threshold Syndrome and what causes it. So please let that part go. They have ways of making evidence disappear. And if anybody asks you about the data on the chip, <i>you<\/i> put it together from witness statements about what they saw in the sky during last night\u2019s high tide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou won\u2019t even be lying,\u201d Kyra said beside her. \u201cNow, we need to go, and you need to get back to your charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tomlin nodded, pointing to the side. \u201cThere\u2019s a pedestrian entrance over there. Thank you, both of you, again.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr style=\"align-content: center;width: 50%;background: linear-gradient(to right, #4474BE 0%, #243a68 100%);height: 3px;margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack would have felt incredibly accomplished, even proud, about how everything had gone, if Kyra weren\u2019t suddenly giving her the silent treatment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her friend was unusually quiet as they walked back to the lockers to get their things, and all during the walk back to their apartment in Le Rif. Her expression, as they walked, was introspective, bordering on brooding. It was only once they were inside with the door locked that she finally spoke. \u201cYou have a serious White Knight Complex going on with you, Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSorry?\u201d Jack set her bags down on the battered table that had, once, probably held a video screen. She looked over at her friend, feeling a little twist of worry. Weirdly enough, Kyra wasn\u2019t the first one to accuse her of that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLook, I get it. We needed to pass on what we knew about the tides. And how to get around them. But telling him not to trust Quintessa? Bad move.\u201d Kyra looked vexed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut he shouldn\u2019t. And if they ever found out about us\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe already said he was gonna cover for us,\u201d Kyra interrupted. She sat down on the ratty couch, her eyes boring hard into Jack\u2019s. \u201cAnd he already didn\u2019t trust them. But what you said is gonna make him more interested than ever in figuring out what they\u2019re hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut I told him to let it go,\u201d Jack protested, her heart sinking.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh come <i>on,<\/i> Jack.\u201d Kyra rolled her eyes. \u201cWhat would <i>you<\/i> do if someone said that to <i>you?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack opened her mouth to form a vague protest, but closed it again, the words unsaid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe two of you are practically <i>twins,\u201d<\/i> Kyra grumbled. \u201cSo busy trying to save other people you have no idea how much danger you\u2019re getting yourselves into.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack wanted to say that wasn\u2019t fair. That it wasn\u2019t true. But <i>that<\/i> would be a lie. Paris, after all, had had to forcibly restrain her from running to Shazza, and Imam had had to similarly hold her back from running into the darkness after Fry to find Riddick. A rebellious part of her still insisted that, if she hadn\u2019t been held back, maybe both Shazza and Fry would have <i>lived.<\/i> But that was just so much hot air.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I could have been torn to pieces like Shazza,<\/i> she thought, <i>or dragged off into the darkness like Fry.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The part of her that had tried to follow them into the black, some three months later, wondered if that would have been a mercy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLook,\u201d Kyra said after a moment. \u201cI know you mean well. And it\u2019s good that you want to help people. But don\u2019t forget we\u2019re fugitives from the law here. We took a huge risk today. It worked out this time. But\u2026 it could\u2019ve gone so wrong. We\u2019ve got to keep a lower profile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded, forcing back the part of her that wanted to argue. Tomlin had been receptive to Finch and Houlot, two mystery workers who had sped up the evacuation and then vanished. Would he have been nearly as receptive to Jack B. Badd, wanted for murdering Antonia Chillingsworth, and the Black Fox of Canaan Mountain? Or even just two fugitives from a psychiatric hospital? Would he have covered for <i>them<\/i>, or turned them in? \u201cYeah. I probably shouldn\u2019t have swam in front of him, even if the cameras were off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra sighed, and Jack realized she was fighting a grin. \u201cHonestly, that was really cool. Risky, but cool. God, I want to practice some stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot to practice,\u201d Jack agreed, relieved that they were no longer at odds. She sat down next to Kyra on the ratty couch. \u201cI was figuring we could isomorph as far into Elsewhere as possible and go through the walls to get away, if we needed to, but there\u2019s a problem with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh yeah? What?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOur clothes probably wouldn\u2019t have come with us.\u201d Jack touched her still-damp hair, and then gestured to her shirt and pants. \u201cThey didn\u2019t even get wet. They stayed in U1, and only moved with me because I was still most of the way in it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra had begun snickering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPlus,\u201d Jack mused, growing serious, \u201cWe were forty meters below the surface. That\u2019s\u2026 well, really experienced scuba divers can go that deep, but the change in pressure, especially if we had to do it fast, could\u2019ve injured us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra sobered next to her. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot to learn. What we can do\u2026 I keep being tempted to think of it as super powers like on the shows back in the rec room, and maybe it can be, but we can\u2019t go off half-cocked, even a little. We\u2019re, what, on the ninth floor here? If we isomorphed over to Elsewhere when the tide was out, we\u2019d just drop like a pair of dumb-ass stones, all that way down. Or what if we isomorphed into a space that already had something <i>in<\/i> it? I could feel the water moving out of the way when we were practicing last night, but\u2026 what if there was, oh, a glass pane we couldn\u2019t even see from the other side, and it was halfway through one of us when we came back?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack had had a few of the same thoughts. \u201cIt\u2019s why I was still floating like an inch or two above the ground when I came back from Elsewhere in the garage. I didn\u2019t want to get my feet stuck to something, or stuck <i>in<\/i> something. I didn\u2019t think I <i>would,<\/i> but I didn\u2019t want to take the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah. That was smart.\u201d Kyra couldn\u2019t completely contain her grin. \u201cAnd it really was damn cool-looking. Did you see his face?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI could see his mouth was open.\u201d In truth, the water had clouded her vision some.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou could\u2019a pretty much convinced him of anything you wanted, doing that. He\u2019s lucky you\u2019re <i>not<\/i> a con artist.\u201d That seemed to sober her again. \u201cThe Quintessa Corporation <i>has<\/i> to know what people with Threshold Syndrome could be capable of. They might have a <i>problem<\/i> with the idea of everybody from the <i>Matador<\/i> figuring out how to switch between two universes instead of dying before they can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cShit,\u201d Jack groaned, closing her eyes and leaning back into the couch. \u201cIf he teaches them to do what we do, that puts a bullseye on him, doesn\u2019t it? They\u2019ll want to know how he figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah.\u201d Kyra sounded, and looked, genuinely morose at the prospect. \u201cSo what do we do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">For several minutes, Jack couldn\u2019t focus on that. The idea that she\u2019d led someone into harm\u2019s way again\u2014like Ali, like Paris\u2014was almost choking her. The voice within that had been quiet for a few days, with its <i>I don\u2019t want to be Jack anymore, I want to be Audrey again<\/i> refrain, was back at full volume. She wanted to be back to a place where her backtrail didn\u2019t resemble the damage path of a tornado. Where helping someone, or even just trying to, didn\u2019t open them up to a world of hurt. All of her plans for getting there had seemed so solid, until they came up against reality and cracked in her hands. She still hadn\u2019t even managed to get herself and Kyra a good set of\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And there it was.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe\u2019re gonna have to make sure he knows he\u2019s in danger,\u201d Jack said slowly. \u201cAnd I\u2019m gonna have to make sure he has a way out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh?\u201d Kyra\u2019s lips were twitching as if she was suppressing amusement now. \u201cI know that look. What\u2019s the plan?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI still need to get us a good set of fake identities. Ones that\u2019ll hold up in the long term. And some funds to back them.\u201d Jack grinned, suddenly relishing what she was going to be doing. For a moment, the voice went quiet, and she was able to revel in being Jack B. Badd. \u201cSo I\u2019m gonna make him a set, too, while I\u2019m at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 25\/? Fandom: TCOR AU Rating: T Warnings: Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language Category: Gen ","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d chapter 25 by Ardath Rekha","bgseo_description":"The difference between intentions and outcomes may just be catching up with Jack. 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