He stared down at the man’s face and took in his features. The fellow was white, but his skin was burnt a deep reddish brown. He’d clearly spent a lot of time under the Texan sun. He appeared to be in his early forties and clearly hadn’t taken many JuvEn treatments. His hairline was fine, but the man’s eyes and the edges of his lips were creased with wrinkles. His dead, staring eyes were blue. There were deep, dark bags beneath them. Plenty of time to sleep now, buddy, Roland thought.

He closed his eyes, focused on the dead man’s face, and felt his facial bones start to tear themselves apart and then reform. He felt the pigments in his skin shift too, which was always strange. The sensation of his pigments opening up and taking in more light felt a little like stripping off a thin layer of clothing.

While Roland did this, Skullfucker Mike ran a scanner over the corpse and located the ID card in its right forearm. Mike used a tool that looked like a long metal straw to suck the ID free and then shoot the tag into Roland’s arm. It took a second for Roland’s body to pull the data.

His name was Aaron Weathers. He was single. He worked as a mechanic in Arlington for most of his life. He had a clean criminal record, save for a drunk driving arrest in his early thirties.

Roland, now Aaron, left the morgue with Skullfucker Mike and headed for the ride that would take him into the Heavenly Kingdom. He used the walk as an opportunity to smoke a couple grams of fine Afghan opium. He was still smoking when they reached the battered old pick-up truck on the outskirts of Rolling Fuck’s campground. The kid, Manny, was in the driver’s seat.

“Hey,” Manny said, and stared wide-eyed at him. “You look different,” he added with a forced smile.

“Yeah,” Roland replied and pulled himself into the passenger’s seat. Mike tapped him on the shoulder.

“What?” Roland asked.

“I’m gonna need your bag, man. And that,” he pointed to the still-smoking opium pipe in Roland’s hand. “The Heavenly Kingdom’s got a pretty strict policy on intoxicants. You’re not gonna get a backpack full of narcotics through their checkpoints.”