Tina Chan - imperfect

She let out a sigh of relief, the cooling gel soothing her raw skin. Kristi took her time drying her hair and reflected on the events of the past few days.

Troop was waiting to use the bathroom and burn-gel after Kristi, which made her feel a bit guilty.

“Sorry,” she said, exiting the bathroom. “I didn’t mean to take such a long time.”

Troop sniffed the air.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Something smells minty.”

Kristi laughed. “That would probably be the burn-gel Nick gave me. The gel tube is on the bathroom counter if you want to use it. I strongly recommend using it.”

“Okay, doctor,” Troop said.

“I have good news,” Chelsa met Kristi in the kitchen for a snack. “Tiffany got us covers for tomorrow to enter New Genes Lab.”

“What are the covers?” Kristi squirted some peanut butter from the pouch onto her crackers.

“We’re going to be window cleaners,” Chelsa said. “New Genes Lab had hired some for a cleaning job tomorrow at ten in the morning. We have to pick up our uniforms and ID cards tomorrow morning at six.”

“Where do we have to go to pick up the disguises?”

“At the parking lot of Cleandows behind the building; Cleandows is the company which we will pretend to work for.”

“Are you filling her in on the details for tomorrow?” Finn joined them at the counter.

“Yep.”

“Are you coming with us to New Genes Lab?” Kristi asked Finn.

She worried that Finn’s crutches might give away their cover; normally, Perfects were too graceful to break, twist or sprain anything. If someone—whether it be the government or some other group—was looking for them and knew one of the Naturals used crutches, Finn was almost a dead give-away about their identities.

“Nah,” Finn said. “I might slow you down—” ( Not true, Kristi thought to herself. You get around fast enough that I sometimes I have trouble following. ) “—and you need someone back here to get you help if you guys are in a tight spot. Nick and Jane have some other Revealer work that will keep them occupied for most of tomorrow, so I’ll be taking their place.”

“To sum up what Finn is saying, Finn will be in the electro-room monitoring our progress and notifying other Revealer members to come to our aid if needed. We’ll be using the contact-cams,” Chelsa clarified.

“Sounds good. Where’s Ghost? I haven’t seen him around for a while,” Kristi said.

“Oh, he’s probably in the electro-room with Jane. Ghost seems to have an affinity to Jane. The electro-room is the last door down the hallway. I wouldn’t go in there if I were you though; that’s where Jane and Nick do all their work and it would be best if you don’t disturb them.”

“I need your pictures for the picture-wand,” Jane said to Kristi that late afternoon.

“What’s a picture wand?” Troop asked.

Kristi was wondering the same thing.

“Another piece of technology exclusive only to the Revealers,” Jane said. “You can scan a picture onto an ID card or just about anything with it. All you need to do is upload the pictures onto the picture-wand and wave the wand over the surface you want to print the picture onto.”

“That sounds pretty cool,” Finn said.

“Trust me, it is. Troop, Kristi and Chelsa will need the picture-wand tomorrow to replace the photo on the ID cards with their own. So, which one of you wants to have your picture taken first?”

“I guess I will,” Kristi said when no one volunteered.

Jane pulled out a wafer-thin rectangular device from her back pocket. “Smile.”

She quickly got all the pictures onto the wand and taught them how to operate it. The instructions weren’t that complicated. All one had to do was select the correct picture stored on the picture-wand and slowly wave the wand over the section of the ID card you wanted to print the photo onto and viola —the desired picture will replace whatever image was on the card before.

The picture-wand was given to Troop to hold onto until they needed it.

“Ugh,” Kristi said. “I didn’t think Tiffany would send someone to knock out these poor people just so we can have a cover.”

They were at the back lot of the Cleandows building. Three Cleandows employees—two guys and one woman—were lying unconscious on the ground. They had arrived at the scene to find a note pinned to the uniform of the largest guy:

Take their uniforms and ID cards. Hide the bodies in the storage shed. They won’t regain conscious for another three hours and when they do, a drug has been administered to ensure they remember nothing of the past five hours. Destroy this note.

“Everything has a price,” Chelsa said, unbuttoning the shirt of the smaller guy.

Everyone quickly stripped off the workers’ uniforms and rolled/dragged them into the storage shed. In the storage shed, Troop found some old, musty smelling coats that he used to cover up the three unconscious employees.

“Picture-wand?” Kristi asked.

He flourished the device and passed it around to everyone. When the picture-wand got passed back to him, he waved the wand over his ID card, watching the original face of the picture on the card transform into his face. Like magic, he thought. Out loud, he said, “Everything all set?”

“I think so, except for the fact the contact-cams are still bothering my eyes,” Kristi answered.

“Did you put in the eye-drops?”

“Yeah. It’s not a big problem.”

“Let’s move then.” Troop stowed away the picture-wand.

Chelsa unlocked the doors to the van belonging to Cleandows. They were going to “borrow” their vehicle to travel to New Genes Lab. She slid into the driver’s seat and backed out of the parking lot without a hitch.

The ride to New Genes Lab went relatively smoothly. Everyone on the road was occupied with getting to work on time and paid no attention to other commuters.

Chelsa maneuvered the van up the driveway and to the front gates of the lab. Gravel crunched beneath the tires. A little intercom box was attached to the metal gate. Someone must’ve been watching the van come up to the front gates because a voice spoke to them through the intercom, “This is New Genes Lab. Please state your business.”

Chelsa rolled down the windows and said, “We’re from Cleandows. We have an appointment at New Genes Lab today to repair and clean thirty-two windows.”

“Please hold on a moment while I verify your appointment.” The voice returned after ten seconds or so. “You may enter.”

There was a buzzing sound, then the gates swung upon on their own accord. Chelsa inched the Cleandows van up the gravel driveway and parked it beneath the shade of a Mongolia tree.

“Here, why don’t we each take some window cleaning supplies to upkeep our disguise.” Kristi handed Troop a black toolbox and Chelsa a bucket of cleaning foam.

Troop grasped the toolbox by the handles and almost dropped it; the box was heavier than it looked. Satisfied everything was going according to plan, He led everyone up to the double doors that automatically slid open when they approached them.

A secretary sitting behind a smart-glass desk greeted Troop. When she spoke, Troop recognized her as the voice from the intercom.

“I am sure that your boss has informed you what goes on in this building stays in this building, am I right?”

They all nodded.

“Good,” she continued on, completely naïve to the fact that the three of them were lying to her face. “Nevertheless, I still need all of you to sign this agreement of confidentiality.”

She pulled out a document from her smart-glass desk and motioned for everyone to sign on the line located at the bottom of a very long block of text.