Ian Newfield is a talented grey-hat hacker who works as a high-ranking cyber security engineer at Daikon Industries, an Information Technology company that is part of a shadowy branch of a larger conglomerate of corporations. His job is to type in the letters and numbers that make up the encryption for top-secret software his company is hired to guard, details of which he knows nothing about.
Ian basks in a frail sense of financial security - that is, until he is told by his boss that their product was cracked and posted anonymously online. Now, Ian is tasked with finding the leaker among his peers by using any method at his disposal, in a workplace where anyone, from his fellow coders to the janitor of the building, could be the perpetrator...
Meanwhile, Ian's sister, Vivie, is confined to a hospital bed for years now, ill from a bone-wasting disease, and Ian works overtime to cover all her expenses and keep her happy. Despite his generous salary at Daikon, their situation has them living from paycheck to paycheck, and their objective of going for an expensive, experimental treatment for Vivie seems way out of reach.
With Ian's earnest effort to uncover the elusive Daikon leaker, his life and career begin to converge with the criminal underworld of Tri-State City. As fate would have it, opportunities rise for Ian to cut corners and make big money, money that could, perhaps, help find a cure for his sister. An age-old question is brought forth:
Does crime pay?