Kent pounded on the door yet again. He’d stopped for a while, playing possum. Then he’d gone away for a few minutes. Before Karin felt safe leaving, or even opening the door, he returned carrying a backpack. Inside he carried a variety of tools. For a while she coded in peace as he tried again to hack a door that had no hackable parts. Then he got frustrated and started banging on the door again.

It was Sunday. She had the core of her firewall designed, but the coding thus far eluded her. Slowly and carefully, she reviewed what she’d done, to try and catch any mistakes she’d made.

She’d started with a mélange of light and electricity producing species. She didn’t have code bases for many in her local system, but the few she had shared some similarities. Immediately she tossed the ones that housed a physical source of the electromagnetism they generated. She wasn’t looking to create a standard firewall and house it in a biologic system. She needed to make an entirely new firewall from living parts.

After banging her head against a wall for a while, she realized that at some level, every biologic manipulation of electromagnetism had something other than Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen in the mix. She started working with proteins that incorporated other compounds, and her initial plans looked good. She had half a core that would transmit a radio signal, and another half that could receive. She had an exterior structure that would produce an electric pulse, and another that could detect one. She had a frame that would surround the core, support the structures, and allow them to communicate via a modified electron transport chain. She just could not, for the life of her, make them all bind together.

She closed her eyes, visions of proteins dancing in her head. Kent went silent again. Idly she wondered if her media still paid his bills. She stretched, working out the kinks in her spine. Funny; working with her VR rig always left her stiff, as if she'd been frozen in place the whole time. Playing Cat's Paw, on the other hand, usually left her physically refreshed. The computer programming involved in creating a simulation that fooled muscle memory impressed her.

She knew Kent had involved himself peripherally with the login security in the game. He might know; asking him about his work might stop him from beating on her door for a while. She turned to look at the muted video intercom.

The back of Vivian's head filled the pickup.

Karin practically flew across the room. The sound of her panic room door unlocking rang loud in her ears. Before she reached the office door her white noise cut off. Her panic subsided as a half dozen police identifiers filled the corridor beyond Vivian, and Vivian’s icon strobed with an insistent ‘call me’ flicker. By the time she reached the door, some parts of her mind had already slipped back to thinking about the new firewall.

The door slid open with a quiet hiss, and suddenly Vivian filled Karin’s arms. Karin’s agent fluctuated wildly between laughter and tears. The air filled with the scent of cotton candy.

While Vivian let her emotions have their way with her, Karin took a moment to check her agent's modifications. Her hair was a mass of bright pink curls, a near twin to Karin’s own. That only made sense; the mod Karin had worked out for herself at Kent’s request was the same one Vivian used. The hair curled a little tighter, and Vivian tended to let it cloud around her face rather than pulling it back, but otherwise everything looked to be functional. The smell in the air came from the same modification. The hair mods included a tweak to the sweat glands as well. Instead of musk, her sweat smelled of spun sugar. Kent hadn’t requested that mod, but Karin hadn't been able to resist when she saw the hair color he wanted her to have.

She still remembered the conversation the first time he recorded her after that. He’d teased and taunted her with his athlete’s perfect body, plucking each article of clothing off one at a time. By the time she lay naked, a fine sheet of sweat covered her, but Kent looked distracted. He’d worked her up so much that when he asked her what the smell was, she almost forgot her carefully prepared line. Her gasp mid-phrase didn’t help her delivery, either.

“Gee, Kent, I thought you liked eating cotton candy.”

He looked down at her, a mixture of confusion and annoyance on his face. That wasn’t one of the lines he’d scripted for her, and they both knew it.

“What are you talking about?”

She should have known then that he didn't care about her, but he was the first person to see her as a woman, and that gave him a powerful hold over her. That hold was part of why she got so angry. If she wasn't furious with him, she might let him back into her life. If she let him back in… She felt sick just thinking about it.

Vivian's smothering finally turned into real words. She grabbed Karin by the shoulders and shook her as she spoke, punctuating each word with a shake. “Oh, God, I thought you were lying unconscious in here! Why didn’t you open up when you saw the cops?” It looked like Vivian had settled into overprotective mom mode. Karin braced herself for a long day.

“I didn’t see the police officers, Vivian.”

“Didn’t see us? There were six of us out here, hammering on your door and making enough noise to wake the dead."

What Karin really wanted right now was to break down and give in to the shakes. If she did, Vivian would never leave, and she wouldn't get back to her coding. She took a deep breath and tried to retain the calm from her coding session.

"Look, Vi, Other than the intercom, I can't see or hear a thing once that door closes. You know that. I shut down the intercom when Kent got repetitive. The only thing that got through after that was the thumping from someone hitting the door, and Kent's been doing that off and on for the past two days. Where is the bastard, by the way?"

"He's in police custody. We've finally got something criminal we can charge that asshole with. Don't you worry, he won't bother anyone for a long, long time."

Karin let herself revel for a moment in the thought of a Kent free world. It would be nice to walk outside without having to look over her shoulder all the time. After a few seconds, however, she pulled herself back to reality. After the body modification Kent convinced her to do, she wasn't ever going to be able to walk down the street without having people stare.

She checked her bank account. Not too bad, she could pay the rent on her office and apartment for a month or two. She flipped over to her budget. The story there wasn't so rosy. The only thing keeping her solvent was the monthly payment coming in from Kent. For a few moments she leaned into Vivian's arms and played with numbers. No matter how she played it, the answer was the same.

"I'm sorry, Vi, but I can't press charges."

Vivian's shout startled the cops. One had his taser out faster than Karin could see, and two more headed toward the two women. "What? Why the hell not? He tried to break into your office. The façade on the door is all screwed up."

"He could have been trying to rescue me. He couldn't read me any more than you could."

Vivian waved the officers away, frustrated anger screwing her face into a scowl. "Yeah. Rescue you. I'm sure. He had no intent to force you back into porn."

Karin winced. "Yeah. Look, Vi, I wish you wouldn't use that word."

Vivian's scowl disappeared. Karin's agent had moods as mercurial as the wind, and Karin knew she wasn't helping. "I'm sorry, Karie. It's what he does, though."

"Yeah, I know. I think I always should have known. I don't actually have a problem with the industry. God knows I get some of my most lucrative work from there. I just hate the fact that I was so naïve I didn't realize what he was doing."

"Yeah, Hon, it would be great if we all could tell when someone was lying, wouldn't it?"

"I put together a mod for that a while back, y'know."

Vivian looked at Karin, her eyes going wide with a combination of avarice and surprise. "And you didn't tell your agent about this why? Karin, this could be just the thing to finally get you free of that sleaze."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"It's not magic, Vi. It's a few other mods I threw together, along with a bit of wetware to coordinate them. Vibration detection for heart rate. Improved visual acuity for pupil activity. Improved auditory acuity for subtle voice cues. Everything you'd get from a regular lie detector."

"So? There's still a market for it."

"Sort of. All those mods are off the shelf. So's the hardware to integrate them. Other folks have put it out there. It's still not perfect. Hell, I put together a way to beat a lie detector too. Kent inspired that one."

Vi rolled her eyes, "And I'm not selling that one for you because?"

"I don't want to be responsible for artificially induced douchebags. There are plenty natural ones already, thanks."

Vi stared at Karin for a while, trying to keep a straight face. After a few moments she broke down, a laugh forcing its way out. "Ok, ok, I get it. Still, speaking of douchebags, why don’t we want Kent in jail?"

"He's got a deadman switch on his entire web presence. If he doesn't log in once a month, the site shuts down, the payments stop being delivered, and there goes my rent."

"I've always wondered why you put up with him. Look, if you need money…"

Karin interrupted, silencing Vivian with a wave of her hand. "No. I know what you're about to say, and no. I'll take any legit work you can get me, but I'm not going to take loans from anyone, especially my friends."

Vivian grimaced, obviously biting off the rest of what she wanted to say. "Ok then, Karie. Tell you what; let's go get some food. The cops don't need your statement to hold Kent while they investigate the vandalism to your door. Putting him away might put you on the street, but a few nights in jail won't hurt him."

Karin smiled at her agent. "Sure, Vi. You buying?"

"Absolutely. I can write it off as a business expense even."

"Well, in that case…"

***

Karin gave Vivian a quick hug goodbye. "Thanks for dinner, Vi. It's been too long since I really indulged myself."

Vivian gave her a quick squeeze in return, and the smell of cotton candy wafted gently through the air. "Yeah, well. I can't get your mods to sell the way they should, but I can make sure you get fed and rested up. Speaking of which, do not let me find you at the office tomorrow."

Karin opened her mouth to reply, but before she said a single word Vivian silenced her with a raised hand. "I'm not going to argue with you, Karin. You need some down time. Kick back, relax, and enjoy yourself for a few days while Kent is a guest of the state. I'll keep an eye on him and give you a call when he gets out."

"But I've got work to do!"

"No, you don't. I saw you've got the new compiler translating. I'll deliver that to the client for acceptance testing. Meanwhile, there's nothing else in the queue."

"I haven't tested it yet."

"Look, Karin. You've been working without a break for the better part of the past year."

"Since Kent and I broke up, yeah."

"It's not healthy. You need to take a break."

"I take plenty of breaks at work."

"Yeah, you play that MMO Kent got you addicted to during your lunch break. Not the same. I want you to promise me you'll spend the next few days doing something relaxing. Hit a VR spa. Heck, I don't know if it's in your budget, but if it is hit a real spa. Relax."

Karin forced a grin for her friend, "I'll try, Vi. It's tough going out, though. I mean…" She waved a hand down her front.

Vivian's mouth pulled up in a grin, but her eyes were concerned. "Yeah, you stand out more than a little. I still don't understand why you don’t get the mods removed. Heck, I've seen your work. You could do it yourself."

"That's… That's mostly why."

Vivian stood, waiting patiently. When it became apparent no more information was forthcoming, she leaned against the door frame. "Well?"

Karin shook herself free of the wordless melancholy that gripped her. "That's why, Vi. I did this myself. I did this. People don’t think this way much anymore, but… This is my masterpiece."

"You don't get out much, do you Karie?"

Karin cocked her head in confusion, asking with her eyes for Vivian to continue. Vivian pushed herself from the wall and walked into Karin's apartment, steering the taller woman to the couch as she did so. Without thinking about it, Karin activated the routines that closed and locked the door.

"Do you have any coffee?"

"Tea."

"Blech. All right. Anything to drink?"

"Yeah. Tea."

Vivian blew her a raspberry but put the kettle under the water spigot. "You don't even have any milk to go with the tea?"

"Do I look English?"

Vivian paused in her tea making, pretending to examine Karin's face, "Well, I've always thought you bear a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Hurley."

Karin winced, "You didn't know me before my mods… changed me." She leaned forward and started riffling through the drawer in her coffee table. "I've got pictures around here somewhere. Back near the turn of the last century, they did a study on beauty. They found out that all the great 'beauties' since the invention of the camera have very similar feature placement. The features differ, but the placement is the same."

Karin finally found what she was looking for. She went silent as she stared at the picture in her album. Once she had the tea brewing, Vivian walked over and leaned over the back of the couch.

"That's really you?"

"Yeah."

"I… can see it. It looks like you and she might be sisters. It's hard to believe that's you."

"Every time I look in the mirror, I think the same thing. The hair, the body, even the way I smell… All those things were superficial. I don't know why, but when I changed my face… That was the step too far. I still have trouble looking in the mirror."

Vivian laid a reassuring hand on Karin's shoulder, "Why don't you change it back?"

"Besides how much it hurt to have my face remodeled from the inside out?"

"Is that really the reason, Karie?"

Karin shook her head in denial, "No. Not really. I mean, it's part of the reason, but mainly it's what I said before. This," she waved a hand across herself, "is the greatest thing I'll ever do. I managed to hit perfection on all counts."

"You did those mods last year for…"

"Half of those were just copies of mine. The rest were knockoffs of other people's work. I mean, I think I did a richer chestnut color on the hair than Davidson, and a smoother skin than Takahashi. I'm the original though."

"So, you're stuck the way you are by your own hubris?"

A smile crept across Karin's face, "Since when do you know the word hubris?"

"I'm representing a few authors now."

"You're not a literary agent."

The kettle sounded its artificial whistle, and Vivian walked back to the kitchen to tend it. "You caught me. I've actually been working on my Lit degree. They've got me reading."

Karin looked around, staring at her friend. "Really? You've gone back to school?"

"Really." Vivian poured the tea, looked through the cupboards one more time. "You're sure you don't have any booze?"

"None. I gave it up when I broke it off with Kent."

Vivian winced, "Ouch. Well, I can understand that, kind of." She gathered up the cups and brought them back into the living room. "You're sure you're not going to change your mind about the mods?"

"Yeah, I’m sure. They remind me of Kent. They mean I'll never be able to go out without some perv recognizing me. But… they're part of who I am now. When I look in the mirror, it's still not me, but when I look at this," she tapped the picture in her album, "it's not me either." She stopped, unwilling to go on.

"Maybe you need to take a break. Find yourself."

Karin grinned, her first real smile since she'd gotten home. "I know where I belong, Vi. I belong in the office, coding. Who and what I am I know." She paused, hoping Vivian wouldn't hear the lie in her next words, "It's just what I look like that I'm not sure of."

"Hey, you're the best genetic engineer on the East Coast. You can look like whatever you want to."

She gave Vivian a lopsided grin. "Now I just need to figure out what I want to look like, right?"

***

Vivian stayed until they finished the tea, chatting about spas and fashion. Karin found both marginally interesting, but not enough to research on her own time. When the teapot emptied, she stretched, yawning.

"I guess that's my cue to leave," laughed Vivian.

"Unless you've switched teams and you're planning on joining me in bed, yeah."

"You wish. Look, I'll keep an eye on Kent and start looking for more work for you. You get some rest, Okay?"

"Sure."

Karin stood and walked Vivian to the door. As soon as the door indicators blinked green for ‘secure’, she moved to the VR rig in her bedroom. From that vantage she watched as Vivian took the elevator down to the street. Once she was on public transport, Karin set up a simple watchdog program that would alert her if something happened before Vivian got home.

Her friend's security taken care of; she found herself at a loss as to what to do next. She considered making some food, but nothing in her apartment appealed. A quick scan through the listings of delivery places resulted in a similar lack of results. Karin never even thought about leaving the apartment. Kent would remain in custody until the police decided to press charges or had to let him go, but leaving the house spiked her anxiety. She was just too recognizable. Even for people who had never seen one of her films, she stood out too much.

For the millionth time, she brought up the plans for the retroviral agents that would return her to her pre-Kent state. For the millionth time, she put them away without doing anything about them. She hadn't lied to Vivian. She was her own masterpiece, and she wasn't about to let Kent cheat her of that. She certainly wasn't going to let his memory do the same.

She considered the design she'd left half complete back at the office. A few seconds’ work and the information floated before her fingertips. She wanted to finish it. She needed to finish it. Without more than a moment's guilt at how she was ignoring Vivian's advice, she dove back into her coding.

Vivian was right. She needed some time off. After two hours of hammering away at the same problem, she realized she was trying the same solution for the third time. Regretfully, she backed up her work and disconnected from her office machines. Before she realized the connection screen for Cat's Paw floated before her eyes.

With deliberate care she stopped the connection before the full VR experience took over. Vivian told her to hit a VR spa, but a quick check didn't show any that appealed. After a few minutes searching, she shut down her search engines and returned to the MMO connection screen. Her fingers flickered, and her character's description screen came up. Her character's name, Kittul, floated in simple block letters. The game never showed anything as crude as statistics. Instead, hovering in midair, shifting effortlessly between three equally unlikely forms, she looked at the face and form Karin thought of as 'hers'.

Without another thought, she pushed the connection through and lost herself in the game.