Camouflage

smart if her first impression (especially to Jan, but also to Russ) was not too sexy. She could work on Russ slowly, in time-honored ways.
    It bothered her to be sneaky with him. She loved him more than she had any other man or woman on Earth. But she had to find a way to the artifact, either through trust or stealth, and Russ was the obvious candidate for either.
    What is this thing called love? that song asked when she had come out of the water the second time—back when those ex-Marine centenarians at the anniversary celebration had been horny young men. Could the changeling really know the answer, even eighty years later; even all those books and plays, poems and songs later?
    It thought so. The answer was Russ.
    If she couldn’t have him as Rae, conjure up a second best love. Someday she would amaze him with the story. First, though, she had to seduce him again.
    The changeling wanted to be about thirty years old, married once briefly and widowed, no children, no ties. It had to be in complete control of the woman’s fictional paper trail, starting with birth.
    It took most of a beautiful morning, walking through Kalaepohaku Cemetery, before the changeling found the perfect burial plot: Sharon Valida, born in 1990, died in ’91. Her parents were buried beside her, both dead in 2010.
    A short computer search in the library showed her parents had died together in an auto accident. Sharon, just to complicate things, had been born in Maui, and died there. She was cremated and her ashes brought back here. But her death certificate was presumably in Maui, and had to be pulled from the system there.
    Best to do things in proper order. The changeling flew over to Maui, still the pasty-faced tourist guy, and easily found the office where birth and death records were kept.
    It spent a night in a closet, listening, making sure the place would be empty the next night. There was one complication: although there was no night watchman, there were video cameras covering every hall.
    The changeling didn’t like to take the form of objects rather than living things; it was difficult and painful and time-consuming. But there didn’t seem to be any alternative in this case.
    It became a sheet of grimy linoleum. The floors ofevery hall were the same dirt-colored plastic. So it was able to slide out through the millimeter clearance between door and floor and slowly undulate down the hall to Vital Statistics. There were no cameras in the office, so it rolled up into a cylinder and turned into a sort of cartoon human for convenience, or at least a roll of linoleum with feet and two two-fingered hands, keeping the drab linoleum color and texture.
    The file drawers weren’t locked, so it was easy to pull the paper death certificate. The electronic record was another matter. Even if it knew which machine to use, there would be passwords and protocols. It would have to solve that problem from outside the system, as Sharon Valida.
    It found Sharon’s birth certificate, and memorized the handprint and footprint on it. No retinal scans in 1990.
    It gave itself a 2007 driver’s license, still no retinal scan. It had to take a chance on the Social Security number, changing a few digits from one that belonged to a person born in Maui the same year as Sharon.
    Her parents’ driver’s licenses were still on file, with pictures; they’d lived in Maui until 2009, the year before they died. Her mother had been a strikingly beautiful blonde, which was convenient. The changeling generated a teenaged version for Sharon, with a 2007 hairstyle, nothing extreme. No facial tattoo or ritual scars. For “Scars or identifying marks,” it gave Sharon a small hummingbird tattoo on the left breast.
    Russell would like that. Dipping into the nipple.
    It found a map with school districts, but of course they’d have been much different in 2007. Guessing would be dangerous; some damned computer was liable to do a routine systems check and flag an anomaly. It took a little searching, but there was a file called “HS District Archives”; it found the one closest to her parents’ address and enrolled her.
    It gave her a science track with APS; she aced all herscience and math but didn’t do too well in humanities and arts. She also aced business and keyboard, which might count for more than her college degree. That would be the next day’s work.
    Checking against other students’ yearbook entries, it gave her Chess Club and volleyball. Religious