After crying herself out, she looked around and noticed a door that she had missed before, on the other side of the room from the Jim-suit. She got up slowly, went over to the door and tried it. It opened easily.
Before she could do more than look into the hallway, however, a large form blocked the opening. "Sorry Miss, you'll have to stay in there until the supervisor says you can go."
Jim looked up in fear at the face of an enormous woman, wearing some kind of black security-guard uniform that fit tightly over her well-muscled physique. Scared and confused, Jim nevertheless summoned the courage to protest "I'm not a Miss, I'm a Mister! What the hell have you people done to me?? I want my old body back, right now!!"
The guard held out a large hand and pushed the girl easily back into the room. "If you'll sit down and be quiet, I'll get the supervisor. All right?" The guard stood and watched until the girl who was Jim sat down meekly on the bed. The guard then pulled out a cell-phone and had a brief conversation.
Ten minutes later a more ordinary-looking woman came into the room. She was wearing a dark blue woman's business suit, and carried a thick manila folder. She nodded to the guard who left the room, closing the door behind her, presumably resuming her post outside.
"Well, Marcie, how are you feeling?"
"Marcie? Who's that? My name's Jim! What's going on here?" the girl demanded, starting to get hysterical again.
"Ah yes, Jim." I'd hoped that would've worn off by now she muttered to herself. "Marcie, my dear, this may be a bit hard for you to remember -- but you aren't Jim."
"What?"
"Jim was your cover identity on your last mission," the woman said, speaking slowly and clearly. "You see that skin over there?"
"Yes. My skin. How on earth did you manage to remove my skin without killing me?"
"We didn't. That is one of the skins from our warehouse which you stumbled on a few hours ago. These skins, when donned, allow the wearer to take on not only the appearance, but also the memories of the person whose skin it originally was. Now normally, those memories are only there to assist the Agent in his or her mission -- but something went wrong in this case, and the Agent's own personality was completely submerged under that of the skin's."
Jim stared at her in disbelief, then over at the skin. "Are, are you trying to say --"
"Your real name is Marcie Holcroft, age 23. You were recruited into the Agency two years ago, and have been in training ever since; this was to be your first "undercover" mission. But the cover worked so well that you've been living as this "Jim" person for the last six months. If we hadn't triggered the homing beacon that lured you into our secret warehouse, you'd still be living his life, having completely forgotten your own. Now think -- does any of this sound familiar to you? Any of your original memories surfacing?"
Wed Jan 12 23:46:14 2000
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