Metamorphosis

A narrator travels from city to city seeking a former friend whose brain-bug has altered his identity, relying on public information grids, lists of prominent citizens, and personal surveillance to trace him. He reconstructs probable behaviors, presses hotel clerks and corporate aides, narrows suspects by age and social profile, and rigs a hotel-room device to compel a meeting. The methodical, obsessive search probes questions of identity and technological mediation, showing how long pursuit reshapes the seeker as much as the sought, and culminates in a tense confrontation with men who might be ally, pursuer, or the transformed friend.