Originally in : Analog
Nahiku West is one of a pair of tethered orbitals, and in surviving what should have been a fatal accident when traversing between the pair, one Key Lu signs his own death warrant, and the technology (the ‘quirk’) that he has embedded is illegal, upon pain of death.
This sets in train a murder mystery, with some quite clever elements to the backstory and setting, all of which are put in place and brought to a conclusion in quick time – imagine a five minute version of Blade Runner!