You think about it for a moment and say " If I could become anyone I wanted to ," you pause a heartbeat drawing it out a little to make it look like it was a hard choice, " If I could be anyone I wanted to then I would be Jennifer Aniston."
" You are in luck Megan." Hayden says with a smile, " Normally when we hire new henchmen we tell them to come back tomorrow while we collect their new body, but we actually have Jennifer in stock. Of course this procedure may be a little more complicated than normal" she adds.
Her answer both excites and puzzles you. " Why is that ? " you ask.
" A while back we had a problem with a rogue A.I. program. The head of research was actually using Jennifer as her host at the time, but the A.I. took it from her in exchange for another body. Long story short, it caused a little mischief and trapped the Duchess in a body for life before we could contain it. Since then the research leader has taken a new body for herself and has been looking for a way to separate the A.I. from Jennifers body. She is a high value commodity y'know." Hayden explained.
Haydens story gave you cause for concern, that it's possible this was a scam, but you pressed on. " Will it be a problem?" you ask, considering whether or not just leaving.
" Oh no. It won't be. The R and D division has came up with a solution, we were just waiting for someone to request that body. Are you still in?" Hayden clarified.
" Yes of course I am. I am so ready to leave my old life behind. When can we start? " you answer now that your concerns were alleviated.
" Give me just a second to call an escort for you and we can have you in your new body by lunch. " Hayden answered with a smile.
" Okay. " you say, just as Hayden picks up a phone from her desk and asks for ' Dr. Middleton' . You politely attempted not to eavesdrop, but standing three feet from the celeb made that near impossible. When she gets who she is seeking on the line , Hayden states that she has hired a new henchman that is
" willing to replace the RoleNet."
At this point you would give anything to hear the other end of the conversation, but you made do listening to Haydens end of the call. ' RoleNet?' you think to yourself. ' What is the RoleNet?' you ask in your mind. ' Is that the computer A.I. Hayden mentioned earlier?' Your thoughts are brought back to the conversation when Hayden said. " I'm telling you Pippa, this is the one." while she was listening to whatever response the other person gave, your mind wondered to the new question you have.
' Pippa?' you thought to yourself, ' surely that is just a nickname for the Dr. Middleton that Hayden was speaking with. They couldn't actually have Pippa Middleton working here ... could they?' Your thoughts were once again interrupted when Hayden tried to get your attention. " Mrs. Johns? Yoohoo ! Earth to Mrs. Johns."
"Yes, oh I'm sorry, I was... ah.. daydreaming." you say weakly attempting to cover up what you were really thinking about. You were thinking so hard that you had not noticed that Hayden had ended the call and had tried to gain your attention a couple of times already.
" No you weren't. You were trying to piece together information from your eavesdropping. " Hayden prodded cheekily. " It's okay to ask you know. Your gonna find out everything as a henchman at FDBSE." she added.
You figured you were caught so you gave in. " Sorry, I didn't mean to listen in...but.. that person you were talking to , Dr. Middleton." you begin while Hayden looked at you like she not only knew where you were going with the question, she looked like she expected it.
" Yes." she stated calmly.
" Uhm..." you nervously began, knowing how ludicrous it sounded, " that wouldn't be..." you stopped when the elevator directly behind Hayden dinged and the doors opened to reveal the very same person whom you were about to name. Pippa Middleton.
As she approached you with an out stretched hand , she asked " Are you Mrs. Johns. " when you speechlessly nodded yes and stuck your own hand out for her to take she grasped it in a handshake. " It is very nice to meet you Mrs. Johns. I am Dr. Phillipa Middleton , vice president and lead scientist of FDBSE. My friends just call me Pippa though." she said warmly. " I understand you are going to be our new henchman and are willing to replace the Rolenet program as Jennifer Aniston."
You quickly shook the shock of having a once in a lifetime meeting with a celebrity for the second time in fifteen minutes and said " Yes I am. Should I be concerned?" while looking back at Hayden. Turning back to Pippa you add,
" There seems to be a little feeling of anxiousness in the air when someone brings that up." you state. " Almost like no one is sure what will happen."
Pippa smiles and says, " Hayden picked a good one this time. You are very good at reading people. You'll need that in this line of work. " She reaches up and places a hand on your arm and looks you straight in the eyes when she says, " Don't worry Mrs. Johns. Everything will be fine. Everyone here just gets a little nervous when the RoleNet is mentioned. She created a lot of chaos here, and I wouldn't perform the procedure with you if I weren't absolutely certain it would work. No one here has more to fear than myself and the Duchess if she were to get loose again, seeing as we were the ones that trapped her."
Pippas' statement had a calming effect on you and you responded with " Well
okay then ! Let's do this !" excitedly.
" Alright! That's the spirit Megan. Follow me." Pippa says to you before turning to Hayden. " Hold all my calls. You know what can happen if I make a mistake because I was disturbed." sternly.
You followed Pippa into the elevator , where you rode it to the 100th floor, and had to take another one forty-nine more floors up. " This building has a hundred and fifty floors, with the top one being the Duchess' apartment." she states as she steps off and leads you to a lab.
Inside you see various computers and cables hooked up to two pods. One is open while the other is closed. While Pippa is typing away at a computer on the open one you look in the window of the closed one. Inside you see the face of Jennifer Aniston wearing some sort of tech headband, the one you were hoping beyond hope to be wearing soon, seeming to be sleeping peacefully. Pippa spoke up while you peered in at your future form. " That really is a wonderful body, I should know, I wore it myself for a while."
" Why have you not reclaimed it for yourself if you don't mind my asking?" you question her.
" That's okay, its a fair question. Two reasons, first we were scared to mess with the containment of the Rolenet. It is nearly omnipotent . It can change anything... including reality. The Duchess was able to trick it into a suspended animation pod just after it trapped her forever in my sisters body."
" What a minute...Are you saying that Kate Middleton is the Duchess of FDBSE? " you ask incredulously.
"Oh no. The Duchess has her original body though. Thanks to the RoleNet. It gave her that body and then changed reality to make the world think it was always hers. When you finally meet her you won't recognize her but you will have the feeling you should... unless she has used a bodyhopper amulet to body hop someone." Pippa said seeing the confused look on your face. " Its another service we offer here, you'll see soon enough. Now I need you to climb in this pod and place the headband located within on your head." she added.
" How is this going to work ? " you ask even as you follow her orders.
" Since we can't risk waking the Rolenet up, I am going to place your body in suspended animation just like Jennifers, then I am going to use a supercomputer to download your mind into its databanks and then transfer the RoleNet into your body to make room to upload you into Jennifers. For you it will be like you went to sleep and woke up in a new body." Pippa explains.
You put the headband on and say, " Okay. I'm ready." as you accept her explanation and lay back. Pippa presses some buttons and the lid to the pod closes over you, then you feel suddenly feel drowsy , unable to hold your eyes open anymore...
What happens next?
