Part One

James and Rachel walked cautiously through Philadelphia, peering into the gloom on the almost-black streets. The Eden Microchip could be anywhere, the centre had assured them that the Syndicate had taken the stolen microchip to a major northeastern city. Of the eight operatives, James and Rachel had been chosen to head down to Philly, while other operatives spread out to New York, Boston, and Washington DC.

The Syndicate, of course, was ruthless, and even if they could find the Eden Microchip, it would not be an easy task to wrest it from the darkly-clad figures that Syndicate used for transport services. And rightly so, in fact. The Eden Microchip, developed during decades of top-secret research, contained not only full copies of the genetic sequences of one billion humans. Not only this, but it also include complete and detailed instructions on a variety of related “activities.” Those who possessed the information contained could engineer beings that responded without question to the orders of their makers. It would also be possible for them to easily and quickly annihilate every single one of the one-billion people they had genetic sequences for, with highly specific viruses.

James pulled the special directional Geiger counter from its red case. “North, northeast, east,  southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, north again,” he said as the luminous dial swung around, trying to track the radioactive isotope which was bound to the Eden Microchip. “Nothing doing,” he muttered in frustration. “Must be than five miles away.”  “Shall we try Smitta?,” Rachel asked. Smita, (short for Special Manual/Intelligent Tracking Agent), was a specially bred ferret, into whose very genes had been programmed every attribute of the Eden Microchip. Smita could sense not only the radioactivity, but also the low frequency radio waves which the device created. She wasn’t as reliable as the directional Geiger counter, but was, much, much more sensitive…