Chapter 9

Monday, January 10th, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Meghan said, “So you are struggling with moral choices?”

I replied, “No, not really. I have a pretty solid grip on my own morality and I have a good feel for where I want to stand on assorted ethical minefields. Remember, I am much older than this body looks. I’m more concerned about how well I match up with you ladies. I’d just hate to find out after the fact that something I’m fine with will be something that is anathema to either of you. I want insight into where your personal gray areas are and where things are black and white in your minds.”

Jan said, “I see your point. Okay, I’ll start I guess. In your first few scenarios, you were talking about making a new identity. I have zero qualms with that even after experiencing the bad side of it. I understand why it had to happen and I can’t imagine having an issue going forward. I know that faking IDs are against the law, technically, but it’s not something where I would balk at either doing it for myself, or helping someone else do it.”

Meghan agreed, “I feel the same on that score. On the topic of stealing from the mega-rich, I think I am alright with that. Killing them for it, no I’m decidedly against that. Stealing from average folks is a bad thing, stealing from criminals I have less of a problem with.”

Jan said, “I can agree with all of that. Industrial spying, insider trading, stealing from big business? No red flags really beyond not getting caught, which I hope goes without saying for all of this. I would not be okay with being a traitor to our country, but stealing the plans for widget 2.0 from super-mega-corp and selling it to the competition, no problem.”

Meghan nodded, “Agreed. Umm I hope the assassin thing was just a really extreme example, I’m totally not okay with killing someone just because another person wants them dead and is willing to pay for it. Surprisingly perhaps, I have very few qualms if you somehow had to kill a drug dealer or someone like that. Hell, I would not have too much heartburn if you needed to kill someone who ordered an assassination, I don’t think highly of them.”

I smiled and said, “Interesting. I’m not seriously interested in that line of work, but your answer surprises me. I’m pleased at being surprised.”

Jan said, “I would need to know more about the individual’s misdeeds before I got behind any killings. I don’t know how much it would bother me, to be honest, I would have to evaluate the specific situation. Generally I’m more comfortable with letting the courts decide such things.”

I told them, “Okay, well I hope you both will be glad to know that I feel very much like the two of you on the things we have just looked at, but we should probably dig a bit deeper still. What happens if you revisit one of those questions and just change one or another of the variables? What if that Billionaire was a child molester? Would that change your opinion about taking over his identity and hiding his corpse? What if he was a murderer, or a rapist? Beat his wife, or kids, or dog? What if he was just a millionaire and did those things? Would those answers change if he was a run of the mill guy who can afford to live in the nicer part of town?”

Meghan looked nervous and said, “Wow, I don’t know.”

I said, “Woah, take it easy there Meghan. It’s not a test or a job interview. We’re just talking here. I already know that I got really lucky to meet the both of you and to have you both in my life. I’m just trying to get to know you better. If the questions are too deep we can lighten it up.”

She replied, “No it’s okay, I see what you mean. Not sure why I was so worried a minute ago. It would probably help to put it in perspective and take them one at a time. I guess I think we should look at why we would know these things in the first place. I imagine that if we were looking at Mister Megabux in the first place, perhaps as a possible theft target, and we stumbled across him molesting a child. I say kill the motherfucker. Same with rapists. Beating the wife, kids, or dog? I would turn him in and take even more than originally intended. I don’t see how him being a millionaire changes any of my answers. Not sure why we would be looking at the run of the mill guy in the first place.”

Jan said, “Well done, nice job. I don’t know that I could live with the decision afterwards, but my knee jerk reaction is the same as yours.”

I smiled and said, “I agree, nice recovery. I appreciate the way you stepped right back in after your confidence got shaken a little there. Both of you impress the hell out of me left and right for your own reasons. I really do feel lucky to be around you and have your support.”

Meghan blushed a bit and said, “Thanks guys.”

Jan said, “So Paul, I’ve had a nagging thought since you brought up identities earlier. Do we have any pressing matters to look at regarding your identity?”

I said, “You’re right. We should talk about that. Again, at this moment only the three of us have any idea who Paul Johnson is. I don’t exist to the rest of the world except as a stranger or maybe a customer. I lean towards keeping it that way. I might as well have been dropped off by aliens. We should consider presenting someone more solid.”

Meghan said, “What, like we should make a new you for presentation to the outside world?”

I said, “Well, first we should look at why we are presenting me to others in the first place.”

Jan said, “I might want to introduce you to my other friends at some point. I don’t have a great relationship with my parents, but I could imagine wanting you to meet them someday.”

Meghan said, “We share the same friends, but I don’t have any family I give a shit about, so no worries there. Other than those friends, I guess I can’t think of a good reason right now.”

I said, “Okay, how real does my ID need to be for your friends and maybe Jan’s parents? Are we ever going to have to travel with them? Will I need to have a credit card around them? Will I need a backstory that can stand up to someone casually looking into it? I doubt someone would call for references in this scenario, but maybe I need to be careful and not try to claim a job that shows somebody’s picture on the company website for example.”

Both girls looked concerned.

I said, “For the short term at least, I’m just a guy named Paul that Jan is seeing. We should keep things low-key for a while outside of the three of us. Really guys, considering my basic power, we need to get used to the idea of me having different faces. It might be that there is no long-term future for Paul Johnson. If we have time we can plan for making a version of me that is more presentable.”

Jan said, “How?”

I told her, “Well, If we think we need those things, then we need to start looking for a persona that can have those things. Then we need to start working on getting the things we need. I’m no expert, and I don’t know anyone that provides really good fake IDs, but I’ve been giving it some thought and I think the best bet right now is to find someone far away from here that I wouldn’t mind looking similar to and then stealing his driver’s license.”

“It’s a shitty thing to do as it’s a pain in the ass for him, and he’ll probably need to cancel a lot of credit cards if we take his wallet to get the ID. But we can probably get his SSN with a little investigation and with those two things I can pretend to be him with a little effort. I can rent a little apartment somewhere very easily. I can open a simple checking account and get a debit card without raising any flags. When the license gets near expiring I should be able to apply for a local license. As long as I stay off his credit report and don’t file taxes as him, I think I should be fine.”

Meghan said, “Instead of going somewhere far away, maybe you could steal the wallet from someone who was from somewhere far away to achieve the same results. Like perhaps someone staying at, oh I don’t know ... Breckenridge?”

Jan said, “Brilliant.”

I said, “Excellent idea. Let’s get those plans rolling again and we can keep our eyes open for opportunities while we are there. Let’s consider the possibility of shifting it to the weekend. I think we would have a more target-rich environment if we did so. If not this weekend, maybe we should shoot for the next one.”

Meghan said, “The weekend would be a tough ask for me. I would love to just quit. I hate working there.”

I said, “Well, maybe you can do that.”

Both girls said, “What?” In unison.

I said, “I have more than enough money to support the three of us for several years if we can avoid being too extravagant in our lifestyle choices. That is without doing anything to create income. We’ve already spoken about several ways we could supplement our income. I’m sure more than one of them will work out. The main key is to do it safely and anonymously.”

“If you girls are willing to help me experiment and learn about my powers, and are willing to help and support us establishing ourselves, then I am more than willing to support us financially as we get started. In fact, I would like to have us develop as more than just a team. I would like us to be a partnership. It’s something for us to consider anyway.”

Jan said, “Oh my god. I would love not working at Denny’s anymore. I mean it’s been fine, and it’s been good to me over the years, but I’ve been ready to move on for a while. I’ve got to say though that I absolutely love the idea of us working together. What do you think Meghan?”

She said, “I’m already working on my ‘go fuck yourself’ speech for Brandon.”

We laughed and Jan said, “When is your lease up? Do you want to move in here? We can fix up the 2nd bedroom really easily, then we would all be working out of the same place. Consolidating expenses just makes sense to me, considering what we are planning, and I’d love to have you around more.”

Meghan said, “You two don’t want a 3rd wheel in your new relationship. You’ll want some privacy.”

I said, “I have no issues with having you here. I would imagine we need to work out our stance on PDA.”

Jan asked, “What’s PDA?”

I said, “Sorry, it means Public Displays of Affection. A lot of companies use the term in their Human Resources material as examples of unacceptable behavior. What I meant was, we need to work out how to not make each other uncomfortable if we are going to be living together.”

Jan said, “Oh, okay I get that. It’s up to you Meghan, but I know I would love to have you here, and I think we could work out any issues. Hey, how about a trial run. Stay here for a few days, or maybe a week, and we can see how it goes.”

Meghan, “That’s a great idea, Jan. I’ll pack a bag tonight and come over in the morning.”

The girls started talking about turning in their notice at work and I started envisioning the three of us working together as a unit planning and executing some task, like one or two of us making a distraction while the third stole an ID. Or keeping an eye on a mark while robbing a safe.

As I was going over things like that I realized that I was probably thinking too hard about getting an ID for myself.

I got the girl’s attention, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about it some more. We might have been overthinking the ID issue here. While it might be nice to have a real ID for Paul, and it might even be worth putting in the work to have a more robust background eventually. In the near term, maybe even for the next few years, I don’t need it. Not if I have you two in my life.”

They looked thoughtful and I continued, “Think about it, how often are you checking your friends ID or looking into the background of someone you got introduced to? I probably just need a more plausible story for them not to look too closely. I need it even less if we keep the contact minimal. As far as my needing a drivers license goes? How often do you get stopped and need it? Just about never if you are a safe driver, but if we want to be extra careful then one of you can drive most of the time. I don’t particularly need a car right now.”

Jan said, “What about traveling? You need to show ID to buy a plane ticket and get past security.”

I said, “Right, you do, and what do you hand over when they ask for ID?”

Jan replied, “My driver’s license.”

I asked, “Have you ever needed a second or third form of ID for that?”

She said, “No.”

I said, “Agreed. Do I need to have a credit card if someone else buys the ticket? Will I get quizzed about my Social Security Number or anything else?”

Meghan chimed in, “No, if you just had a driver’s license it would suffice for just about everything.”

I said, “Agreed again, so potentially it’s only when flying, or something like that, where I need the ID and it needs to match my face, right?”