Fires on the Altars

The World of Enclaves is extremely rational: computing technology and information networks have penetrated every area of everyday life; genetic engineering has risen to unimaginable—and sometimes frightening—heights; and ultra-fast transport has redefined the very notion of distance. But precisely here, a struggle flares up over a manuscript created by one of the last bearers of the ancient Tradition—whose very existence shattered the materialist dogmas. For the mysterious book, Mutabor’s temple-keepers and the supreme hierarchs of Catholic Voodoo, Chinese and Europeans, seasoned network hackers and ordinary ruffians clash in a brutal fight. Whoever takes the manuscript gains a chance to tip the balance in the endless war for human souls—souls that, even in the all-powerful reign of the Digit, still couldn’t be fully digitized. And in a world steeped in virtuality, real blood spills again.