As a programmer for Galapagos Wetware, Hal Briggs is responsible for writing the genetic code for simple, efficient creatures to be employed in menial jobssweeping streets or washing dishes. But the demands for wetware are changing, and Briggs is given a project that calls for more sophisticated models: clients are demanding more human appearance and behavior.As the project progresses, Briggs finds himself endowing the new models with more than the specifications dictate, giving them distinct personalities and talents and highly developed acumens. When two of his pet projects, Jack and Kay, escape, Briggs reexamines their codes and makes a terrifying yet provocative discovery. From Craig Nova, a master of the modern novel, comes a tale eerie in its vision of a future not far off, of a world precariously close to todays. From the Trade Paperback edition.