Division Zero by Matthew S. Cox

used to be possible. Regardless of mechanism, the action remained illegal; what he did constituted a psionic crime. She got out of the car and approached at a blind angle with a hand on her weapon. Adrian tossed the credstick up into the air and caught it with a triumphant smile. Turning, he slid back into the crowd, coat glistening with a hundred spots of reflected light. She stepped up her pace, closing in from behind just shy of a full on sprint. Not knowing what kind of abilities he might have, she wanted to ambush him.
    Before she could catch up, he ducked into a storefront with tall capsule-shaped windows every several feet along the wall. Holographic signs over the glass cycled through morphing images of people before and after cosmetic surgery, some as drastic as an extra foot of height or a change to their visible ethnicity.
    A few green benches in the waiting area broke up the clinical white interior, and tall blue letters spelled out ‘Reinventions, Inc.’ along the wall. She hid by the door, watching Adrian at the counter talk to a blonde in a nurse’s uniform before disappearing into the back.
    Oh, great…
Who knows what he’s going to be when he’s done.
He could come out of there looking like anyone. She would have to pick the brains of everyone as they left, looking for him.
    With one eye on the place, she pulled up their net presence on her mini. The company provided body modification without cyberware, using proprietary technology to restructure DNA strand by strand. After a few hours in a gel tube, you would literally be a different person. Their catch phrase ‘unlock the real you’ failed to soften the horrendous price.
    Aesthetic redefinition, as they called it, cost tens of millions of credits for something as major as an ethnic change―a toy for the elite. Small procedures like adjusting one’s nose or boobs cost a ‘mere’ hundred grand or so. At least they required governmental notification for a face alteration; that made her feel safer.
    Dorian’s hand blocked her mini. “He’s coming.”
    Adrian emerged in a walking handshake with a man in a set of teal scrubs, a genuine smile the only visible change to his appearance. Kirsten tightened her body to the wall and drew her E90, causing a few people to scatter out of the area. She waited for him to walk past, and then called out in her most authoritative tone, “Adrian Lewis. Police. Show me your hands and don’t try anything. “
    He held his arms out. His voice wavered with fear, as he glanced at her reflection on the window. “I’m not armed.”
    She wagged her sidearm at the building. “Hands on the wall.”
    He complied, assuming the position. “What’s this about?”
    She advanced, reaching down to her belt to remove a set of binders from a case. “We’ll talk all about it once we get back to the station.”
    “Look.” He rolled around, putting his back on the wall and holding his hands up. “I―”
    Taking a step back, she raised her weapon again. “I said don’t move.”
    “Hey… Relax, I’m not a threat.”
    He sounded sincere, and she did not feel a psionic effect poking into her brain. Still, she waved him around with the tip of her laser pistol. He acquiesced with a belabored sigh.
    “You’ve got the wrong guy. Whatever you think I did, I didn’t do.”
    “I saw you pump up a credstick.”
    He sent an incredulous stare over his shoulder. “Oh, that? Come on, really? What those Reinventions people charge for what they do is criminal, too.”
    She guided his left arm behind his back and stuffed her E90 in its holster. “I didn’t say I was going to make a stink about it, but it is a reason to bring you in to talk.”
    His eyes settled on her chest and drifted to her insignia pin. His pupils shrank as panic took over. The sudden change in his mood caught her off guard. He squirmed and grabbed her hand. The next thing she knew her whole body convulsed and flooded with searing heat. Foam dribbled out of her