E-mail me with your questions, comments and critiques. Curtis Metcalf has it all. Young, handsome, brilliant, successful. He's a top inventor at Alva Industries, the high-tech "inspiration factory" run by the brilliant industrialist Edwin Alva (who has made a fortune by giving young genius' a good salary and the means to follow their researches wherever they lead, in return for the right to exploit their creations). Curtis lives the high life on a three hundred thousand plus salary, and all the high-tech toys he can eat. He may be the most brilliant inventor alive. Curt is a meticulous planner, relentlessly curious --in fact, relentless in general. The product of one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city of Dakota, Curt beat the odds by pure intellect and one lucky break. When he was twelve, he was put into "A Better Chance" an outreach program intended to help prep schools meet racial quotas. From there he was recruited by every top physics and engineering program in the country. Alva's headhunters spotted his abilities early, paid his way through a half dozen degrees and had a private research lab at his disposal when he graduated. Alva never made a better deal, he's made millions off of Curtis' researches. Curtis, for his part is happy with his job, which allows him to goof around with whatever ideas tickle his fancy. He's also content with the security of his high salary and bonuses, he makes more money than he could have imagined as a boy on the southeast side of town (just across the river from Paris Island). He's even fond of his boss and mentor. Imagine his shock when he finds out that Alva is dirty. That's right, Edwin Alva, Curtis' role model, father figure and benefactor, humanitarian pillar of Dakota is as big a crook as there is. He launders most of the drug money in town. He has connections to organized crime. Most of the city and state government is in his pocket. He sells weapons to foreign governments. He's a bad man. Beyond the touch of the law. Curtis feels betrayal. He's got a problem. Not to worry, Curtis is the ultimate problem solver. In short order, Alva finds his operations stymied at every turn by a mysterious, implacable and unstoppable, high-tech creature of the night. He calls himself Hardware. Armed with a seemingly endless array of cutting edge ordinance, Hardware is everywhere, Alva can't sneeze without Hardware offering him a hanky. Ironically, Curtis is using the considerable resources of Alva's company to develop and outfit his alter ego's war against him. As Curtis sees it, Hardware is the ultimate extension of the idea of working within the system to subvert it. Hardware plays by his own rules and he doesn't stop playing until the game is over.