Free Coming of Age: Volume 2: Endless Conflict by Thomas T. Thomas Page B

puff of dust that caught a reflection from the overhead strip lights.
    After a second or two of sheer surprise, Richard felt a burning sensation in his lower belly, just above his groin. Only then did he realize the stranger had shot him. He could also feel a pain in his butt, as if he’d fallen on his tailbone, and realized the shot must have gone right through him.
    He was still standing, one hand on his car, but his legs felt rubbery. He suddenly remembered a lot of arteries and veins going through that part of his anatomy. His groin felt soggy, as if he had wet himself.
    The man raised the weapon—a short, dark tube—and pointed it at his face.
    “What do you want?” Richard asked. “I thought we had an agree—”
    The world exploded, taking Richard Praxis out of it.

5. New Body Work
    At Antigone Wells’s first visit with Dr. Catherine Bellows, the plastic surgeon had made a number of scans of her head and neck. These included computerized tomography to trace the underlying muscle and bone structures. With each of the slicing x-ray images taken on one-millimeter spacing, this scan functioned as a virtual three-dimensional composite that the doctor could manipulate along the x, y, and z axes. Other scans included a full-head hologram of Wells sitting still with her face forward, like Queen Nefertiti, and a full-motion capture of her in various poses and actions: smiling, frowning, grimacing, laughing, screaming, chatting, and whispering. It was like the motion captures made of actors wearing bodysuits with strategically placed ping-pong balls or tiny points of light, except this technique used tiny circles of fluorescent paint dabbed on her skin.
    At her second visit, Wells and the doctor discussed her concerns and the available options. On a wall-sized display screen, Bellows called up these scans and used a wand to magically alter Wells’s face. By making incisions around her ears and pulling and removing excess skin, Bellows could tighten her cheeks, reduce the folds around her nose and mouth, and trim her jaw outline. An incision at her chin tightened the folds of her neck. One in her hairline lifted her forehead and repositioned her eyebrows. Others around her eyes reduced excess tissue and folding in her upper lids, removed the bags under her lower lids, and enhanced her cheekbones. With each virtual incision, the full-color hologram reacted to show a younger, smoother face—more like the face Wells had seen and touched and made up twenty or thirty years ago. Bellows then tested each of the cuts with results in the motion capture. It all seemed very real, very precise. And yet …
    “I look rather—I don’t know—pinched. Like a skirt that’s been taken in.”
    “The end result will look better than this,” Bellows assured her. “The computer image is a just suggestion and can’t entirely account for all the work I’ll be doing.”
    “What kind of work? I thought cutting and pulling were what you did.”
    “Well, I can also redistribute some of the fatty tissue, for a fuller look. Going deeper, I could reposition some of your muscles, especially along the jaw and over the cheekbones, and then redrape the skin on that new framework.”
    “I don’t know. …” Wells didn’t like what she saw. The reworked hologram had a prickliness about it, a predatory cast, like a hawk eyeing a mouse at a distance. The new Wells was not a soft-skinned girl but a hard-edged—although still recognizable and beautiful—woman.
    “How long do the results last?” Wells asked.
    “That depends on you,” Bellows said. “If you keep out of the sun and wear solar protection, avoid alcohol and tobacco use, take care of your body—but I can see you already exercise regularly—and eat a healthy diet, your face should retain this youthful appearance for five to fifteen years.”
    “That’s a long time. … I guess.”
    “We all experience the burdens of time. This will still be the skin you were born with, just