The Cattle

The Cattle, Greg M. Sarwa, Ampol Publishing, Inc., 2005

As part of the Real ID Act of 2005, the National Identification System is created for American citizens as an anti-terrorism measure. The government goes into overdrive, collecting personal information to be stored in a highly secured database. Another part of the law mandates the injection of a RFID (radio frequency identification) chip in all American citizens, and all visitors to America, where that information will be stored. There are all sorts of safeguards in place to prevent misuse of the system, headquartered in a secure portion of O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

The system also has a much more evil, and extremely Classified, purpose, one which is accidentally discovered by mid-level systems analyst Brian Warburton. He copies the information on to a CD-ROM, and manages to get rid of it, just before he dies of a "stroke." This happens on the day before the law, and the mandatory RFID injection, is supposed to take effect. It falls into the hands of Jacob Reed, local TV reporter. Along with Anna Tabor, a young woman who flew in that day from Poland, and into whose luggage Warburton put the CD-ROM, he keeps one step ahead of police and federal agents looking for them. Can Jacob and Anna get this information on TV to warn the American people in time?

This book certainly gives new meaning to the phrase "ripped from today's headlines." It's a very spooky, and very well-done, story that will give the reader plenty to think about. It is recommended for everyone, but especially for those who think that implanting people with RFIDs, as an anti-terrorism measure, or as the next step in personal information storage, is a good thing.