Hacking Human is a series
of stories revolving around Selena and Heinrich, a catburgular/hacker
and a ghost respectively. Together they commit crimes and live their
lives without fear of their adventures ever coming to the end,
seeking danger where others veer away and taking on tasks others
would feel impossible. Volume one is broken up into seven chapters.
Chapter 1- Selena and
Heinrich break into the server room of a bank in order to manipulate
money for their own purposes. Heinrich's possession abilities are
introduced and we learn how the two criminals met, in a desert
laboratory where Selena freed Heinrich from imprisonment and slumber.
At a loss how to react to the world of the living, especially since
he has no memory of before, Heinrich joins Selena in her adventures.
Chapter 2- Selena and
Heinrich go to the beach, but promptly separate. Selena stuns in a
bikini and enters an exclusive club to meet with a doped up hacker
who Selena seduces. Selena persuades him to lead her to his
apartment where she has Heinrich hypnotize him while she steals a
program designed to hack the Pentagon.
Chapter 3- Leaving
Heinich behind once again Selena travels to her father's house to
celebrate his birthday. Amidst her happy reunion she remembers
darker times when she had been at odds with him as a teenager, and a
flashback occurs showing the two arguing over Selena's lack of
interest in socializing. The scene changes to a maze of cubicles
where Selena meets a young hacker with whom she falls in love,
developing an unhealthy obsession as she stalks him, takes pictures
to hang in her closet, and even steals his personal possessions such
as pens and underwear. However once Selena sees him with another
woman she strangles him to death with metal wire, making a step in
the direction of her future as a career criminal.
Chapter 4- It is a dark
and stormy night and Selena and Heinrich are bored. Having acquired
the government hacking program in chapter 2 for just such an occasion
Selena attempts to hack the Pentagon, only to herself become hacked
by the mysterious hacker “Bent Willow”. Upon rebooting her
machine she sends Heinrich into cyberspace to help her track her new
antagonist, but finds that Bent Willow, is a adolescent girl whose
goal had only been to hack the Pentagon as well, her method being to
infect government personal and acquire a password that way. Feeling
relief as well as pity for the girl, Selena decides to help Bent
Willow enter the Pentagon mainframe in order to retrieve a picture of
current President George W. Bush in his underwear.
Chapter 5- Heinrich feels
a strange “pull” and leaves Selena to pursue his absent memories.
While flying around the world he is drawn to a castle and sees
cryptic images from another time: a bustling town, a festive
ballroom, a black robed man with a bloody ax. Soon however the
hallucinations cease and Heinrich finds himself in a supermarket. In
shock and confusion he returns home.
Chapter 6- Selena is on the hunt for the mysterious super spy "Matilda" when she comes across a young boy who wants nothing more than to learn to kill. On a whim she takes him on as an apprentice and with his help Selena finally finds Matilda who has been waiting for her. To Selena's surprise she finds her apprentice at the meeting point as well, as he has been recruited to join Matilda's school of contract killers. In a state of mutual respect the two go to talk in private of their trade and of themselves.
Chapter 7- Selena is
approached by Arnold, a fellow mercenary she is familiar with, to
recoup a “favor” from a previous employer. Together they
reminisce before entering a helicopter together flying towards their
next mission to be continued in a possible volume 2.