Generator [volume 3] the tower

Vast quantities of heavily-encrypted industrial and military traffic can be transmitted over the microwave spectrum. Hacking is simply a matter of recognizing the protocols and transmission methods that are in use, then decoding the signals. Agent Frost enjoyed the challenge. Developing an understanding of a system required the ability to analyze and synthesize relevant data. Combined with determination, alertness, opportunism, and luck, it was quite an adrenaline rush to pin-point the weaknesses in a system and penetrate its defenses. Nothing is secure!

Cordova enjoyed working at night in his pod at Flex Global Security. It had become his sanctuary from his regular life in the tower. His investigations provided him with the opportunity to become an international citizen, with the privileges of individuality and creativity that is denied in the economic reality of institutionalized capitalism. He often found like-minded enthusiasts on his global excursions; fellow travelers who consid‐ ered each other to be equal citizens of the cyber-republic that had a code of ethics, but no laws and no boundaries ~ A potential utopia. He traveled along digital pathways that he shifted around him like a maze, linking, disconnecting, erasing his trail as he went. It was pseudo-movement which created a deliberate confusion of meaning, intention, and identity. Sometimes, if it was a complicated creep, interminable hours would pass before he was back in the ‘real world’ again.

The Voices. The ever-present voices; at work, in his apartment, over the publicaddress system, in the elevators, and in the underground. There was no area in the tower to escape the voices. Intermittently throughout the day or night the voices would enter his consciousness. Calm, assured voices, layered over the soundscape, transmitting pre-recorded messages into the environment; information, reminders, or commands. They alternated between a seductive female voice and an enthusiastic male voice. The voices could personally provide information to a particular individual, reminding them of an appointment, or warn them if they were breaking a rule, or in danger. Other public messages pertained to informing the occupants of technical service disruptions, or merchandise that was available at a discount price in the market levels. They were like the voices of gods.

The citizens of the tower are the New Breed. Many are first-generation clones that have spent their entire lives within the building. They are alert, cheerful, technological‐ ly-proficient, self-confident, informed, ecological, detached, and accepting of complexi‐ ty and structure. The men and women are powerful, smart, tough, sleek, attractive creatures, that are willing to dedicate their entire energy to maintaining the equilibrium of the enclosed environment.

These are the successful offspring; the perfected results of the early experimental cloning techniques. They have come from the diversity of everyday life, yet their genetic encoding has been enhanced by compositing their DNA structure with samples obtained from historical figures of the past, and from superb intellectual and physical specimens obtained from around the world. Added to the recipe of the mix and match combinations were blended selective genes from various species of mammals in order to obtain the desired results that were suited to particular tasks