By Laura J. Mixon
First Published: 1998
In a near-future Southwest sizzling under the effects of global warming, a top-secret project blends the latest advances in biotechnology and brain-to-machine interfaces to create human-shaped machines that are guided by faraway pilots, or proxies.

Carli D’Auber, who has invented a new form of communication that enables people to transfer their consciousness thousands of miles away, finds herself hunted by a conspiracy that wants to use her invention for their own purposes.