Switched

“Oh no. God no. No, no, nooooo please!” Resh whispered as the cat drew closer. His allergies were not severe, but he could not afford to sneeze. What the hell was a cat doing in the restroom of a government building anyway?! The feline meowed and rubbed itself against his leg affectionately, and he felt a familiar tingle. “AaaaCHOO!” He quickly tucked his face behind a pillar to hide the glitch. When he looked at the mirror on the other side, he was wearing the face of the man at the urinal two paces to the left. Thankfully, the man did not notice. He muttered something under his breath and prepared for another sneeze. He’d lost precious seconds with this interruption. The plan was to get to the basement of the Akobah, where Governor Faan was to deliver his speech to the press. His lies, really. He was going to offer the people promises that sounded lovely but were baseless, and Resh was going to make him expose himself for the rape of his Piatha, his sister. Resh was a Havkah, one of the few mutants who survived the Great Cleansing. When he sneezed, he switched faces with whoever was close by, but if he sneezed hard enough, he could switch bodies. If he’d known he’d encounter a cat on the way, he never would have paused to urinate. Regardless, he sneezed again and got his face back, then ran out of the restroom, occasionally pausing to duck behind pillars to hide from the guards on patrol, till he reached the basement. The governor was already walking up to the podium to give his speech. Resh worked fast. He brought out large shackles and strapped his feet to a window. When he was sure they were tight enough, he hid the key close by and tossed his bag to the far end of the room. He could hear applause. The speech was about to begin. He ran a palm over the floor, took a big whiff of the dust, closed his eyes, lay on the floor and sneezed. In a flash, Governor Faan found himself strapped to a window in the basement, in a body that was not his, watching himself speak on the large screen on the wall. “Good evening, men and women of our lovely city. I have a confession to make.”