At first the problems are minor. Quickly, though they become more ominous as Simtec, a vast IBM-like computer company, is increasingly under siege. 700 of the company's computers are electronically destroyed, an engineer is murdered, and a computer virus infects 400,000 Simtec computers that were recently sold.
Behind the increasingly devastating attack is a brilliant criminal hacker, essentially a modern computer pirate. If Simtec does not pay him ten million dollars quickly, the entire company, including its computer network, company files, customer records, etc., will be electronically ruined and erased.
One man, Barry Shepherd, a Simtec division head, becomes the leader of the counter-assault against the computer pirate. As time runs and Simtec refuses to pay ransom, Barry must keep Simtec from collapsing under the assault, find the hacker, and stop the computer virus that will destroy the 400,000 Simtec computers within a few days.
