A Virtual Soul — Kevin Teixeira

In a near future society, genetically engineered slaves known as tubies are an expendable workforce. Em-printers implant the empty minds of tubies with rudimentary personalities and cognitive abilities, yet they are missing the one thing that would make them human. Josh Nunes, a corporately owned em-printer, is one of the best -- but he feels his own personality slipping away, his own identity changing.

So he runs. A wanted criminal hunted by his owners, Josh soon discovers his contract has been sold to a shadowy corporation willing to do anything to manipulate his skills. But another power player offers Josh his freedom if only he completes one small task -- deliver a pleasure doll to Japan.

Tangled in a web of intrigue in which nothing -- and no one -- can be trusted, Josh discovers that the doll is not what she seems, and secret forces have been launched to alter the very existence of the tubies, to elevate them to the same level as their creators ...to give them a soul. And Josh is taking the fall for this unwanted and violent evolution.