The Mortality Doctrine

Michael is a gamer who spends almost more time on the VirtNet than in the real world. When a hacker begins holding players hostage inside the system — leaving victims brain-dead — the government recruits Michael to track him down. But going off-grid means venturing into corners of the VirtNet human eyes have never seen, with the risk that the line between game and reality will blur forever.

Michael completed the Path. What he found at the end turned everything he knew about his life completely upside down. The truth about Kaine is more complex and more terrifying than anyone anticipated: Kaine is a tangent — a computer program that has become sentient. Michael's completing the Path was the first stage in turning Kaine's master plan, the Mortality Doctrine, into reality. The Doctrine will populate Earth entirely with human bodies harboring tangent minds — and the takeover has already begun.

The games are over. Every time Michael sinks into the VirtNet, he risks his life. Kaine's Mortality Doctrine has nearly been realized, and little by little the line separating the virtual from the real is blurring. If Kaine succeeds, it will mean worldwide cyber domination — and Michael and his friends may be the only ones who can stop it.