Control Equals Total — Robert Parker

The year is 2037 and though he doesn't know it, Nigel Bile is about to reach the end of a long career in the Australian Customs Service. Meanwhile, the nation is divided over the use of artificial intelligence. A Melbourne based company has developed AI in the form of cyborg collars to augment the skills of untrained workers and has convinced the state government to ban all other forms of automation. Not everyone is happy about that and Nigel is thrown into the middle of the conflict. His situation is not helped when he is issued a female cyborg assistant of dubious allegiance.Divided into three parts, this novella provides background for minor characters in two previous novels: Egg Heads (covering 2041AD to 2048AD) and Alien Kidnap (2025AD to 50,000AD), but the first and second parts of this novel were drafted before either of those.The author asserts that only organically grown intelligence was used in the creation of this novel and its cover. All typos are his, and his alone.