Flame War — Joshua Quittner

The U.S. Congress is poised to endorse a state-of-the-art encryption program that will allow the government unlimited access to all personal electronic communication. But a brilliant renegade codemaker is ready to counteract with his own program--a code that will guarantee privacy for every user. . .and to which the government will never hold the key.

A new kind of war is about to erupt on the Internet--and recent law school graduate Harry Garnet unwittingly fires the first shot when he delivers a diskette that explodes with lethal force inside the computer of a mathematics professor, killing the man. Now, along with the slain mans brilliant daughter, Annie Ames, Harry sets out on a trail of a murderer; on a perilously twisted path that winds into the heart of an armed urban cyber-militia, and through astonishing secret networks and on-line fantasy worlds to a fatal crack in the governments encryption program. But time is running out for everyone. Because the Flame War will take no prisoners. . .and show no mercy.