Protagonist, Isak, is a perma-pissed off, sarcastic terrorist (or, as he prefers “revolutionary”), while second fiddle, Taz, fills the role of icy bureaucrat, the perfect prediction machine who really can decide what results in the greatest good for the greatest number – can and does.
Set three hundred years in the future, the novel begins with Taz plotting her escape from the austere and loveless Institute, the scientific facility that created her. In the first part of the book, Taz deceives her creator and nominal “father” Dr. Robinson, and puts her escape plan into action with the help of Isak.
Once successfully out of the Institute, Isak double-crosses Taz and continues his plan to deliver her up to his partners in crime for ransom or death (whichever comes first).
Unfortunately, circumstances conspire against him and he ends up rescuing Taz from his revolutionary pals – not really on purpose, but not precisely by accident, either. He faints dead away when the self-betrayal of what he’s done truly hits home.
However, what’s done is done and Taz and Isak are forced into an uneasy truce as they flee not only the Institute, which has decided that Taz is too powerful a tool to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, but also the Galaxy’s police force and sundry terrorists who managed to survive Isak’s moment of chivalry.
The fugitives find temporary refuge in the household of Marize, one of Isak’s former acquaintances. In the absence of an immediate threat to their lives, the emotional tension between Taz and Isak quickly blossoms into outright hostility, but their leisure to loathe one another is soon shattered when Marize betrays them to the authorities. After a violent gun battle and narrow escape, Taz and Isak find themselves back with each other and back on the road.
So, given that some people like a surpise at the end, I’ll stop there and just say that it’s a bit of a Shakespeare-style bloodbath, but some characters are left standing and, maybe more important than that, pondering.