Free 02. The Shadow Dancers by Jack L. Chalker Page A

back with a little whine, and we followed Bill through into a second room. This one was kinda warm and had real plush furry brown carpeting on it and a gizmo that looked like a cross between a doctor's scaleand an eye doctor's gadget. Bill stepped up on it, stood straight, and looked through the two lenses of the thing. I really couldn't see the thing much till I was led up to it by Sam. I looked through it, then got a sudden little flash in my eyes, and that was it.
    "Well, that done it," I muttered. "Now they've gone and made me completely blind."
    "It'll wear off," Bill promised. "It's not as much as a flashbulb. This thing is a final check of our identity. They know who we are, and they can take a basic code reading even at the switch points, but this is detailed to the last billionth of a millimeter. This thing makes absolutely sure that you're not only Brandy but the Brandy they expect to see and no other. Nobody has ever fooled it. The encoder implanted in you long ago is almost like a tiny, microscopic computer, and it even monitors and records changes in your body as they happen. Never mind the rest," he said, seein' my blank look. "Just believe that the best and brightest of security, computers, and electronics have tried to fool this system and never have."
    When Sam got his okay, he took my hand and another one of them doors appeared. This one actually had some people there, two men and a woman. They was kinda blurry to me, but they looked both human and not real human, dressed in some kind of satiny clothing. They had one for me, a kind of sari that went on real neat and fastened without no buttons or snaps or anything. Funny thing was, though, it kept me up, big tits and all, even though it seemed kinda soft and, well, breakable. It was cream colored and felt a lot like silk. They also had sandals that were so light you hardly knew they was there, but held with only one small strap that also seemed to know its place all by itself.
    They also handed me a pair of real thin, light plastic glasses that also looked kinda shiny, and I put 'em on and at first couldn't see no change 'cept everything was tinted a little bit rosy. The longer I wore 'em, though, the clearer I could see, till in a little bit I was seein' better than I ever did with my regular glasses.
    I could see the people of headquarters real clear. The best way I can describe their complexion is golden, deep but realgoldlike, not just yellow or light brown. They had thick lips and them Japanese kind of eyes, and looked kinda Oriental, but not really. Their eyes all seemed to be jet black and kinda shiny, and their hair was all thick, dark brown. None of 'em seemed to have any face or body hair 'cept, of course, on their heads, and I guessed that none of the men ever needed to shave, nor the women, neither.
    They wasn't small like the Chinese and Japanese usually are, but about average height. The girl was maybe a little taller than me, the men both about six two or three. What really hit me when lookin' at 'em was that none of 'em seemed to have a single mark or zit or nothin', now or in the past. All three seemed to be teenagers, but their skin was soft and smooth and unworn as a baby's. The girl wore a sari pretty much like mine, but of satiny crimson with golden designs in it. The two men wore a different kind of getup, kinda like a cross between what you wear for your judo lessons and what the politicians wear in all them Roman Empire movies. You know, the kind where the guys wear skirts and still look real normal.
    Both the men and the girl were gorgeous, too. They had the kind of looks everybody always dreams of but nobody ever has.
    I looked over at Sam and Bill and had to laugh. They was both bein' dressed in cream-colored versions of what the golden boys had on and somehow it just didn't look the same with their white skin and hairy legs.
    Sam gave me a look but Bill just chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Sam. Since everybody wears these things