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The specialist the Smiths used to change people’s appearance is strictly amazing. With the technology she developed and the newest systems at her disposal in the Smith’s bolthole, the disguises she creates are nearly impenetrable. Her greatest achievement was her discovery of Flex-Skin. She had been working in a dermatologist lab when by chance she noticed an unusual variance in a process they had been studying to cure skin cancer that got her thinking. She contacted her friends the Smiths and presented her findings. They were so impressed with the idea and being the entrepreneurs that they are, agreed to sponsor her in a private study. Money being no object they built her lab and eventually her entire facility there in the bolthole. When she discovered Flex-Skin, it revolutionized the area of disguises. Because, it has become a very lucrative business for herself and the Smiths, the secret of Flex-Skin will remain a highly guarded one.
The facility is beyond state of the art because it is the art, a unique process not done elsewhere. A large section of the warehouse houses this unobtrusive but highly functional facility. The outside walls look like normal warehouse walls made of wood and painted sheetrock. Once through the main door and through the massive security process in place to keep unauthorized visitors from entering, is where the change becomes apparent. The control and viewing room is nothing more than a highly modified Stellargraphic System and a large window with a few chairs and a desk thrown in the mix. Beyond the window is the transformation section, a sterile room with steel vats holding recycled Flex-Skin.
The client leaves all modesty at the control room door leading to a vestibule where they proceed naked into a small chamber, and showered with sterilization agents completing the first step in the process. When the process is complete automatic doors open into another vestibule, leading to a drying room where they are dried and sterilized before proceeding. The process uses fast moving warm air that dries them very quickly and once complete, they exit the opposite door, stepping onto a slow-moving conveyer in an open sterile room. The operator in the main control room can see them through the window and monitor them using the modified Stellargraphic System through every step of the process. The process uses sub-ultra violet scanners using various light frequency spectrums to define the process set by the operator as the client moves down the short conveyor.
While the client closes their eyes, the liquid Flex-Skin sprays gently out of tiny jets pointed at them from all directions similar to the old car washes from the twenty-first century painting their entire bodies. The Flex-Skin remains wet until the end of the process when finally cured to form a living breathing skin so thin that the wearer would not be able to tell it is not their real skin. The rest of the process consists of skin color change to the desired pigment, life expectancy of the skin is set, actual physical appearance is modified to the race they want to change to, adding body imperfections like scars and moles, and shape the clients face giving them a personal appeal. When the skin expires, it will simply fall off their bodies in the shower and since it is purely organic, it simply dissolves in water.
For the eyes, hands and feet the Flex-Skin can make new feet and hand prints, and state of the art contacts for the eyes that work if needed that will change the eye color and retinal scan to match their new identities. The process of changing the hair color to fit the disguise is slightly different in that the hair itself absorbs the Flex-Skin. To complete the disguise the Smith’s innovative systems can create near bulletproof identities placing them into millions upon millions of records so deep that they would look as if they have been there forever. From the clients birth to where they went to school all matching the new prints and retinal scan.
Maiko looked like a Native American with her long hair, skin color and eye shape changed from its Asian appearance. To confound their new friends, both twins changed to African Americans with ebony skin and close-cropped curly black hair. Tony went to a Middle Eastern look hailing from Detroit Michigan, Garrett chose to have a French look because he could read and write French fluently, and Hreidmar went with the African American look instead of the Russian look first thought, because he cannot speak the Russian language. Therefore, with all their disguises complete they found themselves two days later in Santa Elena Venezuela staying at the Yakoo Lodge.
The lodge is on a hill in the middle of the beautiful Gran Sabana surrounded by a forest of lush trees and a beautiful creek with a waterfall. When they had arrived earlier in the day, they had a beautiful view of the Kukenan tepui. Kukenan tepui is a tabletop mountain or mesa as is Mt. Roraima formed mostly of sheer blocks of quartz and sandstone that rises from the jungle floor to form a table. Circular cottages dot the property made of three to four-foot tall ruff cut stone with wooden walls resting on top of the stone and a wooden cone shaped roof. Grassy paths with ruff cut stone pavers lead to and from the cottages with palms and other foliage scattered throughout the area with many colored flowers lending to the rustic beauty of the surroundings. Some cottages had better amenities with thatched roof cabanas for relaxing under during the day.
What interested the travelers the most is the lovely cozy bar and restaurant set in the middle of the tropical garden. The circular design of the bar and restaurant matches the cottages with a much larger conical wood roof. One wall is open-air to the beautiful pool area and lush blooming flowers flourishing in the natural looking garden. When the breeze shifts the wonderful fragrance from the flowers wafts its way into the bar mingling with the scent of fresh food cooking. Inside the bar, tables made of heavy bamboo with plush multicolored cushions tied to them for comfort fill the open-air room. Matching the circular shape of the building, red rectangle tiles cut in various shapes and sizes added to the colorful interior. The bar is farther in the back with a second-floor balcony above it with a bamboo railing and support posts made of bamboo.
Sitting at a table finishing the delicious local Venezuelan food like Pasticho, a delicious version of lasagna, and Polvorosa de Pollo, a unique version of chicken potpie shaped like a giant empanada they finally had time to relax from their hectic travel arrangements. Maiko not realizing she had finished her wonderful pasticho, sat there holding her fork in deep thought ignoring the boys talking among themselves thinking about her feelings for Hreidmar. Why am I acting like this I have to be losing my mind she thought, here I am in a tropical paradise with a man I think I am in love with and I get a separate cottage away from him? What does he do, he looks at me like I am crazy shrugs those big shoulders of his and goes to a cottage he is sharing with Garrett to put away his things. What, would he rather do more share a cottage with Garrett or me? More she thought about it the more irrational she became. Fine, if he would rather hang with the boys tonight than spend time with me I might as well go to bed alone she thought angrily. Annoyed beyond reason with everything, her new disguise that she could not seem to get used to, Hreidmar did not look right aggravating the situation and his newfound friends laughing it up with him seemed to imply he wanted to spend the rest of the night with them threw her over the edge. Standing in a huff, she stormed off to her cottage leaving Hreidmar and the rest wondering what had her in a tizzy.
Games of the Powerful Page 45
