The Beta Testers

Joni McLean is 25, self-taught and one of the top five online security experts in the USA. She hooks on with ASPIS, an exciting new tech company that is eating Google’s lunch. ASPIS, specializing in high-security but user-friendly online services, was founded by charismatic genius Stefan Nicolaides, a pretty cool boss.

It sounds like a dream job. Joni’s using her best talents to do something that matters. She’s paid extremely well. She’s part of something innovative and exciting. She lives and works in a futuristic facility that takes the best features of the old Biosphere II project and creates a controlled environment for the ASPIS workers. It's a world where everyone happily pulls together for the common good, nobody gets fired, and no one even has a desire to leave the facility.

Except she has a few questions. That’ll screw anything up.

Kevin Saganey, a militant half-Navajo ex-reporter working in the ASPIS office, has questions of his own. Like why do some independent thinkers in the company keep disappearing?

Joni becomes friends with cloud apps specialist Lorraine Hartman, a wild child who has trouble sitting still or controlling her emotions. Their own investigation draws them to Kevin.

In this story of friendship and faith, the three check on some facts and rumors linking the cult-like ASPIS to a bizarre plot that may affect the world’s geopolitical balance.

This is a true story, and it happened five years from now.