The Rush by Carolyn McCray, Ben Hopkin Page B

glanced around, making sure no one else there could see
what she was doing, then pulled out her scanner and approached the happy
couple. To get a full read, she had to get close enough for the scanner to pick
up the brainwaves, but stay far enough away that she wasn't setting off
anyone’s creep alert.
    One advantage was Mia’s years of martial arts training.
Moving quietly maybe wasn’t something that was taught to the white belts in
most dojos, but if you spent enough time working with masters, you picked up a
few skills along the way.
    She scanned the woman first, moving in diagonally behind
her, as if Mia were trying to get closer to a detail in the painting. Truth be
told, this wasn’t one of Mia’s favorites, but you grabbed the scans where you
could. Mia stepped back to read the results.
    They were pretty standard for what Mia had been finding
overall with fine art lovers. Increased dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine
levels along with increased activity in the cerebral cortex. Peace and
pleasure, along with a boost in the overall feeling of intelligence.
    Another exploratory pass left Mia with information on the
guy. The results were fascinating, if not outright hysterical. Sex. That was
pretty much all the scan showed. Sex, heavy on boredom with a smidgeon of
irritation. Apparently, this man was here at the museum only as a ploy to get
the young woman into the sack with him. For shame.
    Thinking this through, Mia realized this could be another
application of the scanner. Use it as a dating tool. Scan your guy for sex
thoughts. Is he there for love or for lust? The commercial copy practically
wrote itself.
    Then, finally, perhaps her parents would lay off. Maybe if
she were financially successful enough, they’d forget she was single…and
apparently, according to her mother, barren. Their feeling was if they were
lucky enough to live outside China and its one child rule, you’d better make
the best of it. At this point Mia was pretty sure her parents would totally
embrace a grandchild out of wedlock.
    Mia only had one thing to say to them. Not. Going. To.
Happen.
    Then the couple shifted and murmured, looking as if they
were getting ready to move on. Time for Mia to go as well. She had learned this
from painful experience. Staying in one area scanning patrons for too long was
what contributed to invitations to never return to said institution.
    As she started packing away her scanner, she saw another
patron enter from the opposite side, moving toward de Vinci’s Mona Lisa, where
Mia was headed next. The visitor was a man that looked to be in his late
forties, dark hair peppered grey at his temples. He was wearing a black mock
turtleneck with well-pressed Chinos and ebony loafers, the picture of aging
European masculinity. The man was walking slowly, but with precision, his eyes
directed straightforward rather than observing the artwork on either side.
Maybe Mia had time for one more victim.
    Perfect time for a walk-by scanning. Timing it with
precision, Mia transferred the device from the hand on the far side of the
patron to her closer hand just as she passed him. She then swiped the scanner
up the man’s spine and around the back of his head before flipping it back into
her purse. Mia picked up her pace, not slowing until she neared the Mona Lisa.
    Ducking into an alcove, Mia checked the scanner to see what
she had picked up. Should be another good baseline model for her to use for her
“control group.”
    Aggression.
    This was getting weird. One strange reading like that in a
day was not unusual. Even two wasn’t enough to raise Mia’s hackles. But that
plus the guy in the green coat? Maybe there was something in the air. Mia had
certainly woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but she doubted a scan of her
brain would show that she was likely to engage in violence any time soon.
    Shaking off the negative trend, Mia moved on to the Mona
Lisa display. As usual, there was a fair-sized crowd