The contest would go on in your honor, but without you, 'cause
you'd be busy having your makeup removed."
"Makeup."
"Yup. At your first public appearance, you wouldn't quite look like you. A
bit more ear, nose, and chin. Wider cheeks. A slightly different skin tone. A
birthmark or a mole. Like that. Then you lose the makeup and get on stage later
as one of the many contestants. You might come close, but you probably won't
win. Sorry 'bout that."
Mandi noticed the way he'd switched from sounding speculative to sounding
rather definite in his last sentence, but she didn't challenge him on it. In
fact, the idea didn't sound quite so insane, after all.
"Of course, you might want to give some more thought to wearing some kind of
a mask when you're on duty," said Cade. "And it probably wouldn't hurt to..."
A rap on the door interrupted whatever he'd been about to say. Cade rose to
go to the door, checked the peephole, and let John into the room.
John nodded to Cade as he hurried toward Mandi, but he stopped well short of
her as he saw her tight expression.
"Well, John?" she asked. "What happened?"
For the first time in the thirty-odd years Cade had known John, the guy
actually looked apologetic.
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