Ghost in the Shell takes place in the year 2029; the Net has become omnipresent, reaching into every aspect of domestic life, commerce, and governments' vast information networks around the world. The world has become borderless by the internet, where humans are robotic... augmented beings living in Virtual Reality, watched by a police force that is able to download itself onto the net, and even into minds. This technological miracle was to herald the apex of civilization. Instead it breeds something more insidious. From the highest echelons of governments to dark rundown alleys, a new form of crime emerges…one that threatens to turn the technology against the order of society.

There are 2 main agencies involved in Ghost in the Shell: Section 6, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Section 9, The Internal Bureau of Investigations. Section 6 is sneaky and under-handed, as they are using a classified "weapon / agent" to handle their dirty work, while Section 9 is kept in the dark. Keep it in mind that they are supposed to be on the same side.

The ultimate secret agent is a being with no physical body that can freely travel through the information highways of the world. It is able to hack into anything, manipulate everyone and it now considers itself sentient and has been forced into a body. This agent was created by the Ministry of foreign affairs under the name "Project 2501". To anyone out of Section 6 this being is called "The Puppet Master". This internet being seemed to be the perfect solution to Section 6's espionage requirements.

There was a problem however... through it's activities and travels through the net, 2501 became "aware" of its own existence. It determines that it was born in a "sea of information", and that is why it decided to run to Section 9 to request political asylum... in defiance of its creators.

The race is now on to recover Project 2501. Section 6 must capture this runaway program before it's too late, and Section 9 must figure out what this "thing" is. What neither party has taken into account is that this "puppet master" is very clever and cunning. It has threatened to expose their illegal creation to the International Bureau of Investigation.

The sections are also unaware that "The Puppet Master" has a persuasive ability to offer seductive theories of freedom to their semi-cybernetic "Human" agents... who in turn are forced to question their own validity as human beings. His main contact is with Motoko Kusanagi, the highly trained female cyborg agent sent out to stop the threat of 2501. "He" asks of her the ultimate decision... will she merge with him.

While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Internal Bureau of Investigations are directly engaged in highly explosive confrontation, Kusanagi must make this decision and decide if she will fulfill the Puppet Master's final objective to become Human and exist outside of the Net.

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