By turns heart-stopping, hilarious, and profound, here are ten new stories of action and technology – from the author of the acclaimed philosophical cyber-thrillers THE MANUSCRIPT and PANDORA'S SISTERS.

These tales ripple with two-fisted gunplay, white-knuckle computer hacking, and the absurdity of high-tech existence. But beneath the surface, powerful themes underpin the action: the effects of science and technology on our understanding of philosophy and religion (and sex); the quiet capitulation of isolated young men and women who are very handy with computers, guns, or both; and the meaning of our real and implied commitments to other people, especially when things begin to fall apart.

• When the shit comes down in a California civil unrest, one man is tooled up and ready to rock - but soon finds himself driving his motorcycle into a flaming roadblock with a mysterious federal agent chick on the back firing an assault rifle over his shoulder...
• Nice-guy hitman Johnny Chen knows that when things don't go well, they go very poorly - and the only way out of the gunfight on this rooftop is straight over the edge and into the enemy's bedroom...
• A corporate takeover in the topsy-turvy world of the dot-com boom leads a burnt-out sysadmin to start confusing the Nerf missile launchers with more dangerous toys...
• An elite (plus hot) Silicon Valley cryptographer finds her work on a collision course with government black-ops - and all hell breaking loose with Chinese and Israelis in a balls-out firefight in her company's server room...