Chapter 1

    Cald jolted erlaced bets of ts coalesced, fusing into somete. acts and irises to adjust to ted and turned over on ton. It  in , except for t sounds of men in various states of sleep.

    Cald tory rumbling snores of ts, tant noise of traffic outside. In mares still ecic walls of his capsule.

    Screams  tel. ty, in t or in broad dayligs o read meaning in t sounds and to block t. Over tentionally prolonged stay, Cald to tetimes t less, tic o tterings of men talking in ts and exions of alcoifling cocoons of t o decip all teeth.

    today, Cald a strange ivity. ely a-soaked ss clinging to orso like a se movements of ting fabric systematically adjusting its y to external stimuli  of  coemplate ty of  table. Eventually, in a matter of minutes, , o kill himself.

    Soon, t for uated sleep patterns. tmares t stretco infinity, gly apparitions of fear reaco rapped in a living . Soon,  retcurbed into infinity. he would have peace.

    Cald time projected in pale green pixels by tai into t eyes, tormented mind moribund in t fuzzy area bets of ticking over. It  side, t arted to recede, exposing t reality of a er morning.  on ton and cime spin on its invisible axis, ss ty-degree arc in precisely sixty seconds. It was 5.30AM.

    time  to Caldo a simple biological counting dooppable approace. ence reduced to untold retcimes  sleep, a relatively recent affliction t  on by a desperate attempt to avoid being plunged back into anoterminable sequence of ually, tmares esque storyboards unfurling ensity. time projected from to reality, counting doo h.

    t about it, to take o make sense. And today, y-eigime as any. to celebrate, only t  a decision t ed t tion for quite some time, firing a at a subconscious level, surreptitiously weighe cons and pros.

    All to be t sensible pato take. It rodden.  go on any longer.  trip to taken ortion field of ion enoug emplating it for a ed and not a spur-of-t tried to have himself believe.

    Cald about ts lying on ton staring into space, tced ao focus, Caldo t ive sum of a unes, some of o this clawing miasma of raw unfulfilled need.

    Cald on ton cz of timer used to t into tic ceiling. t of t digits of t units of  disappearing into trange sense of eup capsule el. Just a fees no ively, o transparent black vial sitting on tte-scalded plastic se-tered back alleys of Oval.

    Caldless Union eboys from Vienna to Vladivostok. Scores gleaned from t Cald majority of terious procurer ruder detection AIs so intricate t to belong to a major conglomerate o hide.

    tself a dynamic piece of community code drifting t top of trolled Zaibatsu. In t ask questions. It ing into t to stay t meant receiving your electronic briefing and delivering tory. You kept your mout and it stayed s even after t transaction took place. No questions.

    Caldil recently, ayed in one place longer t a time.  capsule ion, ten rop going  state of stasis. tyle o stay continually sy and to avoid forming emotional attacs to places or people.

    ernal alarm clock t told  ime to move on. ened for it daily, t fraying of t signaled t a c . Oteriorate rapidly into a nervous  tic imes it  t ually ventured outside on a toilet run, he alarm bells ringing.

    ain level of notoriety and a modest amount of credit t allo an existence in tal floating ly maneuvering to stay belos , spreading like some neies to resort to desperate measures to reign in ting crime and put a stop to ts of subversive types.

    Over t tasis aken , at least as far as Cald landing a job, a fact t tributed to ttempt to retrieve te banking client list from a Sumitomo Bank database. Someone out tta against a of cyberspace to stack t him. hy? Caldwell had no idea.

    of tig generated most of trageous breacabanks of major corporations. t by took a small cut of eaced from to a livearing blankly at an empty command line. o  Cald of compromising a secure system.

    Failures al floating  some. Since o-moutence, Calds toll on  co live. ried desperately to reverse tuation but to no avail. er  in and all are at terminal as s returned empty- return at all, erious deatiating tricacies of superior intrusion detection code.

    It aken a ion but e certainty t deat. ives, nobody to grieve for es  miss racted as tunities of a rapidly sing cyberspace.

    o die your   not  all.

    t to be gleaned from t o disappear into tly jerked into trix of t beyond. For a anding, Cald to ence, yet undiscovered facets of ential. And it  belief t   ed to ttices of cyberspace for days at a time. t belief tered. o die oblivious of , too scared to face a dark and desolate future.