All of reality in the hands of a madman?
Edgar Dunbar, the criminally insane ex-CEO of Holobar Labs has transcended physical reality by having his brain wired to The Grid -- dumped into a pseudo-online existence via avalanche injection. Dunbar discovers that The Grid is more than just a huge series of globally networked computers. It is also a metaphysical construct which underlies physical reality.
Halston Blake, creator of the FORTRESS online security system threatens Dunbar’s climb to godlike power when he, working with the DISC information security agency, prepares to bring FORTRESS online. It’s a wake-up call to humanity when Dunbar starts manipulating the laws of nature to warn DISC not to proceed with FORTRESS.
Others have tangled with Edgar Dunbar before. Two tech-savvy soldiers, Slater and Redeye, once faced a platoon of cyborgs created and let loose by Dunbar during a North American security contracting field exercise. The devastating event became known as The Final Battle, and Slater and Redeye were two of only a handful of survivors.
Now Slater and Redeye are data mercenaries, unique in their field, specializing in wiping out computer systems -- selling competitive advantages in a global marketplace where knowledge is power. While most data sabotage is carried out online, Slater and Redeye have the special skills of also ruining disaster recovery plans and destroying the complex hardware that houses massive corporate computers.
DISC wants Slater and Redeye to help them stop Dunbar. They, however, are not interested in teaming up with the government organization that has pursued them for years. But finally, reluctantly they do, and their pursuit leads them on a world traveling race to find Dunbar. From a mystic nomad tribe in Wyoming to secret Nazi war bunkers in Germany, where Dunbar’s trail is protected by a society of technopunks and insane, loyal ex-employees.
Contacting Dunbar in The Grid happens when an intelligent computer program called Dataminer stumbles upon Dunbar’s online lair. Dataminer is a Sibling -- a Simulation of Biological Life -- created by Halston Blake as part of his work for FORTRESS. Humans are gods to the Siblings, and our existence is heaven to them. Dataminer glimpses our world through Dunbar’s eyes briefly, and finds it incomprehensible. If our universe is heaven for the Siblings, what is our God's existence like to us?
A chapter-by-chapter synopsis, or full manuscript is available upon request.
