I met her in her penthouse, expecting payment for the freelance job-and perhaps a little more. But I got more than I bargained for. I'm now part of an exclusive fraternity that moves catlike in the night through a world of high technology and senseless violence.

I need to find a cure for this curse, even if it means hacking through every ICE in cyberspace, every rage ganger in Manhattan, every corrupt executive in the mega-corporate hierarchy of faceless fools. My name is Ransom Stark. I'm a…