This choice: Try the life of Jenifer Tseung • Go Back...Chapter #12Taking Tseung for a Test Drive by: imaj   “Try before you buy,” you ask, momentarily confusing Sage Táng. “I mean, I’ll try her life for one night, like you asked earlier.”
“I did say that,” sighs Táng, his mood pitched halfway between amusement and asperty. He leads you to the door into the classroom. “This way Mr Prescott.”
Hu Minquiang looks round as you enter, acknowledging you with an almost imperceptible nod. His student is less welcoming though. Somehow she contrives to deepen her scowl further still as you and Táng approach her desk. Táng seems to be the target of her ire rather than you though.
“Sage Táng,” says Hu quietly. “We have just finished reviewing the nine situations and specific applications to continued counterinfilration operations.” Behind him, Jennifer rolls her eyes theatrically.
“Thank you Sage Hu,” replies Táng, forcing a smile. “And Miss Hseung, did you find this seminar enlightening?”
“Absolutely fascinating,” drawls Jennifer, with a complete lack of sincerity. Táng gives you an aside glance as if to say you see what we have to deal with here. The gesture is lost on the young woman though. Finally, she deigns to notice you, glancing over you with contempt. “Who’s this supposed to be,” she snorts.
You can’t help but smirk a little, it’s so rare to be given such a perfect setup. Even though you barely know her, you decide that Jennifer deserves what is about to happen to her, so you lean in close and whisper in her ear: “You.”
Jennifer’s head thuds against the desk as your knockout sigil takes effect, splaying her glossy black hair into a black halo. As her imago takes up its place within you, you gently probe for a feel of her memories and character: Her father’s little spoiled rotten princess it seems. Something of a hedonist too.
You tap her head again, to extend the knockout time. “I’ve put her out till ten in the morning tomorrow,” you explain to the sages, sinking into your well trained habits of tradecraft. “Honestly, if you just dump her in her flat and spill half a bottle of wine over her, she’ll chalk it up to just another blackout.” You pause for a second. “Make sure you use expensive wine, she likes to think she can tell the difference.”
“Is that really necessary Mr Prescott,” queries Táng.
“No, she genuinely doesn’t know the difference between the expensive stuff and the crap. But if you mean for the switch to pass unnoticed, sure. And I mean unnoticed by her as well as everyone she knows, assuming this is for one night only” you clarify, with no small measure of pride in your voice. “Let me demonstrate just what kind of benefits you’d be getting from this arrangement. You wouldn’t want me to spend all my time as her, right?”
That comment earns a greedy smile from Hu, though Táng is perhaps too old and cynical to take you at face value. Or, more likely, he just has a really good poker face. “We would, I think, expect some changes in character,” counters the old sage.
“But not overnight,” you shoot back. “Because her friends would notice.”
Táng spreads out his hands and smiles like an especially lecherous shark. “Then by all means Mr Prescott, show us again what you are capable of.”
“Uh, sure,” you say. “Do you have somewhere I could change? In private?”
*****
Half an hour later, you are Jennifer Tseung: Walking across the concourse in front of the Sage’s base in her immaculate designer clothes. Strappy shoes clacking on the concrete as you stride toward the waiting limo. You practically radiate an aura of arrogant entitlement. Reviewing Jennifer’s thoughts and memories, you plan out your evening.
“Your father is waiting on you,” says the limo driver, holding open the door for you.
You take a moment to set Jennifer's most winning smile onto your face before stepping through the door and settling onto the plush leather seat. “Hello Father,” you beam at the screen mounted on the wall.
Jennifer Tseung’s father is seated at the desk in his office in Beijing. He looks up from his work and directly at the camera broadcasting his image back to you the moment he hears his daughter’s voice. “Jennifer,” he rumbles, his stern expression softening immediately. “I trust your studies with The Great Sages of The Heavenly Court continue apace.”
“Of course they are Father,” you lie, one oft repeated to Jennifer’s father.
“Good,” he murmurs. “I have something for you, a position. There should be an envelope beside you.”
You look round and find an unmarked envelope on one of the seats. Tearing it open, you find a thick sheaf of paper inside: It’s a job description for an analyst position at some new anti corruption agency.
Jennifer’s mind instantly fogs over. From what you glean from her memories, there has been a lot of this over the last few months. Sometimes her mother, sometimes her father, trying to move her into some governmental job or another. She isn’t interested, not one bit, but she’s skilled enough at playing her parents to prevaricate on the subject.
“I’ll take a look at it Father,” you tell him winsomely.
“This is a good opportunity. Your mother and I are in agreement on this,” continues Jennifer’s father. The Jennifer part of you quails - her parents rarely work together to try and rein her in. Your own opinion is more amused detachment. “I had to use significant political capital to open this offer for you Jennifer. It might have been impossible without Sage Táng’s influence and recommendation”
Ok, that attracts your full attention. “I’ll look at it very carefully Father, I promise.” Jennifer’s father makes no reply. He simply returns to work and the screen clicks off
Then the divider screen rolls down and the driver turns to face you. “The ferry terminal,” you tell him, still planning on keeping Jennifer’s plans for the evening.
The slow journey through the dense rush hour traffic of Macau gives you plenty of time to read through the paperwork. The job, it seems, is a significant one, despite being a very junior position: Part of a newly formed nationwide organisation to deal with growing corruption in the bureaucracy of the government.
You begin to catch some hints of what Táng has planned for you. The new agency looks to be powerful from what you read, and it will have real influence over a lot of other departments and ministries. The real Jennifer wouldn’t be able to make use of that influence. You though, with Eldibria and Sulva, could have it dancing to your tune. And to Sage Táng’s tune.
And where would Sage Táng have you go from there?
But as your limo approaches its destination, you have to put the thought aside and become wholly Jennifer in mind again. You bite your lip in anticipation as you gaze out the window. A lone figure stands outside the ferry terminal, broad shoulders outlined by lights from behind. He lifts a kit bag from off the ground as you stop beside him.
You get your first clear look at Jennifer Tseung’s lover as he opens the door and slips into the limo beside you: All tousled hair, roguish beard and well defined slabs of muscle. Her memories tell you that though he is a soldier, he is the polar opposite of her military classmates. A bad boy with a laundry list of disciplinary infractions. Precisely not the kind of man she, or anyone, would take home to their parents.
But that doesn’t stop you straddling his lap and kissing him will all the fury the real Jennifer would bring to bear. “Time for some fun,” you purr.
To stop reminiscing, attend to Fi's reports in "A Short Hop" 
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