Marcus Yallow is a 17-year-old hacker/techno whiz from San Francisco. One day Marcus and his best friend Darryl play truant from school to play an Alternate Reality Game. A terrorist attack is perpetrated against the city, and the four are captured and detained under suspicion of terrorism.
After a series of interrogations that take place over a period of six days, Marcus, Jolu, and Vanessa are finally released; Darryl's whereabouts are unknown. The DHS tells Marcus that they will be monitoring his actions and moves because he is still a suspect. Marcus is "infuriated at how his civil rights [are] ignored."[12]
In response to the increasing surveillance of the city and its citizens, Marcus creates Xnet, a private mesh network intended to allow people to communicate freely while fighting "the surveillance state."[13] Through XNet, using his pseudonym 'Mik3y', Marcus encourages his peers to rebel against the DHS surveillance.
While introducing a group to Cryptography during a key signing party, Marcus meets Ange, and shortly thereafter they begin to date.
When a former prisoner who was held by the DHS tells Marcus that Darryl is still alive, Marcus tells a reporter and his family about his actions taken against the DHS. The journalist's story is then published and the DHS takes Marcus into custody again. On order from the governor, California highway patrol troopers raid the DHS compound during a waterboarding interrogation and arrest the DHS agents. Darryl is subsequently freed and Marcus, after his parents have to pay his bail to make sure he doesn't go to prison, finally returns to his life the way it was before the terrorist attacks.
