The Blue Hour

It is nearly the end of 2046 and elections are due throughout Europe during the coming twelve months. The right-wing National Revolutionary Movement (NRM) looks set to sweep to power in Scandinavia, to the despair of the EU.

Greta Arendt has given up working for various intelligence agencies and is now employed by the giant corporation JCN whose ostensible mission is to keep safe all legitimate users of the Internet but which actually monitors and records all digital activity.

The Blue Monks (led by Ae Li Chan) preach that death is not bad because it is the necessary step to the next stage of development and eventually to enlightenment and eternal life. They consider that life is a function consequent on an organisation of nature. They declare that all technology is evil because it interferes with the way nature is organised, including the balance between life and death. They say that even the most banal technology can be used for evil. Their message is beginning to resonate among those members of society alienated by materialism.

The US is supporting NRM against the Socialist alliances and asks Greta to undertake some investigation. The EU is searching for a viable opposition to the NRM and wonders about the Blue Monks. Soon, Greta finds she is once more entangled in violence, caught between the vicious NRM on one side and the enigmatic Blue Monks on the other.