Jack approached Jeff from the other side and Ms. Chateau immediately changed her mind.
"Hmmm. I didn't even see that one. Carrot top here is actually a much better choice than the stocky one, with a bit of buffing up, of course. Same deal goes money wise"
Jack shook his head and sighed. "You know you can't do that Jeff. No transformations against the profile's will"
"He's right" Jeff told Ms. Chateau.
By now, Tony, Mark and Eric had seen Jeff and Jack stopped talking to this woman and walked back to him.
"She wanted Jeff to turn the three of you into mannequins against your will" Jack informed them and all three advanced angrily toward her.
"Just wipe the board clean" said Tony over his shoulder to Jeff while staring at Ms. Chateau from a foot away. "Wipe the board clean. How the hell does she even know about a chronivac? Do you really want some woman who would turn your buddies into plastic knowing that you've got one?"
While Jeff mulled it over, the unrepentant Ms. Chateau reached a hand up and ran it along Tony's cheekbone while he was looking back at Jeff. He slapped it away.
"Hey! I'm not your toy"
"Now I know where I've seen you! Tyson Ballou! That's the model's name, Tyson Ballou! You look just like him" she crowed and Tony feeling a bit embarassed about that fact stepped back a half step, sheepishly.
"You've got a better body though. I was at the 2002 Boss show in New York and saw him every way but naked on the runways. You're . . narrower at the hips and more athletic"
She turned to Mark and put a hand on his shoulder to turn him to face her. "And you're the same thing just a couple years younger"
"Wipe the board clean" seconded Jack. "This is gonna be nothing but trouble for us. Wipe the board clean"
"Wait a minute now" said Jeff to the worried looks of Tony, Mark and Jack. "She wants plastic copies of you guys but plastic copies don't have to be you guys. They could come from almost anything."
Jeff glanced around and saw couple of sickly looking potted plants off to the side of the entrance to Neiman Marcus from the rest of the mall.
"Is that money deal still on the table?" asked Jeff, but before she could answer, his friends bombarded him with questions. Was he betraying them? Just what did he have in mind? etc etc
"Hold it! Hold it!" Jeff raised his hands to stifle the multiple voices demanding answers of him at once. "What I'm offering is to give Ms. Chateau a perfect copy of Tony, Mark and . ." he looked to her and she patted Jack's shoulder.
" . . and Jack. But they won't come from you guys. I'll zap those plants over there. No harm no foul. No consciousness betrayed and she gets what she wants. But for getting them for permanent use, I want $20,000. And I want cash or I want a cashier's check"
"I can't get you $20,000. I can't" explained Ms. Chateau. "My authority with the store only extends up to a $15,000 budget and I can't get you cash. We probably don't even have that much in the whole store. Have you ever tried to pay cash at Neiman's? The cashiers act like you're speaking swahili. Everything's plastic here" she said and added a pat to Tony's hip "ask your friend"
All but Tony chuckled at that and Jeff stepped forward to push the process. "Alright, how about $15,000 then? In a check made out to 'cash'. I don't want my name or our names on anything"
"Wiiiiiiiipe the board clean" agreed Jack.
Ms. Chateau considered it a second. She let out a long sigh. "Okay. Let me go to my office here and get the company checks"
Off she went back into the store and the guys all watched her disappear through a door on one side of the store.
"But if you cash it at the bank, you have to sign your name and you might have to show ID or something, plus you'd be on cameras?" wondered Tony.
"Well, we could have one of us be anyone else when he cashes it" said Jeff.
"We could have one of us be someone she normally buys stuff from" suggested Mark.
And that's what the boys agreed on. Ms. Chateau emerged from the store and walked over to where the boys were, then removed from her pocket a check in the amount of $15,000 made out to 'cash'. They told her of their idea. She enthusiastically agreed and nearly jumped in the air with the recollection that the man representing her biggest supplier had been in the food court just that morning having lunch. They quickly walked across the mall to the food court. Off in a distant corner of it, reading a copy of the New York Times was a fortyish balding man in an expensive suit that barely contained his big gut. Jeff got close enough to scan him. With a beep, the chronivac program registered "Profile Scan Complete".
The group immediately racewalked out of there and Jeff went into a mall men's room with Eric. Thirty seconds later, Jeff exited the men's room with a fortyish balding man in an expensive suit that barely contained his big gut. He took the check from Ms. Chateau and pocketed it. At the bank in the mall a minute later, Eric was completely blase while dealing with a teller whom he knew very well from the man's memories. He took the small bundle of cash and wrapped it in the brown bag the teller provided and left the bank with a few greetings to the regulars there he knew. Once outside, he went straight back to the men's room. A minute later, Tony, Mark, Jack and Ms. Chateau saw Jeff and Eric emerge from the men's room.
The group made its way back to the Neiman Marcus entrance. Jeff wanted to get the process done right away, but Ms. Chateau had dozens of tiny changes she wanted made to each of the bodies. Tony's penis had to be shrunk just a little. His buns had to be flattened just a bit. Jack's had to be a bit deeper. Jack had to be a bit more muscular in the shoulders, a bit leaner, a bit taller. His hips should be narrower, his fingers longer. The shape of his nose should be a bit less flat. His calves should have a bit more shape. etc etc.
For five boys suddenly in possession of $15,000, it was excruciating to wait through all her tiny proposed changes. Finally it was done. Jeff took the emitter out of his coat and pointed it toward the first leafy plant. The plant turned flesh toned and started growing. It was like watching a time lapse photo of a month in the life of a weed. In a few seconds it stood 6'1" above the dirt of the pot. It started to broaden and then the outlines of human limbs showed, then a human face. With each passing second, the indistinct shape became more clearly differentiated as Tony till, after 30 seconds, there stood a nude perfect mannequin copy of Tony with the changes Ms. Chateau had requested.
Jeff went on to change the next two plants into Mark and Jack mannequins as requested. Ms. Chateau immediately grabbed the three of them and started toward the store entrance.
"Wipe the fucking board clean!" Tony mumbled to Jeff.
"Hey, I got it man. Don't worry" said Jeff, typing all the while and as the boys watched, Ms. Chateau suddenly stopped in mid stride and looked around bewildered.
"What the . . ? Where did these . . ?"
She slapped her own head, wondering what was the matter with her. She stepped back into the store and was met by the young clerk.
"There they are! What are you doing carrying the new mannequins around the mall with you? Those things are worth more than my car"
"It's worse than that" replied Ms. Chateau "You can't even get these anymore the company that made them went out of business. But just look at the detail! They're incredible!"
The guys headed off into the rest of the mall.