Skid, a hacker friend of Jargon, is shot by an international assassin but manages to escape and get to Jargon's place. Skid and some other hackers had managed to break into the Department of Defense restricted files and found details of a top secret chemical formula. They arranged, over the internet, to sell the formula to one of the worlds most infamous terrorists but at the last moment upped the price.

What they didn't realise is that they now have not only the authorities, in the form of the FBI and Level 9, after them but also the assassin hired by the terrorist. Jargon realises that all the hackers are friends of his and is torn between his desire to help his friends and the fact that they are the sort of criminals that he is paid to track down.

When a top hacker is killed in his hot tub Level 9 discover he was working for a top mob man, Alex Veedy. Sosh and Jargon discover that Veedy is setting up a meet with the legendary hacker, Cypher. Travis manages to intercept the email with the meet site and time and change it, making it possible to capture Cypher. Travis then replaces Cypher, pretending to be him so that he can infiltrate Veedy's organisation and find out what he needs a top hacker for.