Saving Face

Chapter Twenty-Three: Eirene

Tomas returned just as Sarah and Jill pushed the empty gurney into the vault beside the one that held the sleeping Marilyn. He placed one of the tiny face coffins on the floor next to the gurney.

Sarah blew out a breath. "We had to check four transfer stations before we found this."

"Sorry. Should have warned you about that." Tomas nodded toward the male bodies they'd wheeled in earlier. "Come on, help me push these over to the holding cells and remove the life support units."

"Why?"

"Insurance."

They returned to the gurney with the sleeping Marilyn a few minutes later and Tomas told Jill to lie down.

Jill obeyed but looked at the box questioningly. "What's in there?"

Tomas shared a look with Sarah. "Best you don't know. I don't think you're ready for it."

"You told me about the real health risks, so why not this?"

"You want to be able to sleep at night?"

Jill shrugged. "Fine, be that way. Just make sure I get the bonus you promised."

Tomas pulled a syringe from his pocket and slipped the tip smoothly into Jill's arm. "I promise."

As the fast-acting drug dragged Jill down to unconsciousness, Sarah felt a pang of guilt. "Will she really get a bonus?"

"Hopefully. At the least she'll keep her sanity."

Sarah stroked Jill's sleeping cheek. "She'll be fine. She's the number one donor."

Tomas flipped open the lid of the little coffin and extracted a face. Unlike the one Sarah had seen removed earlier, this one was small, the size of a doll's face. It was dark, with only a little gray mist floating beneath it.

It looked dead.

Sarah saw again in her mind the shimmering mask with rainbow mist and wondered at the difference.

Tomas inspected the face carefully and whispered. "Eirene, can you hear me?"

He placed the face next to his ear and waited. After a moment he grinned and blew out a relieved sigh. Sarah hadn't heard anything.

"You've been locked away a long time ... No ... Gregorios sent me."

Sarah watched the one-sided conversation with a frown until she noticed the face's lips twitch a little. Maybe it was still alive after all.

Reality had become too bizarre, but she forced herself not to question it. She'd witnessed the face transfers earlier, and there was no going back.

"We have a host for you," Tomas said. "She's unconscious and willing, but you'll have to manage the full transfer. Can you do it?"

This time Sarah heard the tiniest whisper.

"Yes."

"There's not much time."

Tomas positioned the face over Jill's head and lowered it down until it almost touched. The thin, gray streamers floating beneath the face caressed Jill's skin.

As Sarah watched, the streamers began to shift to light gray, and then to white. More streamers appeared, coiling down from under the face, and began rippling into different colors. The face itself began to slowly expand and brighten until it more closely resembled the shimmering mask Sarah had seen before.

The motion of the rainbow streamers changed. They flowed over Jill's face with purpose, no longer idly caressing, and concentrated around the boundary of her jaw. All at once, they tightened. The mask-like face began to glow with a bright purple light, and the muscles along Tomas' arms and shoulders flexed as he leaned back, helping pull against Jill's face.