I close the book. It was surprisingly uninformative. Perhaps learning diplomacy from a book titled "Diplomacy: A Very Short Introduction" was too lofty a goal.

  Back to business it is. I decide to start body shopping right here.

  Is a library the perfect pce for finding a well-trained body? No. However, it is far from the worst pce. Contrary to popur belief, nerds are a minority even in libraries.

  Take the woman browsing the DIY shelf. She is clearly pregnant. I guess that she is looking for books on knitting baby clothes.

  I walk to the "health and life coaching" section of the library. There are fourteen people browsing the shelves, five of them male. One is an older gentleman reading a book by some guru that he just pulled out. Look at that, he sighed and put it back. I wonder what he is looking for. Number two is an overweight fellow in his mid-thirties browsing the shelves for dietary advice. Number three is a little boy who seems to be hiding. Is he pying hide and seek with some mates?

  Four and five are suitable options. Four is quickly flipping through a book titled "50 MIND-BLOWING Protein Shake Recipes". I am tempted to blow his mind myself. His body looks as you would expect of a body builder. Five's muscles are less overblown. He seems to be looking for books on runner's diets. Of the several books he is already carrying under one arm, one is titled, "Make Homemade Energy Gels, An In-depth How To". At about six feet or 1.8 metres, he is slightly taller than the Boge average but I expect his bck hair and Boge complexion will make blending in easy enough.

  Looks like I found my new body!

  Remember the basics: the closer your chosen if is to the is, the easier the leap. One way to minimize the physical distance is hugging your target. Since my head is too light right now, I decide to forego style and innovation in favor of simplicity.

  I walk up to the man and tap him on his shoulder. The second he turns to face me, I move forward and hug him, clearly envisioning my if. I see myself being hugged by my old body, and moments ter it is.

  I push my old body away, indignantly exciming, "Who are you?" in the local nguage. No, nguage abilities are not inherited. If I do not know a nguage, I cannot speak it.

  The man looks at me with disbelief. He closes his eyes, slowly opens them again, and then repeats the process a few more times.

  I shove the books my new body was carrying into his hands, turn around, and walk off.

  "Wha-" I hear his shocked excmation. It morphs into a scream. I suppose he noticed his new body.

  Walking out of the library is a piece of cake. After all, I am not borrowing any books. Too te I notice that I forgot my phone.

  Whoops.

  I contempte going back to retrieve it, but it was a recent acquisition in the first pce. Stopping to think for a moment, I manage to recall my newly acquired local ckey's phone number. All good to go then.

  Checking my pockets, I find a wallet, a set of keys, a phone, and a small notebook. Neat.

  Of course, I should repce that phone ASAP. If he has any retives, they will report him missing soon, not to mention annoying calls by his employer... if he is employed.

  Since I will not be using this body for long, there is no need to take care of such bothersome things. It is a common headline, "Man Who Assassinated..."

  Wait, who am I supposed to kill again? Something with a pne that is not meant to ever touch the ground... Right, the president of Brolun. The initial order was interesting, but in the end they do not want a levitating pne. They simple want me to blow something up again.

  Anyway, seemingly ordinary men suffering from a mental break and then committing atrocities is common. Everyone will dig through this fels life to find the spark that set off the deeply buried dynamite that is normalcy. Was he bullied as a child? Did his great-grandfather suffer from some mental condition? There must be a greater reason for him to deviate from the norm.

  Nonsense. Normalcy itself is the insanity they seek. To so tightly bind yourself to arbitrary standards takes nothing less than insanity. My only true norm is myself.

  I whistle the tune quietly pying in my head as I walk back to the car. Right, car keys. The phone is not the only thing I should have retrieved from my old body before leaving.

  Fortunately, I have a different set of car keys. One quick shift ter, they match the car.

  I am happy to see that my baggage is still soundly asleep on the back seats.

  Time to move on to the second bullet point on my list: interrogating the duke. For that, I will need a proper venue.

  I dial my local mate's number. What was his name?

  "Who's this?" he answers, none of the shakiness from our first meeting left in his voice. I am gd it did not break his mind.

  "The one you tried to scam and who spared your life for an introduction to the KLF," I expin kindly.

  "Aaah!" he screams into the phone.

  "Tone it down. You are blowing my ear off!"

  "W-what d-do you w-want?" he stutters through chattering teeth. They are chattering so loudly that I can hear it through the phone.

  "For now, to pick you up. Where are you right now? I hope you did not leave the city..."

  "Of course not, S-sir. I c-can be at Moluo P-pza in ten, no, f-five minutes!"

  "I am at the city library, how long will it take me to get there?"

  "The n-national library?"

  "Yes."

  "Twenty minutes, I think... Sir!"

  I am not sure why he is addressing me so politely. I suppose if we consider his odds of surviving contact with me, it's better than being rude.

  "Good. Be there."

  I hang up. Time to wake up my navigator. A slight shift and a few sps do the job. Candy-corn Lips stares up at me groggily.

  I adjust the car seat to my new height, fasten my seat belt, and start the car before addressing her:

  "Tell me how to get to Moluo Pza."