Jonah Wish is is a cipherpunk. A talented code-breaker, he is currently languishing in a Youth Offenders Institute after helping his foster father to set up a business specialising in online encryption, then promptly hacking his own system and stealing half a million pounds. Languishing, that is, until the night a group of similarly talented teenagers appear and break him out. Jonah has been recruited by Nathaniel Coldhardt, a criminal mastermind whose latest operation needs his talents.