AFTER THE SECOND GREAT WAR, CORPORATION AND STATE HAVE BECOME ONE. Two men from opposite ends of the economic spectrum are about to learn the unfortunate lesson that when you violate the HeiterLand Industries company code of conduct you not only lose your job, you lose your freedom. Quincy Barton is a fedora-clad wunderkind at the HeiterLand Truth and Logic Bureau, brilliant with numbers but hopelessly naïve. Jackson Stackhouse wears his newsboy with pride. He's equal parts street smart, resourceful and tough, and has recently lost everything. Just as these two strangers turn corners in their lives, each accidentally stumbles upon separate conspiracies that reach into the highest corridors of power. There are secrets in the HeiterLand Industries Plutocratic Republic-secrets that those in control will do anything to hide.